Taylor Swift has just dropped a new music video for her song ‘The Man’ and in true Swift-fashion, it’s full of easter eggs. The four-minute video follows Tyler Swift (aka Taylor Swift in boy-drag), as he goes about his day getting away with things that no woman gets to get away with. And throughout exposing all the manspreading, media double standards and toxic behaviour, Taylor Swift uses her platform to shout out a few men in her life. Let’s dig into the details.
Make sure you hear our chat about it on this episode of It’s Been A Big Day For…
Scooter Braun
Scooter Braun is probably Taylor Swift’s biggest enemy right now. If you need some context, allow me to explain the saga as quickly as possible. Scooter Braun now owns the back-catalogue of Taylor Swifts discography, leading up to Reputation, because of a shady deal that saw Big Machine Label Group (Taylor’s previous record label) being sold. Taylor Swift has since said that she is going to re-record her entire back-catalogue so that she can own it (or some version of it). She is legally allowed to do this, but it’s safe to say, there’s bad blood.
As a result, Scooter cops it in this music video, big time. The scene that this is most evident in is when Tyler Swift urinates on a subway wall that is graffitied with a whole bunch of Taylor’s old album titles, including Speak Now, Reputation and Red. On the wall, there also signs that read, ‘If found, return to Taylor Swift’ and ‘No Scooters’, obviously referring to the scandalous saga. Also, don’t think we didn’t notice the ‘Capitalise on the Feeling’ ad…. Come through Taylor, we see your statements!
Kanye West
This one’s a little more subtle, but if you need a little context, don’t worry, we got you. Taylor and Kanye have been in enemies for a really long time, like a really long time. But most recently, Kanye West snaked Taylor Swift in his 2016 single for ‘Famous’ where he refers to her as “that b**ch” and depicts her naked in the music video, without her permission. Well, in the ‘The Man’ music video, we see Taylor make a subtle reference to the ‘Famous’ video as Tyler Swift leaves his one-night stand naked in a bed. Also, the character then enters a hallway that looks eerily close to Kanye’s interior design and gets a whole bunch of high-fives.
Leonardo Dicaprio
As far as we know, Taylor Swift doesn’t have any beef with Leonardo Dicaprio, but that doesn’t stop her from referencing him flying models to Saint Tropez! The line in the song goes, “And they would toast to me, oh, let the players play / I’d be just like Leo in Saint Tropez.” We imagine she’s not necessarily mad at him, but just calling out the way he is portrayed in the media verses how she is, for having multiple boyfriends. Also, the visual comparison is insanely accurate, given she dresses up like him.
Scott Kingsley Swift (Taylor Swift’s Dad)
If you’ve seen the Ms Americana documentary, you’d know that Scott Swift was very much against Taylor sharing her progressive opinions out of fears that it would tarnish ticket sales. Well, Taylor Swift gets her revenge in this music video as she ends up literally throwing a tantrum in front of him and throwing balls at his face. Excellent work, Tay Tay!
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