Taylor Swift Shut Down Rumors That She's Bisexual in '1989 (Taylor's Version)'

Taylor Swift just re-released her album 1989 (Taylor's Version), and in the prologue, the pop star reflected on what was going on in her life when she came out with the record the first time around at age 24. 

Explaining how desperate she was to "silence" those who slut-shamed her for her dating life during that time, Swift began assemble her infamous girl squad, which ultimately led to rumors that she was bisexual and in a romantic relationships with a few of her friends, including Karlie Kloss and Diana Argon. 

“The voices that had begun to shame me in new ways for dating like a normal young woman? I wanted to silence them,” Taylor wrote. “You see – in the years preceding this, I had become the target of slut shaming – the intensity and relentlessness of which would be criticized and called out if it happened today. The jokes about my amount of boyfriends. The trivialization of my songwriting as if it were a predatory act of a boy crazy psychopath. The media co-signing of this narrative. I had to make it stop because it was starting to really hurt.”

She continued, “It became clear to me that for me there was no such thing as casual dating, or even having a male friend who you platonically hang out with. If I was seen with him, it was assumed I was sleeping with him. And so I swore off hanging out with guys, dating, flirting, or anything that could be weaponized against me by a culture that claimed to believe in liberating women but consistently treated me with the harsh moral codes of the Victorian era.”

This led Taylor to "focus only on myself, my music, my growth, and my female friendships." She added, "If I only hung out with my female friends, people couldn’t sensationalize or sexualize that right? I would learn later on that people could and people would." 

Later in the letter, Taylor thanked fans who didn't buy into the tabloid fodder, writing: "Maybe a girl who surrounds herself with female friends in adulthood is making up for a lack of them in childhood.”

This isn't the first time Swift has addressed speculation about her sexuality. Back in 2019, she confirmed to Vogue that she wasn't a part of the LGBTQ+ community after people thought her song "Me!" was her way of coming out as queer. Speaking about her intention behind the track, Swift explained: "Rights are being stripped from basically everyone who isn’t a straight white cisgender male. I didn’t realize until recently that I could advocate for a community that I’m not a part of."