Taylor Swift Reflects on Her Reputation in ‘Who’s Afraid of Little Old Me?’

taylor swift the tortured poets department — Taylor Asks: ‘Who’s Afraid of Little Old Me?’Beth Garrabrant

While we await the official announcement for Reputation (Taylor’s Version), the pop star is already taking another look at the public’s opinion of her. (She included a jab at Kim Kardashian too.) That’s especially true on the Tortured Poets Department Track “Who’s Afraid of Little Old Me?” In it, she meditates on fame and being in the public eye, 15-plus years into her career.

She takes a more defiant stance against her critics throughout the song: “If you wanted me dead, you should’ve just said / Nothing makes me feel more alive.” Especially in the chorus: “So I leap from the gallows and I levitate down your street / Crash the party like a record scratch as I scream / ‘Who’s afraid of little old me?’ / You should be.” She kind of carries the snarky, self-referential energy of “Blank Space” here, but with a little more bite.

Later, Swift reflects on how fame has hardened her, as someone who came of age in the spotlight. “I was tame, I was gentle ‘til the circus life made me mean.” And she essentially tells the public, you couldn’t walk a mile in my shoes: “I wanna snarl and show you just how disturbed this has made me / You wouldn’t last an hour in the asylum where they raised me.” She also points fingers in the bridge: “‘Cause you lured me / And you hurt me / And you taught me.”

These strong words might be expected from Swift, who is famously self-aware in her music. She previously talked about the Midnights single “Anti-Hero” symbolizing her self-loathing. And in the foreword to The Tortured Poets Department, she wrote, “There is nothing to avenge, no scores to settle once wounds have healed. And upon further reflection, a good number of them turned out to be self-inflicted.”

She told Time last year, “I’ve been raised up and down the flagpole of public opinion so many times in the last 20 years...I’ve been given a tiara, then had it taken away.” That could refer to anything from her Kanye West feud to her controversial relationship with Matty Healy (which she defends in another TPD track) to her ambivalent politics. On this song, she wants to have the last word.

Listen to “Who’s Afraid of Little Old Me?” and read the full lyrics below, courtesy of Genius.

[Verse 1]
The who’s who of “Who’s that?” is poised for the attack
But my bare hands paved their paths
You don’t get to tell me about sad

[Pre-Chorus]
If you wanted me dead, you should’ve just said
Nothing makes me feel more alive

[Chorus]
So I leap from the gallows and I levitate down your street
Crash the party like a record scratch as I scream
“Who’s afraid of little old me?”
You should be

[Verse 2]
The scandal was contained
The bullet had just grazed
At all costs, keep your good name
You don’t get to tell me you feel bad

[Pre-Chorus]
Is it a wonder I broke? Let’s hear one morе joke
Then we could all just laugh until I cry

[Chorus]
So I lеap from the gallows and I levitate down your street
Crash the party like a record scratch as I scream
“Who’s afraid of little old me?”
I was tame, I was gentle ‘til the circus life made me mean
“Don’t you worry, folks, we took out all her teeth”
Who’s afraid of little old me?
Well, you should be

[Post-Chorus]
(You should be) You should be
(You should be) You should be
You should be (You should be)
You should be (You should be)
You should be

[Bridge]
So tell me everything is not about me, but what if it is?
Then say they didn't do it to hurt me, but what if they did?
I wanna snarl and show you just how disturbed this has made me
You wouldn’t last an hour in the asylum where they raised me
So all you kids can sneak into my house with all the cobwebs
I’m always drunk on my own tears, isn’t that what they all said?
That I’ll sue you if you step on my lawn
That I’m fearsome and I’m wretched and I’m wrong
Put narcotics into all of my songs
And that’s why you're still singin’ along

[Chorus]
So I leap from the gallows and I levitate down your street
Crash the party like a record scratch as I scream
“Who’s afraid of little old me?”
I was tame, I was gentle ‘til the circus life made me mean
“Don’t you worry, folks, we took out all her teeth”
Who’s afraid of little old me?
Well, you should be

[Post-Chorus]
(You should be) You should be
(You should be) You should be
‘Cause you lured me (You should be)
And you hurt me (You should be)
And you taught me

[Outro]
You caged me and then you called me crazy
I am what I am ‘cause you trained me
So who’s afraid of me?
Who’s afraid of little old me?
Who’s afraid of little old me?