With her re-recorded album Speak Now (Taylor’s Version), Taylor Swift made the shocking decision to make modifications to one (of many) beloved songs by her fanbase, showing her willingness to embrace meaningful change in her music. 

Unless you’ve been living under a rock the last few years, Taylor decided to re-record her first six albums after Scott Borchetta sold Big Machine Records along with Taylor’s entire music catalog to Scooter Braun for $300 million. 

Re-recording her masters, she’s had the opportunity to release songs from her “vault” and enhance the production of her songs.

What people didn’t consider was that she would change the lyrics in one particular song, “Better Than Revenge,” which is a song about a girl that caught the attention of a boy that was unavailable. 

Taylor Swift changed this particular lyric in the re-released version of “Better Than Revenge”

For the past few months, fans have speculated whether Taylor would keep the lyric “she’s better known for the things that she does on the mattress” as heard on the song from the original (stolen) album when it was first released in 2010. 

In recent years, Taylor has publicly expressed her feministic views and championed women standing together rather than against each other.

With this in mind, it shouldn’t be too surprising that Taylor decided to make this lyrical change. 

In the re-release, Taylor says “He was a moth to the flame/ She was holding the matches.”

The alteration is significant because it shuts down any patriarchal views and stops pitting women against each other.

Instead, it shows that the man in the relationship has the mental capacity of an insect. 

The lyric reflects Taylor’s maturity despite Speak Now (Taylor’s Version) reminiscing about her adolescent adventures.

It represents what young girls and women are encouraged to value today and that is to shame misogynistic ideals.

It’s Taylor’s way of educating a younger generation to cherish themselves and overpower ideologies against women.