Let’s take a journey back to 2016, shall we?
In February 2016, Kanye West released “Famous,” a song which featured some less-than-flattering lyrics about Taylor Swift. The “Shake It Off” singer stood up for herself, seemingly addressing the song in her speech at the 2016 Grammys, “I want to say to all the young women out there, there are going to be people along the way who will try to undercut your success or take credit for your accomplishments or your fame.”
Well, Swift’s speech didn’t sit well with Kim Kardashian West, Kanye’s wife. Kim later released a Snapchat video which showed that Taylor had approved the questionable lyrics in a phone call with Kanye.
Kim also tweeted what seemed to be a call-out post about Taylor, featuring many snake emojis.
Wait it’s legit National Snake Day?!?!?They have holidays for everybody, I mean everything these days!
— Kim Kardashian West (@KimKardashian) July 17, 2016
Well, fast forward almost two years, while kicking off her Reputation tour last night, TSwift opened up about the feud. Elle reports that the 28-year-old star spoke to the crowd, saying, “A couple of years ago someone called me a snake on social media and it caught on.”
She continued, “And then a lot of people called me a lot of names on social media. And I went through some really low times for a while because of it. I went through some times when I didn’t know if I was going to get to do this anymore and I guess the snakes—I wanted to send a message to you guys that if someone uses name-calling to bully you on social media and even if a lot of people jump on board with it, that doesn’t have to defeat you. It can strengthen you instead.”
Hard-core Swifties will remember that Swift seemed to reclaim the snake image and featured it prominently in the marketing campaign for Reputation and in the video for the album’s first single, “Look What You Made Me Do.”
Swift’s heartfelt message to her fans goes to show that cyberbullying and name-calling can affect everyone—even celebrities. And this years-long debacle is a good reminder to think carefully about what you post online!