Taylor Swift's Look What You Made Me Do

I can’t count the times I’ve brought up this MV, but I haven’t done so enough already. Swifty or not, Taylor Swift has caught and kept my attention with her free-roaming, ever-evolving, and psychology-savvy art that also happens to be catchy. And this single is no exception. Far from it, it hit the nail on the head in ways I can barely begin to describe.

Here, we get ZOMBIES. A reanimated corpse, digging its way out of its grave and claiming the role of a transformed undead after meeting death by an unkind life - and the craziness around it. The betrayal of a “friend”, a.k.a. the true intentions of a frenemy revealed, having taken advantage of one’s generosity and enacting a smear campaign, both attempting to save face and destroy a reputation.

Besides being so fittingly Halloween-ish, I love what a chaotic mess it is. As though having a bit of everything. The fall, the rise, the dwelling, the plotting, the crash, the crime, the intimidation, the revolution, the support, the past selves, the multiple personalities with the conflict between them all. And more. How she calls herself out, too, and ultimately asks to be removed from the narrative.

“I don’t trust nobody and nobody trusts me. I’ll be the actress starring in your bad dreams.”
There are several iconic lines in it. However, this one, in particular, stood out to me. Have you ever been caught up in something like that? Losing everybody’s trust and your own trust in everybody else? It can be even scarier than it sounds and drive you into madness - especially if you started out as somebody full of good intentions who relied on others and could be relied on too. You could be quivering in a corner or you could enter your “villain era” and push through it.

Many people fixated on how it is blaming another for one’s own choices, going “look what you made me do”. But while there are instances in which, yes, indeed, that is something abusers and people who lack accountability do, committing their horrendous acts and shifting the blame, there are, as well, instances in which, no, actually, not quite, they were left with few choices and this instead counts as a reaction to the abuse. And I appreciate how this was brought up along with all else. Sometimes you genuinely wish you could be doing otherwise - and that was the original plan that you were meaning to stick by. But also, it is another slap on the face of who’s wronging you, when they’re facing the repercussions of their actions and it is pointed out that they brought them upon themselves. Like, what were they expecting, really?

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