Taylor Swift took time during the first stop on her Reputation world tour to speak out about getting spammed with snake emoji on her social media posts last year.
Seated at the piano during her Arizona concert on Tuesday, she told the crowd at the University of Phoenix Stadium about the experience.
“A couple of years ago, someone called me a snake on social media and it caught on,” Swift began. “And then a lot of people called me a lot of names on social media. 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.”
She then took the opportunity to offer some advice to fans.
“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 beat you. It can strengthen you instead. I learned a really important lesson and that has to do with how much you value your reputation. And I think the lesson is that you shouldn’t care so much if you feel misunderstood by a lot of people who don’t know you, as long as you feel understood by the people who do know you.”
Here’s the background on the whole snake thing for anyone who is unfamiliar:
Swift’s longtime bitter salvo with Kanye West reached its boiling point in July 2016. Kim Kardashian West posted a series of videos via Snapchat that appeared to show her husband, Kanye West, on the phone with Swift discussing the song “Famous.” Part of the conversation centered on the controversial lyrics, including the line “For all my South side n***as that know me best, I feel like me and Taylor might still have sex.”
Swift’s detractors on the internet then pelted her social media accounts with creepy snake emoji after Kardashian West hinted that the occasion was National Snake Day.
Swift famously asked to be “excluded from this narrative” via an Instagram, but after that, chose to speak primarily through her work. She’s since embraced the snake motif in her reference-laden music videos. (See: slithering snakes serving her tea in the reference-stuffed video “Look What You Made Me Do” and various snake-themed merchandise on her website.) But other than that, she hasn’t been vocal on the slinky snake subject.
You can watch her speak out about the incident in a fan video on Tumblr here.
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