How Taylor Swift Is Owning The ‘Snake’ Narrative After Kimye & Calvin Harris Drama

After being branded as a ‘snake’ by Kim Kardashian and Calvin Harris fans in 2016, Taylor Swift is ready to take control of her image once again — and instead of brushing off the drama, she’s using it to make her biggest comeback yet.

Even the biggest Taylor Swift, 27, fans (like me) have to admit that the singer took a bit of an image hit in 2016. After her breakup from Calvin Harris, 33, she wasted no time moving on with Tom Hiddleston, 36, and she was NOT shy about being super public with the relationship. Amidst all that, a war erupted between her and Calvin over his song “This Is What You Came For.” In June 2016, news leaked (presumably by those in Taylor’s camp) that the 27-year-old actually wrote the track, and it led to Calvin calling her out on Twitter. Those on #TeamCalvin quickly started flooding Tay’s social media with ‘snake’ emojis, accusing her of being sneaky and, well, ‘snake-like.’

Taylor was subject to this ‘snake’ comparison once again the next month thanks to Kim Kardashian, 36. “Wait, it’s legit National Snake Day?!?!?” the reality star wrote on July 17. “They have holidays for everybody, I mean everything these days!” She concluded her tweet with several snake emojis, then took to Snapchat to release videos of phone calls between Taylor and Kanye West, 40. The videos seem to show Taylor giving ‘Ye her approval to rap about her on his song “Famous,” which the “Blank Space” singer previously denied doing. After that, the snake emojis really started coming in, and you couldn’t look at a Taylor Swift social media post without seeing hundreds of little green creatures.

Taylor released a statement defending herself against Kim and Kanye, then went on living her life for the rest of 2016, but by the time 2017 rolled around, she went into full-on hideout mode. Aside from a February concert, a few low-key sightings caught by paparazzi, and limited social media posts, Taylor was totally M.I.A from January-August of this year. She made her triumphant return on Aug. 21 by posting a cryptic video online, and it was immediately obvious that she was ready to address the whole SNAKE thing in her own, EPIC way.

All together, Taylor released three videos, completing the image of a snake, and proving she’s ready to tell HER side of this narrative. Then, on Aug. 23, she revealed that her upcoming sixth album will be titled Reputation and released on Nov. 10. It’s clear that Tay is ready to take her reputation and how people see her back into her OWN hands in the best way she knows how — through music.

Fittingly, after Taylor made her big announcement, her fans started leaving comments with ‘snake’ emojis on Kim’s page, and suddenly, this feud has come full circle. Because of the snake video, many fans are speculating that Taylor’s lead single, which drops at midnight on Aug. 25, will be about Kimye. Needless to say, I am BEYOND stoked to hear what see has in store!

HollywoodLifers, what do you think of Taylor’s attempt to rebrand her image? Do you agree with me about what the snake means?