Lyrics of Controversial Song "Better Than Revenge" by Taylor Swift Changed

Taylor Swift released her album “Speak Now (Taylor’s Version)” on Friday, July 7, 2023, which is a re-recording of her 2010 album “Speak Now”.
One of the songs in the album, “Better Than Revenge (Taylor’s Version)”, has a different lyric from the original version, which many fans and critics had speculated about before the release.
The original lyric was: [b]“She’s not a saint, and she’s not what you think/She’s an actress, whoa/She’s better known for the things that she does on the mattress, whoa”.[/b]
The new lyric is: [b]“He was a moth to the flame, she was holding the matches, whoa”.[/b]
The original lyric was widely seen as “slut-shaming” and “sexist” by many listeners and critics, especially since the song was reportedly about actress Camilla Belle, who dated Swift’s ex-boyfriend Joe Jonas after they broke up in 2008.
Swift has since expressed regret over the original lyric and said that she did not understand feminism when she was 18 years old, which was when she wrote the song.
She also said that criticizing women for their romantic choices is “deeply sexist” and that she has grown as a person and an artist since then 24.
The new lyric is seen as a more mature and empowering way of addressing the situation, without blaming or shaming another woman for her actions. It also shifts the focus to the man who was involved in both relationships and his responsibility for his choices.
The change is also part of Swift’s ongoing effort to reclaim her musical legacy and artistic control over her work, after her former label Big Machine Records sold her master recordings to Scooter Braun in 2019, without her consent or knowledge.
Swift has been re-recording all her albums before “Lover” to devalue the original versions and give her fans new versions to enjoy and support.
The album “Speak Now (Taylor’s Version)” is the fourth re-recorded album that Swift has released so far, following “Fearless (Taylor’s Version)” in April 2023, “Red (Taylor’s Version)” in November 2022, and “1989 (Taylor’s Version)” in February 2023. She plans to re-record two more albums: “Taylor Swift” and “Reputation” in the future.
The album also features six previously unreleased songs that Swift wrote during the “Speak Now” era but did not make it to the final cut.
These songs are called “The Very First Night”, “Message In A Bottle”, “Don’t You”, “Ours (Taylor’s Version) (From The Vault)”, “I Bet You Think About Me (feat. Chris Stapleton) (Taylor’s Version) (From The Vault)”, and “Nothing New (feat. Phoebe Bridgers) (Taylor’s Version) (From The Vault)”.