“It's All Just F*cking Impossible:” The influence of Taylor Swift on fans' body image, disordered eating, and rejection of diet culture

Lizzy Pope and Kelsey L. Rose

Social Science & Medicine, 2024, vol. 355, issue C

Abstract: Taylor Swift is arguably one of the most popular and influential celebrities. Of particular interest is her power as a role model for millions of fans across the world. Swift has spoken openly about different cultural issues, including her struggles with disordered eating and diet culture. Thus, the purpose of this paper was to explore whether Swift's disclosures of her own eating and body image struggles influenced her fans. Over 200 TikTok and Reddit posts related to Swift and eating disorders or body image, as well as their associated comments, were qualitatively coded to examine relevant themes. Key themes included: 1) Swift as a role model for disordered eating recovery; 2) use of or identification with specific Swift songs to illustrate struggles with eating or body image; 3) continued objectification of Swift's body; and 4) conflicted reaction to a scene in Swift's video for ‘Anti-Hero’ that depicted the word ‘fat’ on a scale. Overall, Swift's disclosures of her own eating/body image struggles positively influenced her fans' relationships with their eating behaviors and body image. This analysis illustrates the positive influence celebrities can have while also highlighting the limitations of personal disclosures to impact understanding of systemic issues like anti-fat bias.

Keywords: Eating disorders; Body image; Taylor Swift; Anti-fat bias; Parasocial relationship (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2024
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DOI: 10.1016/j.socscimed.2024.117100

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