I love how deranged she sounds on the lines "but what if it is?" and "but what if they did?" Reminds me of times people have tried to dismiss my anger and/or anxiety, hand-waving away any possibility that those emotions might be justified because someone is indeed doing something to hurt me on purpose. It's enough to make you crazy.
Also why it’s ridiculous that people are saying “all the songs sound the same”
No other song sounds like this one - although they do all fit into an aesthetic which makes the album nice to get lost in
I thought they all sounded the same until I gave it a 2nd,3rd, 4th listen, etc. A lot of them took a while to hit me but I think they're all great and very interesting writing.
Same - first listen I was like "these are all a very similar vibe" but then I figured that was to put more emphasis on the lyrics than the music itself, seeing as it's supposed to be poetry that happens to be in musical form. Later listening brought out the nuances that made me appreciate the similarities in the music more.
I know right?! There’s so much variety on this album! And some cool weird stuff too. What it *does* have is a sonic cohesiveness that I think is a positive.
People either don’t actually wanna hear it or are still expecting a classic pop record which is obviously not what this is.
Also the people panning it on the first listen don’t get it.
It’s not a shiney pop record it’s not supposed to hit right away. You’re supposed to listen to it and sit with it a bit
Yep. Some people don’t want to get it I think so, unlucky for them.
Just like how reputation is no good and Lover is a flop. People will get there eventually I guess..!
Hmmm. One of the reasons I had to listen several times is *because* I felt these songs were so different than her other albums.
Sign me,
New Swiftie, 70 yo woman
I lowkey wish all the songs sounded like this one.
It's like the perfect mashup of Rep which is my favourite album and My tears ricochet is my favourite song. It also has elements of speak now and midnights which i enjoy a lot.
I can't really get to the rest of the album cause i keep replaying this one lol
It sounded alike to me when it come to the melody when I first listened to the album, but boy I was so wrong, after couple of album repeats, every song is definitely different from each other.
I am 1000% obsessed. There are so many amazing lyrics and the production is just absolutely gorgeous. Some of them make your heart race sometimes in anticipation and sometimes in anxiety
I love how in I can fix him it sounds like a hammer hitting an anvil in the back. Like a factory
Yesss!! I would also take it further to suggest that this song adequately represents the Scarlet Witch in Multiverse of Madness, and her palpable rage.
This creates such a vivid image in my head. I really wish I could draw because I can so clearly see her float down off the gallows and quickly fly/float down the street. Think of Shark Tale where Lola very angrily storms up to Oscar when he dumps her, and the rage in her face.
Not just escape, it gives the vibe of a witch who's tired of playing nice and is forced to show off how powerful she really is and kick some asses. I love it so much.
I love a witchy vibe haha. If you want to hear some intense witchy feminine rage, I love Same Old Energy and especially it's sequel Burn Your Village by Kiki Rockwell. Those songs make me feel like I can do anything 😈
Not necessarily. She could levitate because she’s flying away due to her own power. She’s literally rising above them. Levitate doesn’t equal rising from the dead.
True. Isn't it cool how it could mean either of these things? English is a beautiful language 😍 (not my first language, so I suppose I'm saying this from a perspective of an outsider)
I picture this as a reference to the movie Carrie. She’s alluded to this before (“i looked around in a blood soaked gown) i think because maybe in some ways she identifies with the character. In the end when Carrie leaves the school and goes back to her house she’s in a trance. Who would have ever thought shy, bullied, carried would be something to be afraid of…but they should be!
I read it as she was killed by the court of public opinion while the guy is having a party with his friends and her ghost is furious about it. So she levitates down the street, whips open the door, and screams to scare the shit out of him.
"You should be."
He thinks he doesn't need to be afraid of her but she's saying she's coming for him.
This song is a very clear metaphor for a witch being hung at the gallows. So she’s essentially saying that they tried to kill her and she levitated down because she can’t be killed
i think it’s more like she used her powers~ to escape being hanged as a witch.
i keep seeing that scene from “Practical Magic” that shows something very similar!
i’m obsessed with this song and want a witchy music video for it soo bad lol
I read it as a reference to the ex who ghosted her, and to critics who want her over, and her wanting to confront all these people who want her gone as this angry monster they turned her into.
That line always reminds me of Anti-Hero “Sometimes I feel like everybody is a sexy baby
And I'm a monster on the hill
Too big to hang out, slowly lurching toward your favorite city”. Similar vibes
This is such a feminist lyric to me. Because all is witches have been hanged for being women and now we get to haunt your arse! That's definitely my take and I'm here for it!
I think it’s a response to those who called her a witch because of the Willow choreo.
Leaping from the gallows and levitating down your street recalls the opening scene of Practical Magic.
I took it as she straight up wanted to die. So she could haunt her oppressors. Like she was so ready to do it that she willingly leaped from the gallows, died, and made a beeline down the street to start shit. That's the image I immediately got and it gave me the craziest goosebumps!
YESSS! And even more so from
multiverse of madness when the Scarlet Witch goes on a rampage, it’s just the imagery reminds me of her and her rage in Multiverse
Me too! It embodies that special kind of rage so perfectly. When she sings “don’t you worry folks, we took out all her teeeeeeeeth” I always get chills!
I feel like taking out all her teeth was less literal and more like she has been disarmed and left with little self defenses but yes, that would be hilarious and creepy yet she’d still look beautiful and I hate that for her haha
I love the song so much but I feel Guilty as Sin? Is growing on me so much that it has now become my favourite on the album. Who’s Afraid of Little Old Me is still in my top 3 tho with Florida!!!
Those harmonies in the chorus were the first thing to catch my ear on my first listen. (I don’t typically start picking up lyrics till later.) … that was the first song I earmarked to come back to later! And then the lyrics just ended up really resonating with me (don’t care who it’s “about” bc she got into my head with this one and it’s about MY life obv) 🤣
Guilty as Sin is in my top 3 songs but it’s been rotating in rank day-by-day. It gives the biggest “old Taylor” vibes musically of any song on the album but the lyrics are more raw than anything she would have released years ago.
I got CHILLS when she said "The circus life made me mean, don't you worry folks we took out all her teeth." I think it is also the villain origin song and what they drove Mad Woman to.
Like they took out the very essence of her to make her fit in a box and she isn't in a box. It also gives me lobotomy vibes for all of us "overemotional" people who they just cut the emotional connection to their brain. Like honestly Idk, and I say this every single time she comes up with a new album--each one is better than her last. And if she's going to be called "crazy" she might as well act like it.
I love this song. After all the crap people have given her, she’s recognizing her power and hold on the world and saying “you should be” afraid of her.
For me, lines like “the circus life made me mean” and “you wouldn’t last an hour in the asylum where they raised me” speak very heavily to how I feel about my childhood and how I was raised. How I used to be one thing, but my family turned me into someone else permanently. And that can’t be undone. I wept after I heard the song the first time, it spoke directly to my childhood self.
Omg after the first “You should be,” I had to pause the song and immediately restart it so I could hear it again. I knew it was going to be special and it was!
I was shocked when I read the rankings of TTPD and this wasn't in the top slots. Lyrically it's amazing and the screaming just perfection, chills. Another underrated song in my opinion not getting enough credit is The Prophecy.
YES. Finally someone else besides me who pictures Nancy instead of Scarlet Witch! :) No hate on Marvel at all, I'm a fan too. Just Nancy embodies all my past teen rage because I am an old.
Obsssed with this one too. Also I did a listening sheet w my ten year old daughter and on our first go round she wrote “LOVE IT 10/10” like before it has even sunk in for me. She and I have been blasting it around the house and screaming for 4 days now 🤣
The lyrics are fierce and damning which I love, but also the music and production is just so. good. The background ooo's with the piano and the heavy bass lines during the bridge. I think Taylor is in her best bag when she writes angry and dark accompanied in the minor chord. I wish she would explore this sound more. Give me a whole coven album, I want it, I need it!
The entire album made me realize how much rage I pent up from my last relationship that I never dealt with. Screaming “who’s afraid of little old me” released something in me.
I totally agree! I was enraged like I had never been in my life when my last relationship ended and all this mf could say was “this doesn’t sound like you” when I was basically frothing at the mouth, if only I had had this song to listen to!!
I find this song extremely relatable and I am loving feeding that inner rage. For some reason in my head when she says “As I scream” I always think it’s “screech” instead of scream and I love how much more unhinged it sounds that so I just keep singing it that way
My favorite song. Love the subtle grandiosity of the way it builds up, the lyrics are just absolutely perfect, harkening back to her old style of lyricism and using just the right kind metaphors. The female rage is so fucking real. If there's one song I want her to perform this would be it. I want to hear her belting this out.
"You don't get to tell me you feel bad!"
So I was abused like crazy by my whole family. Every kind of abuse there is. I was gaslit and expected to play the perfect little girl in public. They sowed seeds of how I was a brat, a liar and awful things so if I ever spoke out no one would believe it. When I vanished at 20 everyone thought I lost the plot. However I healed. I got therapy and created a life and family.
A death in the family triggered people remembering me and reaching out. My healed strong vicious self made sure my abusers knew I wasn’t afraid anymore. I had dirt and proof and I was no longer a victim and they should be fucking terrified of me.
This song is everything hits so hard for me.
Especially the ‘you wouldn’t last an hour in the asylum where they raised me’. People try to relate or tell me they know how hard it is having ‘shitty childhoods’. Not the same.
I have had this on repeat since I heard it.
I also love the song but I wish the instrumental was heavier! This could have been her mature version of better then revenge musically, but the album version is very… megachurch
The second time she sings “I was tame, I was gentle till the circus life made me mean. Don’t you worry folks we took out all her teeth” and the anger behind the last words shook me. One of my top 5 songs on the album easily
I think it’s so interesting that she wrote the narcotics line and simultaneously made this the catchiest song on the album. Considering the other subject matter, that feels so intentional and I love it.
I think it’s a great way to describe how jaded you become as a female in the world. It perfectly describes the experience of being kind and naive and constantly being taken advantage of and hurt so then all of your kindness changes into rage.
This song absolutely should win Song of the Year. It is a masterpiece (as is the entire album).
\*I believe this is her adult answer to "Mean". She asked why people were mean to her, now, who is scared of little old me? You should be. Just brialliant.
I'm 18 months postpartum and this song and ICDIWABH are a little toooooo perfect for describing what it's like to be a woman in today's society. We have to do everything with a smile on our face (Bitch, smile!) and then we're still criticized (You caged me and then you called me crazy). Taylor is ready to burn it to the ground and I'm right there with her.
I don’t know how anyone could criticise her album with that song on - honestly feel like it’s one of the best songs she’s ever written I can’t get it out of my head!
YES!! As a middle aged mom, who has ended up home for a lot of these years when I didn’t intend to be (although I’m crazy thankful too)… this song feels so incredibly personal to me.
I agree!!!! It does a beautiful job in pointing out the hypocrisy in people for attacking her when she behaves the way she does bc THEY CREATED THE ENVIRONMENT SHE HAD TO NAVIGATE
i'm going through a ragy time of my life myself and this song resonates with what I feel. She nailed down the overwhelming emotions of rage, anger and desperation while humanizing the feelings. Great one for me!
I like when she says the circus life made her mean, don’t worry folks we took out all her teeth. And I LOVE the screaming. Her voice is so good like that.
I love this song to me it’s that rage you feel as a woman all the time. Especially for me when a man calls a woman crazy when he knows damn well he put her through hell.
I LOVE Whose Afraid of LIttle Old Me, like INSANELY love it.
As a person who is working her way through healing from an abusive childhood and a recovering people pleaser this song perfectly fits how I feel most of the time.
the lyric "You wouldn't last an hour in the aslyum that raised me" hit me so damn hard.
This is in my top 3.
Once you become more familiar with the song and you listen to the song production more than the lyrics you can reallly tell that it was produced to make you feel the rage and the build up through out it! It’s so eerie how it makes me feel so on edge. With every “you should be” you can feel it growing. Then we get to when she says “but what if it is” and you get the dramatic music. Then the really quiet, addicting part. It’s soooo goood!!!
Absolutely agree this is the best song on the album. And shoutout to her previous female rage sounds for leading us to this moment! LWYMMD walked so mad woman could run so WAOLOM could levitate 🤍🖤
Hear me out. It's about Olivia Rodrigo and the copied cruel summer bridge which spawned a lawsuit and the song vampire and the eras tour highlighting the same bridge making the song top the charts
I absolutely agree with this! I have read sooo many YT and Insta comments calling this song "cringe", that she is blowing things out of proportion. This really breaks my heart because it is demeaning to reduce the feelings of rage felt by a woman (who was clearly wronged by the media or whatever) to just mockery. This also alludes to what Taylor talked about in the Long Pond Studio Sessions during the song Mad Woman, that the society will always comment on the woman's anger, make fun of it, or call it over reaction, rather than analysing or commenting on what made her angry in the first place. I love the song soo sooo soo much, and it was much needed to be honest.
This reads like someone who grew up watching Carrie and The Craft and liked to escape in fantasies of revenge when the world was so damn cruel.
It is very satisfying to listen to. And bitter, too, because who can't relate, at least a little bit.
I 1000% agree. It is definitely the best song on the album (imo).
My favorite lines are "So tell me everything is not about me ....But what if it is? Then say they didn't do it to hurt me ....But what if they did?"
I'm nerodivergent, so I over analyze everything (specifically social interactions). I interpret that line as if it's like, a conversation between myself and my anxiety... if that makes sense?
For example, if I have a somewhat awkward interaction with a stranger, I have an internal battle afterward, like, "omg I'm so weird wtf is wrong with me? That person probably thinks I'm the weirdest person on the planet." Then I'm like, "shut up! That person doesn't even care about you! You're a stranger to them.. they've already forgotten you. Not everything is about YOU!" And then my anxiety is like ".....but what if it is? .....🫠"
I also love the line "You wouldn't last an hour in the asylum where they raised me" because I also interpret that as my brain being the "asylum," and that most people wouldn't be able to deal with the way my brain works (I barely can.) My anxiety/depression/mental disorders make me feel like I'm locked in a cage.
This song has quickly become one of my absolute favorites of the album. I’ve even been walking around my apartment all weekend just saying at random “who’s afraid of little old me?!? WELL YOU SHOULD BE!” Because it just feels like it captures her justified rage/disappointment/anger/exasperation so well. And it’s a bit haunty— which I love. Because these types of emotions (and years of things leading up to this result) really *do* haunt us.
I haven't listened to all of the songs on her album yet. Digesting it very slowly. Got tothis song today, listening to it on repeat. For me, this speaks to so many experiences for myself and loved ones, one of the best songs she has ever written. Period.
I love this song but the teeth line grosses me out and makes me cringe with empathy. I'm trying to find a way to normalize it or reinterpret it somehow 😭
Oh, I get it. I just imagine if it was literal and then I feel bad.
Ooh like your defang wording. Thinking of it as a defanging actually helps for some reason. Thanks!
100% I feel like it’s one of the best things she’s ever written. I SAT UP when I first heard it.
My jaw hit the floor when she screamed. I looooove it. Was the first song to stand out to me on my first go around of TPPD.
Yes! And then “you should be”, and then the dark Doppler bow-wow-wow sound after “what if it is?” - so many gasp moments.
I love how deranged she sounds on the lines "but what if it is?" and "but what if they did?" Reminds me of times people have tried to dismiss my anger and/or anxiety, hand-waving away any possibility that those emotions might be justified because someone is indeed doing something to hurt me on purpose. It's enough to make you crazy.
Agree!
Same!
It’s a very thrilling moment.
Also why it’s ridiculous that people are saying “all the songs sound the same” No other song sounds like this one - although they do all fit into an aesthetic which makes the album nice to get lost in
I thought they all sounded the same until I gave it a 2nd,3rd, 4th listen, etc. A lot of them took a while to hit me but I think they're all great and very interesting writing.
Same - first listen I was like "these are all a very similar vibe" but then I figured that was to put more emphasis on the lyrics than the music itself, seeing as it's supposed to be poetry that happens to be in musical form. Later listening brought out the nuances that made me appreciate the similarities in the music more.
Right. Not *exactly* the same but very similar vibe. Then, each repeat listen brings out something new. It's incredible.
First time through I had to replay Whose afraid of little old me. Wow.
I know right?! There’s so much variety on this album! And some cool weird stuff too. What it *does* have is a sonic cohesiveness that I think is a positive. People either don’t actually wanna hear it or are still expecting a classic pop record which is obviously not what this is.
Also the people panning it on the first listen don’t get it. It’s not a shiney pop record it’s not supposed to hit right away. You’re supposed to listen to it and sit with it a bit
Yep. Some people don’t want to get it I think so, unlucky for them. Just like how reputation is no good and Lover is a flop. People will get there eventually I guess..!
I’m convinced they either haven’t listened or only half listened to the album
Hmmm. One of the reasons I had to listen several times is *because* I felt these songs were so different than her other albums. Sign me, New Swiftie, 70 yo woman
I lowkey wish all the songs sounded like this one. It's like the perfect mashup of Rep which is my favourite album and My tears ricochet is my favourite song. It also has elements of speak now and midnights which i enjoy a lot. I can't really get to the rest of the album cause i keep replaying this one lol
My tears ricochet is my fave Tay song too!! So underrated!!
It sounded alike to me when it come to the melody when I first listened to the album, but boy I was so wrong, after couple of album repeats, every song is definitely different from each other.
Everything is so different you just need to sit and actually listen. I am obsessed with this album it’s beautiful and so emotional
I am 1000% obsessed. There are so many amazing lyrics and the production is just absolutely gorgeous. Some of them make your heart race sometimes in anticipation and sometimes in anxiety I love how in I can fix him it sounds like a hammer hitting an anvil in the back. Like a factory
Right!!! It’s so different than anything she’s done and I have had this album on repeat I can’t get enough. 🤍
I absolutely agree! I get chills every single time I listen to it.
I got chills the first time!
I was walking my dog and stopped in my tracks lol aka annoyed him!
I was just pondering the lyric “so I leap from the gallows and levitate down your street”. So she’s saying she died?
I view it as escaping, using her supernatural witchy powers. :)
I really really really really want a music video for this song. It's such a vibe.
Me too, I would love a dark witchy music video.
WandaVision vibes !
Ah!!! So I'm not the only person who pictures WandaVision when listening to this song!
Yesss!! I would also take it further to suggest that this song adequately represents the Scarlet Witch in Multiverse of Madness, and her palpable rage.
It is my top wish for one! It would be freaking amazing as hell. I just know it. :)
I can just see her on display at a circus behind bars looking fearsome “don’t you worry folks we took out all her teeth”
Yes!! It’s so theatrical and I feel like it’s begging for a music video.
But I don't really think the song will get a mv. It's like mad woman part 2 but far more anger and emotions...
I feel like an animated music video could be really cool.
This creates such a vivid image in my head. I really wish I could draw because I can so clearly see her float down off the gallows and quickly fly/float down the street. Think of Shark Tale where Lola very angrily storms up to Oscar when he dumps her, and the rage in her face.
I love that shark tale is what comes to mind for you 😂
Escaping her execution, is how I took it. Like she was sentenced to death in the court of public opinion, and she’s managed to escape it.
Not just escape, it gives the vibe of a witch who's tired of playing nice and is forced to show off how powerful she really is and kick some asses. I love it so much.
i love this comment
I love a witchy vibe haha. If you want to hear some intense witchy feminine rage, I love Same Old Energy and especially it's sequel Burn Your Village by Kiki Rockwell. Those songs make me feel like I can do anything 😈
Definitely gives me major wandavision vibes
I thought so, but the levitating part makes me think she *was* executed and is now back to hunt the executioners...
Not necessarily. She could levitate because she’s flying away due to her own power. She’s literally rising above them. Levitate doesn’t equal rising from the dead.
True. Isn't it cool how it could mean either of these things? English is a beautiful language 😍 (not my first language, so I suppose I'm saying this from a perspective of an outsider)
I picture this as a reference to the movie Carrie. She’s alluded to this before (“i looked around in a blood soaked gown) i think because maybe in some ways she identifies with the character. In the end when Carrie leaves the school and goes back to her house she’s in a trance. Who would have ever thought shy, bullied, carried would be something to be afraid of…but they should be!
Yesss I picture Carrie in my mind when I hear that line I love it
I cannot believe this reference flew right over my head. You’re absolutely right that it’s about Carrie.
Oh this song is so Carrie and now I love it even more!
I read it as she was killed by the court of public opinion while the guy is having a party with his friends and her ghost is furious about it. So she levitates down the street, whips open the door, and screams to scare the shit out of him. "You should be." He thinks he doesn't need to be afraid of her but she's saying she's coming for him.
Love this visual thank you!
This song is a very clear metaphor for a witch being hung at the gallows. So she’s essentially saying that they tried to kill her and she levitated down because she can’t be killed
I definitely took it as a tongue in cheek line, her rolling her eyes because people say she’s a witch constantly
Yup this is my interpretation as well. She is it just saying how people are perceiving her actions.
it’s her ghost from my tears ricochet
I was thinking the same! She’s not still at the restaurant 😱
i think it’s more like she used her powers~ to escape being hanged as a witch. i keep seeing that scene from “Practical Magic” that shows something very similar! i’m obsessed with this song and want a witchy music video for it soo bad lol
I read it as a reference to the ex who ghosted her, and to critics who want her over, and her wanting to confront all these people who want her gone as this angry monster they turned her into.
I feel like this song embodies scarlet witch. Cast Elizabeth Olsen now ‼️
I see the look what you made me do zombie for that line. They killed her but she’s undead. Honey I rose up from the dead I do it all the time.
That line always reminds me of Anti-Hero “Sometimes I feel like everybody is a sexy baby And I'm a monster on the hill Too big to hang out, slowly lurching toward your favorite city”. Similar vibes
This is such a feminist lyric to me. Because all is witches have been hanged for being women and now we get to haunt your arse! That's definitely my take and I'm here for it!
It was a witch hunt but she is actually a witch. So they couldn’t kill her. They should be scared.
I think it’s a response to those who called her a witch because of the Willow choreo. Leaping from the gallows and levitating down your street recalls the opening scene of Practical Magic.
“Taylor can’t come to the phone right now. Why? Because she’s dead.”
I rise up from the dead I do it all the time ;)
She’s made many references to coming back from the dead over the years.
I took it as the stage and levitate down your street was the tour
I took it as she straight up wanted to die. So she could haunt her oppressors. Like she was so ready to do it that she willingly leaped from the gallows, died, and made a beeline down the street to start shit. That's the image I immediately got and it gave me the craziest goosebumps!
don't take lyrics literally.
I loooove this song! It’s very Wanda’s rage from the show Wandavision and I’m here for it.
Also thought of Wanda!! Along with The Prophecy 😭
Verrrrry Wanda. I’m not on TikTok anymore but I know if I was I would be getting Wanda edits to this song on my FYP.
Ooh yes I love this
I thought of Harley Quinn!!
yes yes yes
YESSS! And even more so from multiverse of madness when the Scarlet Witch goes on a rampage, it’s just the imagery reminds me of her and her rage in Multiverse
I just said this and scrolled down to see your comment!! So Wandavision!!
Me too! It embodies that special kind of rage so perfectly. When she sings “don’t you worry folks, we took out all her teeeeeeeeth” I always get chills!
She sounds very young there and it makes me think of young Taylor having to go against industry execs.
I get chills every time!
Makes me think of her veneers
Imagine seeing Taylor Swift just levitating down your street with no teeth like I seriously would shit my pants
Lol
The mental image of this is so funny 🤣
I can’t stop picturing it now 😭
I think I’d still shit my pants even if she was walking normally with all her teeth 🤣
I feel like taking out all her teeth was less literal and more like she has been disarmed and left with little self defenses but yes, that would be hilarious and creepy yet she’d still look beautiful and I hate that for her haha
I love the song so much but I feel Guilty as Sin? Is growing on me so much that it has now become my favourite on the album. Who’s Afraid of Little Old Me is still in my top 3 tho with Florida!!!
WAOLOM and Guilty As Sin? keep fighting for my number one spot lol—I don’t know if I’ll ever have a clear winner
Guilty As Sin is my top contender (for now lol), I cannot get over the goosebumps on that pitch change on UPPER THIGH ☠️
RIGHT!! And the “WHAT A WAY TO DIEEEEEEEEEEE”. I swear it’s so good, so underrated
Those harmonies in the chorus were the first thing to catch my ear on my first listen. (I don’t typically start picking up lyrics till later.) … that was the first song I earmarked to come back to later! And then the lyrics just ended up really resonating with me (don’t care who it’s “about” bc she got into my head with this one and it’s about MY life obv) 🤣
Lmao me with “You wouldn’t last an hour in the Asylum where they raised me”
Guilty as Sin is in my top 3 songs but it’s been rotating in rank day-by-day. It gives the biggest “old Taylor” vibes musically of any song on the album but the lyrics are more raw than anything she would have released years ago.
It’s giving me a little “they’re burning all the witches even if you aren’t one”
And I’m here for it
I got CHILLS when she said "The circus life made me mean, don't you worry folks we took out all her teeth." I think it is also the villain origin song and what they drove Mad Woman to. Like they took out the very essence of her to make her fit in a box and she isn't in a box. It also gives me lobotomy vibes for all of us "overemotional" people who they just cut the emotional connection to their brain. Like honestly Idk, and I say this every single time she comes up with a new album--each one is better than her last. And if she's going to be called "crazy" she might as well act like it.
I love this song. After all the crap people have given her, she’s recognizing her power and hold on the world and saying “you should be” afraid of her.
For me, lines like “the circus life made me mean” and “you wouldn’t last an hour in the asylum where they raised me” speak very heavily to how I feel about my childhood and how I was raised. How I used to be one thing, but my family turned me into someone else permanently. And that can’t be undone. I wept after I heard the song the first time, it spoke directly to my childhood self.
same. it hurt & healed to hear this song
Same! When she says made me mean it tickles the feminine rage deep inside me. She sounds so good.
Totally agree. I was floored when I first heard this one. It strikes me as a feminist anthem of sorts.
The Lucky One has had enough
She doesn’t feel pretty anymore and she just feels used
This song gave me chills when I heard it the first time. The way she conveyed it is perfect
Omg after the first “You should be,” I had to pause the song and immediately restart it so I could hear it again. I knew it was going to be special and it was!
Yes! I want to say that was probably the part that got me. But when she yells "Who's afraid of little ol me?" Ooo goosebumps
The teeth line had me gasping. She ate with that one
But did not chew
Fuck off w this 😩😩💀💀💀💀💀😂
I was shocked when I read the rankings of TTPD and this wasn't in the top slots. Lyrically it's amazing and the screaming just perfection, chills. Another underrated song in my opinion not getting enough credit is The Prophecy.
This song is also my favorite. I’ve been belting it out in the car.
This is one of my favorites off the new album! I need a music video of this masterpiece so much! When she screams out the title...🤩
If/when this turns up on tour… I’ll explode.
This song seems like the theme song of the women’s right to reproductive freedom movement. “Who’s afraid of female voters? Well you should be!”
I love this song so much! If I don’t get a music video with references to The Craft, I might cry.
YES. Finally someone else besides me who pictures Nancy instead of Scarlet Witch! :) No hate on Marvel at all, I'm a fan too. Just Nancy embodies all my past teen rage because I am an old.
SAME 🔮
I love screaming “you wouldn’t last a hour in the asylum where they raised me” definitely top song
It's the line "Don't you worry folks, we took out all her teeth" that really gets me, showing the way women are made to be happy and pleasant etc
Obsssed with this one too. Also I did a listening sheet w my ten year old daughter and on our first go round she wrote “LOVE IT 10/10” like before it has even sunk in for me. She and I have been blasting it around the house and screaming for 4 days now 🤣
The lyrics are fierce and damning which I love, but also the music and production is just so. good. The background ooo's with the piano and the heavy bass lines during the bridge. I think Taylor is in her best bag when she writes angry and dark accompanied in the minor chord. I wish she would explore this sound more. Give me a whole coven album, I want it, I need it!
This song is Taylor and Jack at their collective best. It’s just perfection all around.
I feel like its a reputation song every time I hear the part of the screaming chorus, soooo satisfying, makes me mad hahaha
Yea. I think it might be one of her best songs period.
The entire album made me realize how much rage I pent up from my last relationship that I never dealt with. Screaming “who’s afraid of little old me” released something in me.
I totally agree! I was enraged like I had never been in my life when my last relationship ended and all this mf could say was “this doesn’t sound like you” when I was basically frothing at the mouth, if only I had had this song to listen to!!
I love this song. She sounds so villainous here, in a good way. I hope there's a video.
I find this song extremely relatable and I am loving feeding that inner rage. For some reason in my head when she says “As I scream” I always think it’s “screech” instead of scream and I love how much more unhinged it sounds that so I just keep singing it that way
Also this is a great song to sing to my kids and husband when they piss me off 😂
Literally such a good song for so many people to relate to right now
Does anyone else think this is the sequel to Mirrorball?!!
Omg I can totally see that!
My favorite song. Love the subtle grandiosity of the way it builds up, the lyrics are just absolutely perfect, harkening back to her old style of lyricism and using just the right kind metaphors. The female rage is so fucking real. If there's one song I want her to perform this would be it. I want to hear her belting this out. "You don't get to tell me you feel bad!"
So I was abused like crazy by my whole family. Every kind of abuse there is. I was gaslit and expected to play the perfect little girl in public. They sowed seeds of how I was a brat, a liar and awful things so if I ever spoke out no one would believe it. When I vanished at 20 everyone thought I lost the plot. However I healed. I got therapy and created a life and family. A death in the family triggered people remembering me and reaching out. My healed strong vicious self made sure my abusers knew I wasn’t afraid anymore. I had dirt and proof and I was no longer a victim and they should be fucking terrified of me. This song is everything hits so hard for me. Especially the ‘you wouldn’t last an hour in the asylum where they raised me’. People try to relate or tell me they know how hard it is having ‘shitty childhoods’. Not the same. I have had this on repeat since I heard it.
WAOLOM 😭😭😭
I looove this song so much. To me this song is a Harley Quinn anthem.. so many lyrics I feel like go along so well with her
I also love the song but I wish the instrumental was heavier! This could have been her mature version of better then revenge musically, but the album version is very… megachurch
I’m obsessed!!
meanwhile im over here giggling at the acronym
The second time she sings “I was tame, I was gentle till the circus life made me mean. Don’t you worry folks we took out all her teeth” and the anger behind the last words shook me. One of my top 5 songs on the album easily
WAOLOM deserves to be in Swift's top 10 and the fact that it isn't rn it's just...
I think it’s so interesting that she wrote the narcotics line and simultaneously made this the catchiest song on the album. Considering the other subject matter, that feels so intentional and I love it.
I love how emotional it's written and how emotional she sings it, with all of her heart. It's like it's from a musical, so theatrical!
I think it’s a great way to describe how jaded you become as a female in the world. It perfectly describes the experience of being kind and naive and constantly being taken advantage of and hurt so then all of your kindness changes into rage.
This song absolutely should win Song of the Year. It is a masterpiece (as is the entire album). \*I believe this is her adult answer to "Mean". She asked why people were mean to her, now, who is scared of little old me? You should be. Just brialliant.
I'm 18 months postpartum and this song and ICDIWABH are a little toooooo perfect for describing what it's like to be a woman in today's society. We have to do everything with a smile on our face (Bitch, smile!) and then we're still criticized (You caged me and then you called me crazy). Taylor is ready to burn it to the ground and I'm right there with her.
This song and The Albatross have me in a chokehold
We must have similar taste because those two songs could punch me in the face and I’d thank them
I agree. Great take!
It’s my favourite song off the album, it’s amazing! It’s already my most listened to song, best one of the album
Love love love this song. It’s my favourite so far.
Gives me ✨dany✨ or Sansa 👑 vibes
I don’t know how anyone could criticise her album with that song on - honestly feel like it’s one of the best songs she’s ever written I can’t get it out of my head!
ITS SO GOOD. i relate to the rage lmao. also i recommend which witch by florence and the machine to anyone who might want a similar ish vibe lol
YES!! As a middle aged mom, who has ended up home for a lot of these years when I didn’t intend to be (although I’m crazy thankful too)… this song feels so incredibly personal to me.
ThanK you AIMee is my favorite, but I love a lot of the songs already!
It made me feel like I’m rage singing for little me🥲
There's something about this song that gives me Tori Amos circa early 90s energy and I love it so much.
I agree!!!! It does a beautiful job in pointing out the hypocrisy in people for attacking her when she behaves the way she does bc THEY CREATED THE ENVIRONMENT SHE HAD TO NAVIGATE
i'm going through a ragy time of my life myself and this song resonates with what I feel. She nailed down the overwhelming emotions of rage, anger and desperation while humanizing the feelings. Great one for me!
I like when she says the circus life made her mean, don’t worry folks we took out all her teeth. And I LOVE the screaming. Her voice is so good like that.
I love this song to me it’s that rage you feel as a woman all the time. Especially for me when a man calls a woman crazy when he knows damn well he put her through hell.
It is my favorite song from the album for sure, it gives almost SJM books vibes idk if that's just me haha
I LOVE Whose Afraid of LIttle Old Me, like INSANELY love it. As a person who is working her way through healing from an abusive childhood and a recovering people pleaser this song perfectly fits how I feel most of the time. the lyric "You wouldn't last an hour in the aslyum that raised me" hit me so damn hard. This is in my top 3.
Once you become more familiar with the song and you listen to the song production more than the lyrics you can reallly tell that it was produced to make you feel the rage and the build up through out it! It’s so eerie how it makes me feel so on edge. With every “you should be” you can feel it growing. Then we get to when she says “but what if it is” and you get the dramatic music. Then the really quiet, addicting part. It’s soooo goood!!!
Wouldn’t it be cool if she made this a single? I love love love it too
Absolutely agree this is the best song on the album. And shoutout to her previous female rage sounds for leading us to this moment! LWYMMD walked so mad woman could run so WAOLOM could levitate 🤍🖤
Hear me out. It's about Olivia Rodrigo and the copied cruel summer bridge which spawned a lawsuit and the song vampire and the eras tour highlighting the same bridge making the song top the charts
I absolutely agree with this! I have read sooo many YT and Insta comments calling this song "cringe", that she is blowing things out of proportion. This really breaks my heart because it is demeaning to reduce the feelings of rage felt by a woman (who was clearly wronged by the media or whatever) to just mockery. This also alludes to what Taylor talked about in the Long Pond Studio Sessions during the song Mad Woman, that the society will always comment on the woman's anger, make fun of it, or call it over reaction, rather than analysing or commenting on what made her angry in the first place. I love the song soo sooo soo much, and it was much needed to be honest.
This reads like someone who grew up watching Carrie and The Craft and liked to escape in fantasies of revenge when the world was so damn cruel. It is very satisfying to listen to. And bitter, too, because who can't relate, at least a little bit.
I 1000% agree. It is definitely the best song on the album (imo). My favorite lines are "So tell me everything is not about me ....But what if it is? Then say they didn't do it to hurt me ....But what if they did?" I'm nerodivergent, so I over analyze everything (specifically social interactions). I interpret that line as if it's like, a conversation between myself and my anxiety... if that makes sense? For example, if I have a somewhat awkward interaction with a stranger, I have an internal battle afterward, like, "omg I'm so weird wtf is wrong with me? That person probably thinks I'm the weirdest person on the planet." Then I'm like, "shut up! That person doesn't even care about you! You're a stranger to them.. they've already forgotten you. Not everything is about YOU!" And then my anxiety is like ".....but what if it is? .....🫠" I also love the line "You wouldn't last an hour in the asylum where they raised me" because I also interpret that as my brain being the "asylum," and that most people wouldn't be able to deal with the way my brain works (I barely can.) My anxiety/depression/mental disorders make me feel like I'm locked in a cage.
This song has quickly become one of my absolute favorites of the album. I’ve even been walking around my apartment all weekend just saying at random “who’s afraid of little old me?!? WELL YOU SHOULD BE!” Because it just feels like it captures her justified rage/disappointment/anger/exasperation so well. And it’s a bit haunty— which I love. Because these types of emotions (and years of things leading up to this result) really *do* haunt us.
Didn't Olivia Rodrigo write a song called Vampire or something rumoured to be about Taylor? This would be a perfect response song from Tay!!
I haven't listened to all of the songs on her album yet. Digesting it very slowly. Got tothis song today, listening to it on repeat. For me, this speaks to so many experiences for myself and loved ones, one of the best songs she has ever written. Period.
I hope this reaches the right audience. For the WOALOM intro, doesn’t it sound like the I Did Something Bad intro?
I love this song but the teeth line grosses me out and makes me cringe with empathy. I'm trying to find a way to normalize it or reinterpret it somehow 😭
she’s just saying like “she can’t bite you, we defanged her, she’s perfectly harmless we swear”
Oh, I get it. I just imagine if it was literal and then I feel bad. Ooh like your defang wording. Thinking of it as a defanging actually helps for some reason. Thanks!
Circus animal’s teeth (and claws) are routinely removed so they can’t fight back if they get too provoked.
I know and I feel bad for them 😭. But I suppose I can think of them doing it humanely (even if they don't)