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Taylor Swift claims she was the ‘national lighting rod for slut-shaming’ during her early twenties

Swift's dating portfolio used to garner much attention and scrutiny

Olivia Blair
Tuesday 19 April 2016 17:45 BST
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Taylor Swift
Taylor Swift (Kevork Djansezian/Getty Images)

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Taylor Swift is generally considered in light of her musical resume, globally-dominating business empire, duels with rappers and the constantly expanding, all-girl “squad” comprised of some of the world's most famous women.

But tabloid media interest has often gleefully focused on her famous boyfriends, be it Jake Gyllenhaal, Harry Styles, Conor Kennedy or Taylor Lautner, an obsession that reached fever pitch when Swift was a young adult.

In a recent video for Vogue, the 26-year-old shared the one warning she would give her 19-year-old self.

“You’re gonna date just like a normal 20 something should be allowed to but you’re going to be a national lighting rod for slut-shaming.”

Swift highlighted the “incredibly sexist Men-of-Taylor-Swift slideshows” which were sometimes included in media reports of her and defended her dating record in an interview with Vogue. “You know, I went on a normal amount of dates in my early 20s, and I got absolutely slaughtered for it. And it took a lot of hard work and altering my decision-making. I didn’t date for two and a half years. Should I have had to do that? No.”

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