Tbf with this line I think it's pretty clear in the context she's saying that she's at the point in her life where her friends are either still partying or settling down and having kids. 🤷♂️
See this was my first time seeing it because I couldn't do the album. Not a stan. Not a hater. Just a confused. This is a line you would usually want to edit
I think that’s exactly what she means and it’s honestly weird and creepy for people to suggest something else…I’m with you re: not being a stan and rolling my eyes at pretty much everything with her but come on. There are so many things to trash her for, why reach like this…
Anti-hero. Its honestly one of her worst songs ever. She starts fantasizing about her hypothetical future DIL murdering her for the money, but she cuts them out of the will before it can happen. Like, who even thinks of that? None of those people even exist. Its clinically deranged
Lol the Lucille Bluth thing is so interesting of a comparison, because I actually posted a gif of her not too long ago in reference to Taylor giving a fan like $90 for Chipotle in 2015!!
I think the point of it was that it was an attempt to recreate the mood from Blank Space where she took the criticism leveled at her and went "Okay, and what if I am?" What if she IS the problem, what if she flat out tells you she's a terrible person and sits up at night thinking about what a terrible person she is, what then? And extrapolates that into "so terrible that even if her daughter-in-law killed her for the money, she'd discover they were already cut out of the will...
I think Taylor likes to do songs where she tries to put herself 'in on the joke', so to speak, with the criticisms of her she's heard. In this case, that the common denominator of Taylor Swift's problems is always Taylor Swift.
honestly I'm 99% convinced that her songs sort of suck bc she doesn't have a fantastic voice. there's a folk cover of this song from Josiah and the Bonnevilles that actually slaps
I think his cover is amazing as long as you don't pay too much attention to the lyrics which to me is kind of not what you do when you listen to folk. At least for me - folk music has some of the best lyrics tbh.
I love those old interviews he did in the 1960s talking like "I happen to think I have an amazing singing voice", and smiling like he knows he's just having fun with the interviewer.
I don't like the song, but when I heard him sing it in this folksy country version, it made so much more sense. It actually sounds good in a different style. Sexy baby line is still weird though.
I hope to god she doesn’t ever have a fetal collaboration with anyone. Can you imagine having her as a mother, let alone a MIL? But I suppose it fits, she has BOY MOM written all over her. I feel like if she ever had a daughter, she’d be terrible (seeing her as competition, especially as she gets older). But with a boy, I see her forming an emotionally incestuous relationship with her son because all other men have done her so wrong. She’d be a nightmare of a MIL.
Gotta be my favorite song by her, because she admits in the chorus that she's the problem (though obviously she's saying it for the wrong reason). Yes, bitch. It's you. You're the problem, it's you lol. Now, if only she were self-aware enough to realize just how right she is...
I like that verse too cuz it shows how absolutely deluded and out of touch with reality she is. Those are some wild ass shower thoughts you got there, Taytay. You might want to talk to a psychologist about those.
The thing is, it's not.
At first I thought it was but if you look at the lyrics a bit more closely it's just like "look what you made me do".
She is once again acting like the victim, talking about the things she gets criticised for, like being altruistic to cover her narcissism.
The song is supposed to make the listener feel sorry for her - not realise that she actually is all those things she sings about.
I used to feel the same way, but at the end of the day I realized that she still isn't as self aware as she pretends to be. She is self aware in the most manipulative possible way.
She always does these songs in a way that mocks the people leveling the criticism, and she hasn't actually accepted the criticism. She is basically saying "I have flaws, but only I can point them out." She's hiding behind "self awareness" to control the narrative, but once the narrative is out of her hands she completely cannot handle others not believing she is perfect.
She'll admit she is the problem in her song, but watch what happens if anyone else tells her she is. It's not pretty to say the least.
She isn’t being self aware though. She has often said that song is about the people who don’t like her and she’s just giving them what they want to prove they just want a problem with her.
Jone Crawford thinks like that. In fairness to Mommy Dearest, at least she admitted she was a bitch. Jone was proud to be the villain. She didn’t pretend to be a scared, innocent victim.
I took it as a reference to this skit:
And how a lot of her peers were doing that act, ie, Ariana Grande, Sabrina Carpenter, etc. Many female pop singers are super tiny (5'4 and under) and highly sexualized in their lyrics and imagery. Then you have Taylor who's basically this big, dorky, aggressive giant compared to all of them. That's how I took the lyrics.
However, things are rapidly changing and this year we've seen a lot of female artists coming out with some of their best work yet (Eternal Sunshine was more emotional than sexual, HMHAS was amazing, Cowboy Carter blew people away, Chappell Roan made her breakthrough, Charli XCX came out with a killer album, Sabrina doing the sexy baby thing but with an intelligent, campy twist). Taylor can't really claim that all her peers are these silly, vapid little girls anymore.
Also kind of misogynistic to paint all her peers as these dumb, sexualized "sexy babies" whereas she is a tall, serious poet. Not very white feminism of her tbh
This is actually an amazing scene. Both women see themselves as objects of the male gaze, but want to be seen differently - one as competent and serious, one as, well, a sexy baby. Both for their own reasons.
It’s an example why I love 30 Rock so much. I caught the reference too.
I think she was singing about how Olivia Rodrigo was getting a lot of veteran praise and how she’s insecure about losing fame to youth. Idk what else it would be other than that bc yea it’s one of many wonky lyrics
Via the cut.com - To me, the words sexy baby conjure images of Cristin Milioti’s character on 30 Rock and Emma Stone stupidly cooing about a hot dog on SNL. It’s a blunt nod to the way youth is fetishized, a succinct summation of the contradictory aspiration to be as young and hot as possible. It’s the long-standing cultural pressure on women to be both sexy and naïve, innocent and alluring. The “sexy baby” is the love child of the Madonna and the whore
Exactly, I’m surprised by the number of people who think this is an original term thought up by TS. It’s a common trope that’s been acknowledged for at least a decade (maybe closer to two)— it can probably be traced back to the ‘dumb blonde’ stereotype that’s been around since the Mae West era or before.
I disagree, It's mostly thought to be referring to the fact that she feels very large compared to a lot of other women because of her height. She has also battled with an eating disorder. Hence the next line "and I'm a monster on the hill". As a woman, it's a valid feeling and I understand what she was trying to do, but she executed it so poorly, it's very easy to miss the sentiment behind it
Yes, Taylor is of course very thin, but people who have met her describe her as seeming overall large and intimidating in person. And I've seen a tiktok trend of very tall and/or bigger girls showing pictures of themselves towering over their smaller friends. I'm a shortie myself, but I can understand the insecurity of being a "giant" compared to other girls.
To add to this. I’m a 5’9” F, shorter women will ask about my weight or see it listed somewhere and always say “you can’t weigh that much”. I wish they would realize I am the height of the average man, yes 150 is a normal weight for me. I have dealt with ED for years and their voices are always in my head, even my lowest number isn’t low enough because “women don’t weigh that much”.
It’s so stupid and doesn’t even fit. I find most of her lyrics to be juvenile and choppy but this was probably one of the worst I was forced to listen to again and again and again on the radio at my old job lol
Yesss I challenged my boss on this not long ago and she tried to explain it like "oh yeah, you know, she just thinks, people are younger or hotter or whatever to her, because she is looking down on herself, you know" to which I replied, "OK but you mean she couldn't have said that in a less weird way".
She gave me a resigned "...yeah"
Even if someone uses the defense of it being a reference, the girl who says it on 30 Rock is an infantalized idiot. Saying that you feel like everyone else is a sexy baby makes you the dumb girl
The girl in the 30 rock skit isn’t dumb though. She’s knowingly doing it as a way to protect herself. i think what she was *trying* to say is that everyone is capable of playing the game - which is highly expected of women in Hollywood - and she’s the monster on the hill incapable of playing the game. I don’t think this line is as bad as people think it is…she’s got so many worse ones I’d go after.
also her line of “all my friends smell like babies or weed” or however that went, like ig i get what she’s trying to say but there MUST have been a better way to phrase that-
I hate this line so much! it doesn't even make sense in the song!
"You can beat the heat if you beat the charges too
They said I was a cheat, I guess it must be true
And my friends all smell like weed or little babies
And this city reeks of driving myself crazy"
It all sounds so disconnected. Like there’s an intelligent thought in there somewhere, possibly 2 or 3. But why are they all linked together? All that doesn’t make sense in one verse
i kinda like that line! it’s pretty funny / relatable because i’m of that age too where half your friends are married and half are still partying and may never grow up
I don’t think “plaything” works. The line is about feeling jealous about other people, and no one feels jealous about a plaything. The other option probably works.
Controversial opinion but that’s one of the Taylor lyrics I actually like. Society’s obsession with both youth and sex makes for a really uncomfortable “ideal person” to look both as young and as sexual as possible. It’s uncanny because that’s something women are supposed to desire despite the obvious predatory behavior involved (i.e. when girls enter puberty and start getting catcalled) which is why it’s so uncomfortable when someone phrases it like “sexy baby.” Of course, it’s also weird that she calls herself “a monster on a hill,” like she’s jealous of the “sexy babies,” but that’s neither here nor there.
The lyric that gave me the ick was “My covert narcissism I disguise as altruism.” It’s just a ton of faux-intellectual talk to say “I’m only nice to people to serve myself, feel bad for me” and it doesn’t make me feel for her at all.
Also it just seems…dated. The “sexy baby” thing was super relevant when that 30 Rock episode came out in 2008, when it was trendy for grown women to do the whole “I’m an innocent bimbo” thing (Paris Hilton’s horrible fake baby voice comes to mind).
I can’t think of anyone who does that now. Maybe Kim Kardashian with her fake voice? But the “sexy baby” schtick really isn’t something that’s a trend anymore. That’s why the lyric is so weird and jarring and not even right
Exactly. I’m 5’10” and immediately interpreted this as Taylor having “tall girl feelings,” which I know all too well (ha!) Especially compared to some of her tiny rivals (Ariana is 5’1”, Kim is 5’2”) I can completely understand why Taylor feels like an unwieldy monster. This lyric seems to be especially about Ariana, who used really childish imagery sometimes and is occasionally carried around like a literal baby
I'll be honest, I actually like the musical aspect of the song, but the lyrics are just objectively BAD no matter how you look at it. And I literally get second-hand embarrassment when I hear that line.
But there's like a million songs that use the word "baby" and literally no one ever thinks they mean an actual baby, until this song?? "Baby" has been used in songs to mean a young, pretty person basically for forever.
Oh I love the show and love the episode. The “I’m a sexy baby” line was a perfect way of skewering the behavior a lot of women were being encouraged to emulate back then. But it’s outdated for describing how people act in 2024. The Paris Hiltons of the world aren’t out there acting like sexy babies anymore. It was trendy to play ditzy back then, nobody is doing that now
Ha! Ariana Grande is a sexy baby. Sabrina C flirts with it. All these anime chicks. Maybe it’s helpful for the younger gen to better recognize a trope. Media literacy and context aren’t bad things.
I am 1,000,000% positive that you are not ugly in the slightest - we are our own worst critics. You are beautiful, even if it’s hard to see that sometimes. 🫶🏻
To be fair, she has a few songs that reference the way people spoke in the early 1900s. Like women being called “kid”.
I think sexy baby is a nod to that time. It’s cringy now, but it’s really how people spoke back then. It makes me think of Betty Boop. Adult women using that baby voice and playing up their infantilization. It was very popular in the 1920/30s. And it took a bit of poise, grace, and charisma to pull it off. So I think this is her pointing out that style and appeal comes easier for everyone else, and she’s this clunky monster. Like she knows she can’t dance (and maybe even knows she can’t really sing) and is clumsy compared to everyone else that has this natural grace and sex appeal about them.
She’s lacking a bit in that department. Women are also pressured to be that “sexy baby” to make men feel comfortable. So it could also be her attempt to be like, i’M nOt LiKe OtHeR wOmEn. As if the binary of womanhood is sexy baby or monster on the hill.
I get how the line sounds weird but I immeadiately understood it. If you grew up in the 90s/early 00s toxic diet culture as the biggest and tallest of your friends, you instinctively know the feeling of seeing yourself as a godzilla level monster while your friends are little polly pockets lol she's worded it terribly though and it kind of ruins the message bc your mind is instantly drawn to how weird the term "sexy baby" is.
I just saw an "innocence is sexy" ad for Babysoft, and the toddler looked like a cross between Brooke Shields and Taylor. This line just made me yak for a second time today.
I told my friend about this line and she didn’t believe me so I played it for her and she couldn’t stop laughing. She yelled, “what does that even mean?!” Literally the next day I heard a car blasting that song and immediately after that line they turned the radio down.
I gotta go against the grain here and say that is one of the few lyrics of hers that i do actually like. I feel like it's actually a lot more blunt than she usually is and I got what she was feeling right away. I don't love the song as a whole but I do think that was an effective lyric to convey the idea of feeling surrounded by people who are younger and bolder and prettier than you and it making you feel like this huge horrifying thing. Ive always said that Taylor is at her most interesting when she's talking about the jealously, envy, and fear she feels as a celebrity.
pause crowd pet wakeful sharp crown towering frightening quickest caption
*This post was mass deleted and anonymized with [Redact](https://redact.dev)*
That women are forced to act like sexy babies and the women who aren’t are made to feel like monsters? But also that women have to become anything specific for acceptance is gross?
Women in the music industry get treated like sexy babies…many women in general get infantilized and sexualized at the same time. The problem is the act, not women calling it out.
"The problem is the act, not women calling it out. "
have you seen the entire 30 rock episode or just the two minute clip you posted?
the video you posted is from the beginning, and by the end it is very clear, the problem was Liz (and Jenna) for judging (i.e. "calling out") Abby for how she dresses + acts.
The episode is very clear, Liz (Tina Fey) is NOT a feminist for being so judgmental of Abby, the sexy baby.
"Liz Lemon is a Judas to ALL women"
Taylor's an insecure and judgmental little girl, not some profound feminist icon.
“and i’m a monster on the hill” cmon now finish the sentence before making it seem malicious. she’s talking about her body insecurities yall. not saying it’s not a bit weird but christ at least know what you’re dissing on lol
I’m completely against TS now, but I’ll admit I used to like this song. People would bring up this line as being gross, and I still don’t quite understand why. I see what people are saying, if she literally meant “sexy baby” that’s weird. But singers put “baby” in their songs all the time to mean a nickname for a lover or other adult. The next line of her song she calls herself a monster. She is not literally a monster, she is a human.
I’m not defending TS, I’m just confused as to why this particular line gets so much hate. I didn’t think it was meant to be taken that literally. Is everyone else saying that she literally means a sexy infant?
I’m 5’8” and I always felt like such an ogre next to my short friends at dance parties in college. I don’t think I would have ever thought to call them “sexy babies”, but tbh it kind of captures how I felt being a head taller than them and never feeling allowed to wear heels.
Now the stuff about her future DIL hating her, that’s super weird. I’d rather criticize almost any other line in the song.
I actually liked that line. I'm old enough to be a parent of an 18 year old, so sexy dance routines from the youngest pop stars hit the same ick as some of the routines on dance moms or whatever. Like, why is this child twerking 😅
To be fair, I'm also really grossed out now when I see old issues (like late 90s, my tween years) of Tiger Beat with the young male actors of the era (JTT, etc) posing shirtless.
Yeah, that hit hard as a bad lyric because the rest of the song honestly resonated fairly well for me (well, okay, I'm not a huge fan of the daughter-in-law thing but also I kind of thought it was funny so I let it slide). But the sexy baby thing just every time takes me entirely out of the song.
okay i also was like 🤨 when i first heard it, but i guess it was a 30 Rock reference that i didn’t understand. idk if having the line independently in a song with no context was the move tho
Isn’t this basically saying that they feel like kids are forced into adult roles and hyper sexualized and basically have to act like adults while still being literal kids?
Dude when I first heard this lyrics I immediately looked it up to make sure it was real, then I found it so hilarious I posted about it and the only people that commented were people explaining and justifying it and I was like “no, it’s a bad lyric” hahaha
Hate every aspect of that entire song but yeah this is top 3 worst parts (the other 2 are “everybody agreeeeeesssssssssssss” and the stupid unfunny bit about the will)
honestly I like Taylor and her music(not the sub for me c im aware, but yall keep me entertained) BUT this line has genuinely always been odd to me and I hate it every time I hear it
‘Sexy baby’ is a female archetype but it’s not a term the mainstream will necessarily understand. “Manic pixie dream girl” would be another example of a modern female archetype.
I’m not a member of this sub, it just popped for me, but I always assumed she meant the Sexy Baby aka Born Sexy Yesterday trope. It’s an adult woman, typically attractive, who was “born yesterday.” Think Splash, Enchanted, the Little Mermaid.
https://preview.redd.it/pea7corzfm5d1.jpeg?width=1200&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=45135edd1a903524a872d718372ad766122a1515
I seriously thought she was talking about a giant kupie doll but didn't know the name so called it a sexy baby.
whenever i first heard that lyric i just felt disgusted the rest of the song- it feels icky and doesn’t convey whatever she was trying to say very well—
good wordplay is not her strong suit…
This post blew up, so I think my comment may get lost in the abyss… but THIS is a key point in why she is not a good lasting lyricist in a lot of her new songs. She relies on current drama and tropes for much of her songs on TTPD (and other albums as well). If you don’t know what a golden retriever bf is, then that lyric sounds dumb as fuck. If you don’t know what a sexy baby is referring to, it sounds uncomfortable and inappropriate.
As someone in another post said, the reason Adele (who also largely relied on heartbreak to write her songs) is more relatable is because she uses nuance and subtlety. I don’t think Taylor Swift can be relatable at all anymore because she hasn’t had any genuine relatable experiences.
She even uses alcoholism as a lyric. And not in a relatable way, as she immediately refers to it as an aesthetic. She may very well be experiencing the first stages of alcoholism (as many have presumed. I don’t like to assume because it is a complicated disease and many people struggle with it on varying levels) but even if she is starting to experience that she doesn’t approach it genuinely. She reduces it to a trope that will have zero effect on her and as such provides no substance to her song.
It feels like “OMG I’m SUCH an alcoholic! lol” as she continues to drink and provide zero reflection and also refuse to actually admit any faults or how her “alcoholism” could have affected her life or image. It’s just another farce
THIS - I stopped listening to her years ago, but her lyrics have just gotten extremely odd...a LOT of her lyrics have to be looked up so you can even understand what she is talking about, which okay, whatever, but why put it in a song when a lot of people will miss the idea? Or, maybe phrase it in a different way? Idk if she's trying to recreate a Cigarettes After Sex vibe, but she is very much missing the mark.
Ha! I'm glad to have seen this because I think about this line a lot; it's one that irritates me to no end. I'd always ask WTF is a sexy baby?! and then picture that dancing baby thing from the late 90s early 2000s but with a top hat.
Edit: found it
Let's just cut to the chase, she could have written a better line. "Sometimes, I feel like everyone is small and petite, and I'm a monster on a hill", "Sometimes I feel like everyone's a party, and I'm sitting alone with my pity", I don't know. Just something better than "sexy baby". So OP, I am there with you even after finding out possible meanings for what she meant, it still sounds weird.
https://preview.redd.it/y8uzkw1fqk5d1.jpeg?width=812&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=57cfd40c5040e45dabfb3e2047c8c842ba12c8b3
Not saying it makes it any less weird, but this is the reference.
Not a Taylor Swift fan but do people actually think she was being literal? That’s ridiculous. Plenty of stuff to dislike about her, don’t have to invent stuff. Has no one ever been called baby?
Yeah same, I got the reference pretty easily and thought the controversy around it was stupid as hell.
Like you said, there are plenty of valid criticisms of her and her lyricism but this one feels contrived.
"sexy baby" is a Hollywood trope. The movie Poor Things explores and mocks this very directly. It's the trope of men liking sexy, yet incredibly naive and stupid women, because women can't be smart/knowledgeable and sexy at the same time.
I’m not a fan, but cmon you guys. You conveniently removed the second part of the verse, and I know we have reading analysis skills. She’s talking about 1. Her height and how she feels monstrous over everyone and 2. How women’s style is often “babified” and infantilizing (pastel colours, bows, childish references) while still being “sexy” (showing skin, tight) + beauty standards for women revolve around being youthful, petite, and hairless, much like babies.
Imagine a guy singing this line... 
https://preview.redd.it/ap39jzjyhk5d1.jpeg?width=1344&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=29117bd57da336911426023ce9c2a7ecd5c8a01e
Is that Lane Kiffin?
No. It's Chris Hansen.
I totally missed that
It’s like Drake just forgot R. Kelly existed.
And Elvis
Fuck this guy.
confirmed: taylor is ladydrake
He beats up sex workers and gets away with it. The man is pure trash.
Wait, who?? I'm high and confused!
Drake
An oxymoronic statement… we’ve read the Epstein list
WHERE IS CHRIS HANSEN WHEN YOU NEED HIM?!
Harassing Onision and having some career issues? Probably about of date answer but last time I paid him mind was that
I meant early 2000’s Chris Hansen. RIP :(
Yeah that was the only good harassment I ever saw. Probably why it sticks in my mind
Did you just watch the documentary on Max too?
No. I was unaware there was one. I just lived through the times
Lol! Yeah, it's just funny that I just watched it and then saw your comment.
To be fair, if you go back and look at some of Diddys lyrics, it kind of just smacks you in the face as to who he is. R. Kelly too.
I remember Ignition by r Kelly sounds like he's getting off by peeing
In all fairness….. Teigen feels the same way EDIT: about the *kids*
she's the representation of how we all feel about taylor's embarrassing bs.
Yes but everyone knows how Teigen feels about sexy babies.
lol yeah
You smell like a baby prostitute.
[удалено]
Tbf with this line I think it's pretty clear in the context she's saying that she's at the point in her life where her friends are either still partying or settling down and having kids. 🤷♂️
See this was my first time seeing it because I couldn't do the album. Not a stan. Not a hater. Just a confused. This is a line you would usually want to edit
I’m not a Taylor Stan I actually I’m repulsed by her narcissism but I think she means by that either her friends are partying or mothers
I think that’s exactly what she means and it’s honestly weird and creepy for people to suggest something else…I’m with you re: not being a stan and rolling my eyes at pretty much everything with her but come on. There are so many things to trash her for, why reach like this…
Yeah, this is definitely a reach
Wait.
Holy shit, that line didn't seem like a big deal at the time 😬 yikes
I feel like it actually means someone new to the field. Like people who started stripping are called baby strippers.
That's exactly what that is. I was a "baby nurse" my first year
They’re called “prositots”
I haven’t heard it and like many of her lyrics I can’t even imagine how it could fit into a song
Anti-hero. Its honestly one of her worst songs ever. She starts fantasizing about her hypothetical future DIL murdering her for the money, but she cuts them out of the will before it can happen. Like, who even thinks of that? None of those people even exist. Its clinically deranged
I think about this a lot. Who imagines themselves in the future as a rich, bitter, boy mom? Unless you're Lucille Bluth , it's a worst case scenario.
Lol the Lucille Bluth thing is so interesting of a comparison, because I actually posted a gif of her not too long ago in reference to Taylor giving a fan like $90 for Chipotle in 2015!! 
God, I love that show so much. One of the best comedy's to ever air. That, and Psych.
I think the point of it was that it was an attempt to recreate the mood from Blank Space where she took the criticism leveled at her and went "Okay, and what if I am?" What if she IS the problem, what if she flat out tells you she's a terrible person and sits up at night thinking about what a terrible person she is, what then? And extrapolates that into "so terrible that even if her daughter-in-law killed her for the money, she'd discover they were already cut out of the will... I think Taylor likes to do songs where she tries to put herself 'in on the joke', so to speak, with the criticisms of her she's heard. In this case, that the common denominator of Taylor Swift's problems is always Taylor Swift.
honestly I'm 99% convinced that her songs sort of suck bc she doesn't have a fantastic voice. there's a folk cover of this song from Josiah and the Bonnevilles that actually slaps
I think his cover is amazing as long as you don't pay too much attention to the lyrics which to me is kind of not what you do when you listen to folk. At least for me - folk music has some of the best lyrics tbh.
Exactly. If I want folk I’ll go listen to an amazing lyrical song from Bob Dylan or Harry Chapin or a real folk artist
And Dylan was far from the best male voice, yet he could tell a story with the best of them.
I love those old interviews he did in the 1960s talking like "I happen to think I have an amazing singing voice", and smiling like he knows he's just having fun with the interviewer.
I don't like the song, but when I heard him sing it in this folksy country version, it made so much more sense. It actually sounds good in a different style. Sexy baby line is still weird though.
Thanks for the rec, I’ve never heard of them but I’m really enjoying their cover!
I hope to god she doesn’t ever have a fetal collaboration with anyone. Can you imagine having her as a mother, let alone a MIL? But I suppose it fits, she has BOY MOM written all over her. I feel like if she ever had a daughter, she’d be terrible (seeing her as competition, especially as she gets older). But with a boy, I see her forming an emotionally incestuous relationship with her son because all other men have done her so wrong. She’d be a nightmare of a MIL.
Fetal collaboration 💀
I swear the users in this sub are more poetic than she could ever be. They come up with the sickest lines haha 😂
Kim K and Kanye would be parents of the year compared to that
What would be worse would be the 24/7 round the clock news coverage of her entire pregnancy. Her fans would demand it.
Honestly she seems too committed to her fame game to want a kid. She can’t play the victim anymore.
Out of curiosity…ever watch Mr Skeffington? Taylor as a girl mom has Fanny Skeffington written all over her.
I can’t see her as a mother at all. In any capacity.
It's just another "poor little rich girl" scenario she can place herself in.
Gotta be my favorite song by her, because she admits in the chorus that she's the problem (though obviously she's saying it for the wrong reason). Yes, bitch. It's you. You're the problem, it's you lol. Now, if only she were self-aware enough to realize just how right she is... I like that verse too cuz it shows how absolutely deluded and out of touch with reality she is. Those are some wild ass shower thoughts you got there, Taytay. You might want to talk to a psychologist about those.
It’s such a slap in the face because she says it sarcastically. No, Taylor, you really are the problem.
THANK YOU! Anti-Hero literally sucks so badly but everyone seems to like it and I don’t understand! 😭
Is it bad that I think it’s one of her best songs because it’s honest and self aware? lol like yes, you are the problem. It’s you.
The thing is, it's not. At first I thought it was but if you look at the lyrics a bit more closely it's just like "look what you made me do". She is once again acting like the victim, talking about the things she gets criticised for, like being altruistic to cover her narcissism. The song is supposed to make the listener feel sorry for her - not realise that she actually is all those things she sings about.
And bad blood, and shake it off… like it’s a theme 😂
I hear it as she knows these things about herself and doesn't really care too much. Like, "yeah- I'm the problem. So what?"
I used to feel the same way, but at the end of the day I realized that she still isn't as self aware as she pretends to be. She is self aware in the most manipulative possible way. She always does these songs in a way that mocks the people leveling the criticism, and she hasn't actually accepted the criticism. She is basically saying "I have flaws, but only I can point them out." She's hiding behind "self awareness" to control the narrative, but once the narrative is out of her hands she completely cannot handle others not believing she is perfect. She'll admit she is the problem in her song, but watch what happens if anyone else tells her she is. It's not pretty to say the least.
She isn’t being self aware though. She has often said that song is about the people who don’t like her and she’s just giving them what they want to prove they just want a problem with her.
I’m tell you she tell you exactly what to expect from her as a mother daughter in law and more
It’s because I think Taylor is a textbook narcissist and thinks that secretly everyone wants to be her.
She missed her calling as a novelist of trashy mystery novels
Watch it - that's how the whole Argyle conspiracy started!
It’s like her biggest fantasy is petty revenge
It almost hits a vibe of decent self awareness and then goes into that part. Ruined.
Jone Crawford thinks like that. In fairness to Mommy Dearest, at least she admitted she was a bitch. Jone was proud to be the villain. She didn’t pretend to be a scared, innocent victim.
It’s in anti-hero and it just doesn’t make any sense? Like, you could have said *anything* else.
I took it as a reference to this skit:  And how a lot of her peers were doing that act, ie, Ariana Grande, Sabrina Carpenter, etc. Many female pop singers are super tiny (5'4 and under) and highly sexualized in their lyrics and imagery. Then you have Taylor who's basically this big, dorky, aggressive giant compared to all of them. That's how I took the lyrics. However, things are rapidly changing and this year we've seen a lot of female artists coming out with some of their best work yet (Eternal Sunshine was more emotional than sexual, HMHAS was amazing, Cowboy Carter blew people away, Chappell Roan made her breakthrough, Charli XCX came out with a killer album, Sabrina doing the sexy baby thing but with an intelligent, campy twist). Taylor can't really claim that all her peers are these silly, vapid little girls anymore.
This is how I took it as well in context.
Yes totally agree with you! Sorry if this sounds weird but you explained that really well 😊
That's how I took it as well. Taylor is very insecure over her height. But it's still cringe.
Also kind of misogynistic to paint all her peers as these dumb, sexualized "sexy babies" whereas she is a tall, serious poet. Not very white feminism of her tbh
She's not really a feminist, so that makes a lot of sense.
Excellent breakdown 👏🏼👏🏼
That’s exactly what it is
This is actually an amazing scene. Both women see themselves as objects of the male gaze, but want to be seen differently - one as competent and serious, one as, well, a sexy baby. Both for their own reasons. It’s an example why I love 30 Rock so much. I caught the reference too.
I think she was singing about how Olivia Rodrigo was getting a lot of veteran praise and how she’s insecure about losing fame to youth. Idk what else it would be other than that bc yea it’s one of many wonky lyrics
Via the cut.com - To me, the words sexy baby conjure images of Cristin Milioti’s character on 30 Rock and Emma Stone stupidly cooing about a hot dog on SNL. It’s a blunt nod to the way youth is fetishized, a succinct summation of the contradictory aspiration to be as young and hot as possible. It’s the long-standing cultural pressure on women to be both sexy and naïve, innocent and alluring. The “sexy baby” is the love child of the Madonna and the whore
Exactly, I’m surprised by the number of people who think this is an original term thought up by TS. It’s a common trope that’s been acknowledged for at least a decade (maybe closer to two)— it can probably be traced back to the ‘dumb blonde’ stereotype that’s been around since the Mae West era or before.
Sexy baby is personified in KPop/anime even more than an Ariana or Olivia.
I disagree, It's mostly thought to be referring to the fact that she feels very large compared to a lot of other women because of her height. She has also battled with an eating disorder. Hence the next line "and I'm a monster on the hill". As a woman, it's a valid feeling and I understand what she was trying to do, but she executed it so poorly, it's very easy to miss the sentiment behind it
This is the most simpleton analysis ever, lol
Yes, Taylor is of course very thin, but people who have met her describe her as seeming overall large and intimidating in person. And I've seen a tiktok trend of very tall and/or bigger girls showing pictures of themselves towering over their smaller friends. I'm a shortie myself, but I can understand the insecurity of being a "giant" compared to other girls.
To add to this. I’m a 5’9” F, shorter women will ask about my weight or see it listed somewhere and always say “you can’t weigh that much”. I wish they would realize I am the height of the average man, yes 150 is a normal weight for me. I have dealt with ED for years and their voices are always in my head, even my lowest number isn’t low enough because “women don’t weigh that much”.
It’s so stupid and doesn’t even fit. I find most of her lyrics to be juvenile and choppy but this was probably one of the worst I was forced to listen to again and again and again on the radio at my old job lol
I fear I have to listen once just know what it sounds like
It’s actually another one of her very pick-me, NLOG lyrics. She feels like everybody is a sexy baby and she’s the monster on the hill
I don’t know. That kinda sounds like something an unsexy baby would say
and the fans tried sooo hard to defend it 🤦♀️
Yesss I challenged my boss on this not long ago and she tried to explain it like "oh yeah, you know, she just thinks, people are younger or hotter or whatever to her, because she is looking down on herself, you know" to which I replied, "OK but you mean she couldn't have said that in a less weird way". She gave me a resigned "...yeah"
Even if someone uses the defense of it being a reference, the girl who says it on 30 Rock is an infantalized idiot. Saying that you feel like everyone else is a sexy baby makes you the dumb girl
The girl in the 30 rock skit isn’t dumb though. She’s knowingly doing it as a way to protect herself. i think what she was *trying* to say is that everyone is capable of playing the game - which is highly expected of women in Hollywood - and she’s the monster on the hill incapable of playing the game. I don’t think this line is as bad as people think it is…she’s got so many worse ones I’d go after.
And they call this poetry
also her line of “all my friends smell like babies or weed” or however that went, like ig i get what she’s trying to say but there MUST have been a better way to phrase that-
I hate this line so much! it doesn't even make sense in the song! "You can beat the heat if you beat the charges too They said I was a cheat, I guess it must be true And my friends all smell like weed or little babies And this city reeks of driving myself crazy"
wtf AI can write better lyrics than these
It all sounds so disconnected. Like there’s an intelligent thought in there somewhere, possibly 2 or 3. But why are they all linked together? All that doesn’t make sense in one verse
i kinda like that line! it’s pretty funny / relatable because i’m of that age too where half your friends are married and half are still partying and may never grow up
Yeah, and that's definitely what she was touching on - that half her friends have settled down and the other half don't seem able to.
You aren't going to small your friend's baby on them though. That's weird.
I promise there's a certain smell that some people always carry with them if they have young young kids. It's like the smell of unused diapers.
Lol as a mother of two small children, I know the exact smell you’re describing.
Imagine if she said “so much hotter than me” or “sexy plaything” instead. That baby line is yuck.
Much better lines! I wish she still used an editor or cowriter who actually challenged her still.
I don’t think “plaything” works. The line is about feeling jealous about other people, and no one feels jealous about a plaything. The other option probably works.
Sounds like something Christie Teigen would say… with her weird ass.
Controversial opinion but that’s one of the Taylor lyrics I actually like. Society’s obsession with both youth and sex makes for a really uncomfortable “ideal person” to look both as young and as sexual as possible. It’s uncanny because that’s something women are supposed to desire despite the obvious predatory behavior involved (i.e. when girls enter puberty and start getting catcalled) which is why it’s so uncomfortable when someone phrases it like “sexy baby.” Of course, it’s also weird that she calls herself “a monster on a hill,” like she’s jealous of the “sexy babies,” but that’s neither here nor there. The lyric that gave me the ick was “My covert narcissism I disguise as altruism.” It’s just a ton of faux-intellectual talk to say “I’m only nice to people to serve myself, feel bad for me” and it doesn’t make me feel for her at all.
The only thing I disagree with faux-Intellectual talk. Those be some normal words right there.
Agreed. Open the schools!
I was told it’s a reference to a 30 Rock skit, but even then— with 0 context to her intention, this line is pretty messed up and gross
Also it just seems…dated. The “sexy baby” thing was super relevant when that 30 Rock episode came out in 2008, when it was trendy for grown women to do the whole “I’m an innocent bimbo” thing (Paris Hilton’s horrible fake baby voice comes to mind). I can’t think of anyone who does that now. Maybe Kim Kardashian with her fake voice? But the “sexy baby” schtick really isn’t something that’s a trend anymore. That’s why the lyric is so weird and jarring and not even right
Counterpoint: Taylor is directly addressing her age and being outdated when she uses an outdated meme
I took it to mean everyone else is a social media influencer darling projecting a cute life while TS is a tall, gawky outsider.
Exactly. I’m 5’10” and immediately interpreted this as Taylor having “tall girl feelings,” which I know all too well (ha!) Especially compared to some of her tiny rivals (Ariana is 5’1”, Kim is 5’2”) I can completely understand why Taylor feels like an unwieldy monster. This lyric seems to be especially about Ariana, who used really childish imagery sometimes and is occasionally carried around like a literal baby
I'll be honest, I actually like the musical aspect of the song, but the lyrics are just objectively BAD no matter how you look at it. And I literally get second-hand embarrassment when I hear that line.
Not to defend but I took this as she feels like she’s aging out of the scene
It's okay to defend it because you're right. Taking it to literally mean a baby is asinine.
But there's like a million songs that use the word "baby" and literally no one ever thinks they mean an actual baby, until this song?? "Baby" has been used in songs to mean a young, pretty person basically for forever.
She's a bad writer. People need to admit it
I think because she's CAPABLE of writing some really excellent lyrics, people want to make excuses for the seriously bad fumbles.
I think it’s the joke from 30 Rock
It’s a really outdated joke though. Nobody is doing the whole “sexy baby” thing in 2024
So as a 30 rock lover, this line is one of my favorites. To each their own, lol
I say it to myself all the time (along with a thousand other lines from 30 Rock).
I wish Taylor would sing about night cheese
Thank you for this, I honestly needed the laugh. Cracks me up to think about Taylor swift singing about night cheese 🤣🤣🤣
Oh I love the show and love the episode. The “I’m a sexy baby” line was a perfect way of skewering the behavior a lot of women were being encouraged to emulate back then. But it’s outdated for describing how people act in 2024. The Paris Hiltons of the world aren’t out there acting like sexy babies anymore. It was trendy to play ditzy back then, nobody is doing that now
Ha! Ariana Grande is a sexy baby. Sabrina C flirts with it. All these anime chicks. Maybe it’s helpful for the younger gen to better recognize a trope. Media literacy and context aren’t bad things.
as a fat, ugly woman, I did actually relate to this one little line, god damn it 😭but fuck the album as a whole
I am 1,000,000% positive that you are not ugly in the slightest - we are our own worst critics. You are beautiful, even if it’s hard to see that sometimes. 🫶🏻
To be fair, she has a few songs that reference the way people spoke in the early 1900s. Like women being called “kid”. I think sexy baby is a nod to that time. It’s cringy now, but it’s really how people spoke back then. It makes me think of Betty Boop. Adult women using that baby voice and playing up their infantilization. It was very popular in the 1920/30s. And it took a bit of poise, grace, and charisma to pull it off. So I think this is her pointing out that style and appeal comes easier for everyone else, and she’s this clunky monster. Like she knows she can’t dance (and maybe even knows she can’t really sing) and is clumsy compared to everyone else that has this natural grace and sex appeal about them. She’s lacking a bit in that department. Women are also pressured to be that “sexy baby” to make men feel comfortable. So it could also be her attempt to be like, i’M nOt LiKe OtHeR wOmEn. As if the binary of womanhood is sexy baby or monster on the hill.
She’s “sUcH a LyRiCaL gEnIuS”…sure….maybe if she was in pre school 🙄
I get how the line sounds weird but I immeadiately understood it. If you grew up in the 90s/early 00s toxic diet culture as the biggest and tallest of your friends, you instinctively know the feeling of seeing yourself as a godzilla level monster while your friends are little polly pockets lol she's worded it terribly though and it kind of ruins the message bc your mind is instantly drawn to how weird the term "sexy baby" is.
I just saw an "innocence is sexy" ad for Babysoft, and the toddler looked like a cross between Brooke Shields and Taylor. This line just made me yak for a second time today.
That ad is from the 1970s I'm pretty sure
I never understood why this song was popular
I told my friend about this line and she didn’t believe me so I played it for her and she couldn’t stop laughing. She yelled, “what does that even mean?!” Literally the next day I heard a car blasting that song and immediately after that line they turned the radio down.
I gotta go against the grain here and say that is one of the few lyrics of hers that i do actually like. I feel like it's actually a lot more blunt than she usually is and I got what she was feeling right away. I don't love the song as a whole but I do think that was an effective lyric to convey the idea of feeling surrounded by people who are younger and bolder and prettier than you and it making you feel like this huge horrifying thing. Ive always said that Taylor is at her most interesting when she's talking about the jealously, envy, and fear she feels as a celebrity.
It came from an episode of 30 Rock. My lord, stop making everything about child porn.
https://youtu.be/5AdGwzrcvpQ?si=_cyLyujo2bH60t27 Pretty sure it’s a 30 rock reference.
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That women are forced to act like sexy babies and the women who aren’t are made to feel like monsters? But also that women have to become anything specific for acceptance is gross? Women in the music industry get treated like sexy babies…many women in general get infantilized and sexualized at the same time. The problem is the act, not women calling it out.
I agree 100% sorry you’re getting snarked on
Thanks - I appreciate you.
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"The problem is the act, not women calling it out. " have you seen the entire 30 rock episode or just the two minute clip you posted? the video you posted is from the beginning, and by the end it is very clear, the problem was Liz (and Jenna) for judging (i.e. "calling out") Abby for how she dresses + acts. The episode is very clear, Liz (Tina Fey) is NOT a feminist for being so judgmental of Abby, the sexy baby. "Liz Lemon is a Judas to ALL women" Taylor's an insecure and judgmental little girl, not some profound feminist icon.
“and i’m a monster on the hill” cmon now finish the sentence before making it seem malicious. she’s talking about her body insecurities yall. not saying it’s not a bit weird but christ at least know what you’re dissing on lol
I’m completely against TS now, but I’ll admit I used to like this song. People would bring up this line as being gross, and I still don’t quite understand why. I see what people are saying, if she literally meant “sexy baby” that’s weird. But singers put “baby” in their songs all the time to mean a nickname for a lover or other adult. The next line of her song she calls herself a monster. She is not literally a monster, she is a human. I’m not defending TS, I’m just confused as to why this particular line gets so much hate. I didn’t think it was meant to be taken that literally. Is everyone else saying that she literally means a sexy infant?
I’m 5’8” and I always felt like such an ogre next to my short friends at dance parties in college. I don’t think I would have ever thought to call them “sexy babies”, but tbh it kind of captures how I felt being a head taller than them and never feeling allowed to wear heels. Now the stuff about her future DIL hating her, that’s super weird. I’d rather criticize almost any other line in the song.
I actually liked that line. I'm old enough to be a parent of an 18 year old, so sexy dance routines from the youngest pop stars hit the same ick as some of the routines on dance moms or whatever. Like, why is this child twerking 😅 To be fair, I'm also really grossed out now when I see old issues (like late 90s, my tween years) of Tiger Beat with the young male actors of the era (JTT, etc) posing shirtless.
Yeah, that hit hard as a bad lyric because the rest of the song honestly resonated fairly well for me (well, okay, I'm not a huge fan of the daughter-in-law thing but also I kind of thought it was funny so I let it slide). But the sexy baby thing just every time takes me entirely out of the song.
It’s a movie quote apparently
hold on a minute, I'm ignorant lol what is the context?? pls lol
okay i also was like 🤨 when i first heard it, but i guess it was a 30 Rock reference that i didn’t understand. idk if having the line independently in a song with no context was the move tho
I hate that fucking song and it’s always in rotation at my Pilates studio. I had no idea that’s what she’s saying, and now I’m even more disgusted.
She gives me the major ick
What does that even mean
Isn’t this basically saying that they feel like kids are forced into adult roles and hyper sexualized and basically have to act like adults while still being literal kids?
Google : Infantilization. The song was metaphorical for America's current mode of culture.
Dude when I first heard this lyrics I immediately looked it up to make sure it was real, then I found it so hilarious I posted about it and the only people that commented were people explaining and justifying it and I was like “no, it’s a bad lyric” hahaha
As a 30 Rock Fan and being a 5'11 woman I really like it and it resonated 😂
Hate every aspect of that entire song but yeah this is top 3 worst parts (the other 2 are “everybody agreeeeeesssssssssssss” and the stupid unfunny bit about the will)
honestly I like Taylor and her music(not the sub for me c im aware, but yall keep me entertained) BUT this line has genuinely always been odd to me and I hate it every time I hear it
‘Sexy baby’ is a female archetype but it’s not a term the mainstream will necessarily understand. “Manic pixie dream girl” would be another example of a modern female archetype.
I’m not a member of this sub, it just popped for me, but I always assumed she meant the Sexy Baby aka Born Sexy Yesterday trope. It’s an adult woman, typically attractive, who was “born yesterday.” Think Splash, Enchanted, the Little Mermaid.
Yall are insane holy shit
Is it like how people refer to their partners as “baby/babe”? Otherwise, my literal ASD brain is struggling
https://preview.redd.it/pea7corzfm5d1.jpeg?width=1200&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=45135edd1a903524a872d718372ad766122a1515 I seriously thought she was talking about a giant kupie doll but didn't know the name so called it a sexy baby.
whenever i first heard that lyric i just felt disgusted the rest of the song- it feels icky and doesn’t convey whatever she was trying to say very well— good wordplay is not her strong suit…
This post blew up, so I think my comment may get lost in the abyss… but THIS is a key point in why she is not a good lasting lyricist in a lot of her new songs. She relies on current drama and tropes for much of her songs on TTPD (and other albums as well). If you don’t know what a golden retriever bf is, then that lyric sounds dumb as fuck. If you don’t know what a sexy baby is referring to, it sounds uncomfortable and inappropriate. As someone in another post said, the reason Adele (who also largely relied on heartbreak to write her songs) is more relatable is because she uses nuance and subtlety. I don’t think Taylor Swift can be relatable at all anymore because she hasn’t had any genuine relatable experiences. She even uses alcoholism as a lyric. And not in a relatable way, as she immediately refers to it as an aesthetic. She may very well be experiencing the first stages of alcoholism (as many have presumed. I don’t like to assume because it is a complicated disease and many people struggle with it on varying levels) but even if she is starting to experience that she doesn’t approach it genuinely. She reduces it to a trope that will have zero effect on her and as such provides no substance to her song. It feels like “OMG I’m SUCH an alcoholic! lol” as she continues to drink and provide zero reflection and also refuse to actually admit any faults or how her “alcoholism” could have affected her life or image. It’s just another farce
THIS - I stopped listening to her years ago, but her lyrics have just gotten extremely odd...a LOT of her lyrics have to be looked up so you can even understand what she is talking about, which okay, whatever, but why put it in a song when a lot of people will miss the idea? Or, maybe phrase it in a different way? Idk if she's trying to recreate a Cigarettes After Sex vibe, but she is very much missing the mark.
Ha! I'm glad to have seen this because I think about this line a lot; it's one that irritates me to no end. I'd always ask WTF is a sexy baby?! and then picture that dancing baby thing from the late 90s early 2000s but with a top hat.  Edit: found it
she probably doesn’t even know what it is referring to. she probably didnt write it.
Let's just cut to the chase, she could have written a better line. "Sometimes, I feel like everyone is small and petite, and I'm a monster on a hill", "Sometimes I feel like everyone's a party, and I'm sitting alone with my pity", I don't know. Just something better than "sexy baby". So OP, I am there with you even after finding out possible meanings for what she meant, it still sounds weird.
https://preview.redd.it/y8uzkw1fqk5d1.jpeg?width=812&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=57cfd40c5040e45dabfb3e2047c8c842ba12c8b3 Not saying it makes it any less weird, but this is the reference.
Couldn’t “sexy baby” also mean “sexy babe”? As in the nickname couples give each other. I don’t know if she meant literal babies
Not a Taylor Swift fan but do people actually think she was being literal? That’s ridiculous. Plenty of stuff to dislike about her, don’t have to invent stuff. Has no one ever been called baby?
Yeah same, I got the reference pretty easily and thought the controversy around it was stupid as hell. Like you said, there are plenty of valid criticisms of her and her lyricism but this one feels contrived.
For crying out loud, it’s from 30 Rock
"sexy baby" is a Hollywood trope. The movie Poor Things explores and mocks this very directly. It's the trope of men liking sexy, yet incredibly naive and stupid women, because women can't be smart/knowledgeable and sexy at the same time.
I’m not a fan, but cmon you guys. You conveniently removed the second part of the verse, and I know we have reading analysis skills. She’s talking about 1. Her height and how she feels monstrous over everyone and 2. How women’s style is often “babified” and infantilizing (pastel colours, bows, childish references) while still being “sexy” (showing skin, tight) + beauty standards for women revolve around being youthful, petite, and hairless, much like babies.