Taylor Swift is grabbing a lot of headlines right now. Not just for the divisive way she pointed to her wedding ring at the latest Kansas City Chiefs game while supporting husband Travis Kelce, but for her new music – including new single “Patient Zero,” one of four new songs featured on The Life of a Showgirl: The Encore, out September 25th. And, more specifically, the way her armpit looked in the promo picture she released for the track!
The 14-time Grammy winner unveiled the promo picture on September 22nd, but rather than solely focusing on the new music, some fans couldn’t get past the seemingly “horribly photoshopped” picture, with one saying her armpit had “disappeared completely.” Keep reading for more info…
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Taylor Swift Unveils ‘Patient Zero’ Promo Picture
On September 22nd, the “Shake it Off” singer, 36, shared a picture of herself posing with her back against a wall while wearing a sleeveless turtleneck top and gazing into the camera. She captioned it: “I’ve been impatiently waiting to tell you that my brand new single ‘Patient Zero’ will be out on September 25 (!!!!!!!!!!!!) and it’s available to pre-order now on my website for 24 hours.”
“Patient Zero” is one of four new tracks featured on The Life of a Showgirl: The Encore, alongside “Cleveland!,” “Pink Clouding” and “Babylon.” A music video for “Patient Zero” is also set to be shown at the MTV Video Music Awards on Sunday.
While the post was intended to get Swifties excited about the new music, the picture itself soon became a talking point on social media. Some fans thought the “Lavender Haze” hitmaker looked almost unrecognizable, comparing her to other A-listers such as Anne Hathaway and Dakota Johnson, while others zeroed in on the apparent retouching around her arm and armpit. And let’s face it, the armpit seldom seems to fare well when Photoshop is involved.
Although the “Anti-Hero” singer switched off the comments on that particular post (would she have broken Instagram if she hadn’t?!), fans and critics alike still found other places to sound off.
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Fans React To Taylor Swift's 'Photoshopped' Armpit On Reddit
Among the excitement over "Patient Zero" – of which there was a lot – was plenty of criticism about the promo picture itself.
"What in the airbrush [expletive?]" asked one Reddit user, as a second said: "I like her but this photo is bizarre." "Her dress and arm are so horribly photoshopped, lol," wrote a third, while a fourth asked: "Why would someone airbrush her armpit like that?"
"My first thought. Why doesn't she have an armpit?" questioned a fifth, as a sixth exclaimed: "Armpit's disappeared completely!" "They fused her armpit shut," joked a seventh, while an eighth added: "It's not even well done retouching! This looks like it was photoshopped in 2009."
"Me in MS Paint in high school in 2009," quipped a ninth, as a tenth joked: "What, your armpit isn't gently blurred like a daytime TV drama?" "It's like she had long armpit hair they needed to hide," thought an eleventh, followed by two crying laughing emojis.
The apparent retouching wasn't the only thing that caught people's attention, as some fans thought Swift looked noticeably different in the picture, especially as the low lighting made her hair look darker…
"Who is that in the picture?" asked a twelfth, while a thirteenth confessed: "I thought this was Anne Hathaway at first glance." "I woke up and looked at it with only one eye opened and thought it was Dakota," added a fourteenth, in reference to the Fifty Shades of Gray alum.
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Taylor Swift Faces More Criticism Over Releasing Multiple Versions Of Her Music
The Photoshop accusations weren't the only criticism surrounding the "Patient Zero" announcement. The "Fate of Ophelia" singer made the single available to pre-order for just 24 hours, with three different versions on offer – and it didn't take long for some people to question the strategy.
Let's not forget that this isn't the first time Swift has faced backlash for releasing multiple versions of her music or asked fans to pay to pre-order it. Critics have previously questioned the need for so many different editions and variants of her releases, and some had similar thoughts about "Patient Zero."
"Why is anyone pre-ordering a single in this day and age?" asked one fan, while a second questioned: "Why someone would pay for listen to it in advance when you can wait few days and do it for free."
Others were more critical of the limited 24-hour window and questioned why the billionaire singer needed to use the strategy at all. "Presales for only 24 hours to generate time-pressure? How much money is enough?" asked a third, while a fourth said: "3 variants for one song is beyond greedy."
Not everyone agreed with the criticism, though. "So many artists release singles. I bought all the variants from Lewis Capaldi. We are going back to physical copies because we don't technically own digital copies," argued a fifth.
A sixth fan also pointed out that the three versions offered something different musically, rather than simply featuring different artwork. They explained: "It's 3 versions. At least you get something musically different with each one rather than just different artwork. One is regular, one is acoustic and one piano. She did this with the Toy Story song too. They all sounded different enough."
