It’s been a rough week for Taylor Swift.
The pop singer’s nice girl image is in jeopardy following some high-profile incidents that have fans concerned the squeaky clean star is at best turning into a mean girl and at worst a liar.
Being called out as a liar is one of the worst things that can happen to a brand like Swift’s, and some celebrity watchers are saying it’s time for Taylor to do some damage control, or risk causing severe harm to her incredibly lucrative brand in the long-term.
“She needs to suck it up and say sorry,” says former celebrity publicist Rob Shuter, who also runs the celebrity news site NaughtyGossip.com. “Say sorry... Own the mistakes and move on! At this point the perception is that she's being a mean girl. She needs to control of the situation fast.”
Swift hasn’t stayed silent amid the backlash. On Sunday night, after Kim Kardashian posted footage of a conversation between Kanye West and Swift that, at one point, the pop star’s rep said never happened, the singer responded on Instagram and stood up for herself.
The “Blank Space” crooner clarified to her fans in her Instagram post that though she discussed being mentioned in West’s song “Famous," she never agreed to the portion of the song that referred to her as “that bitch.”
“Being falsely painted as a liar when I was never given the full story or played any part of the song is character assassination,” Swift wrote.
Some experts say Swift’s response on Instagram was sufficient, and it is an example of a strong woman standing up for herself.
“I don't think this hurts her image. She has her principles and wants to stand up for her own accomplishments,” says HollywoodLife Editor-in-Chief Bonnie Fuller.
In fact, Fuller says, these recent incidents could turn into a goldmine for Swift, who often uses her personal life as fodder for her hit songs.
“Her next step is to write one or more songs expressing her feelings, and they will no doubt be big hits,” Fuller said.
Swift should have a lot to write about. Aside from her feud with Kardashian and West, her ex-boyfriend Calvin Harris recently blasted her on social media. In the process, he charged that Swift had been the one continuing a feud with Katy Perry. Harris said that Swift’s intention had been to “bury” Perry. He expressed concern that Swift would come after him in a similar manner now that she’s moved on with actor beau Tom Hiddleston.
When it came to her feud with Perry, Swift had always painted herself as the injured party saying in a 2014 interview with Rolling Stone that she was confused about her dispute with an unnamed pop star (that fans inferred was Perry).
“For years, I was never sure if we were friends or not. She would come up to me at awards shows and say something and walk away, and I would think, 'Are we friends, or did she just give me the harshest insult of my life?'”
Perry hasn’t directly commented on the recent Swift backlash, however she did post a retweeted message that simply read, “Time, the ultimate truth teller.”
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