Taylor Swift Tackles Bisexuality Rumors in '1989' Prologue

"1989 (Taylor's Version)" was released today, and it's given Swift a chance to clear a few things up.

The pop icon isn't just reclaiming her own music with the release of her re-recorded milestone record; she's setting the record straight, so to speak, on her relationships with female friends like Karlie Kloss.

UK newspaper the Daily Mail reported that in a prologue to the re-recorded album – the fourth in a series of six such re-recording projects – Swift "called out the public for sexualizing her female friendships," and explained that she started hanging out with other women because any sighting of her with a man sparked instant assumptions of a sexual relationship and fed a rumor mill that painted her as a "boy crazy psychopath."

"As she looked back at her life at 24, as she prepared to make the leap from a country artist to pop star, the 12-time Grammy winner explained she was desperate to 'silence' the voices shaming her for 'dating like a normal young woman,'" the Mail relayed.

"It became clear to me that for me there was no such thing as casual dating, or even having a male friend who you platonically hang out with," Swift recounts in the prologue.

''If I was seen with him, it was assumed I was sleeping with him," Swift adds. "And so, I swore off hanging out with guys. Dating, flirting, or anything that could be weaponized against me by a culture that claimed to believe in liberating women but consistently treated me with the harsh moral codes of the Victorian era."

As a result, the singer says, she "swore off dating and decided to focus only on myself, my music, my growth, and my female friendships," reasoning that, "If I only hung out with my female friends, people couldn't sensationalize or sexualize that right?"

"I would learn later on that people could and people would."

Indeed, the public's prurience could not be stilled by adopting a tactic of only being seen to socialize with other women. A persistent rumor that Swift was bisexual quickly took hold, spurred by a photo that circulated in 2014 of Swift and Kloss attending a concert by the group The 1975. The photo seemed to show them kissing, the Mail noted.

"In 2019, the 'Cats' actress explicitly told Vogue the she was 'not a part of' LGTBQ+ community," the Mail detailed, "but was passionate about speaking up for the community."

Said Swift: "I didn't realize until recently that I could advocate for a community that I'm not a part of. It's hard to know how to do that without being so fearful of making a mistake.... When I make a mistake, it echoes through the canyons of the world. It's clickbait, and it's a part of my life story, and it's a part of my career arc."

"In the prologue, she also praised listeners and fans for seeing 'the seeds of allyship and advocating for equality' in her track, 'Welcome To New York,' in which she sings: 'Everybody here was someone else before/And you can want who you want/Boys and boys and girls and girls,'" the Mail noted.

"Swift has previously romantically linked to Harry Styles, Conor Kennedy, Jake Gyllenhaal, Lucas Till, Cory Monteith, Joe Jonas, John Mayer, Calvin Harris, Tom Hiddleston Joe Alwyn, Taylor Lautner, and most recently, Travis Kelce," the news article went on to add.

"Additionally, many believe she dated Kloss, and 'Glee' star Dianna Agron, who said it was 'wildly untrue' that they dated during an interview with Rolling Stone earlier this year."

Now that that's cleared up, let's take note of the positive reviews that "1989 (Taylor's Version)" has commanded from critics. Writing in the Financial Times, Ludovic Hunter-Tilney admitted that the new recording of the "monumental" album had allowed for a more considered re-evaluation.

"I made a mistake with Taylor Swift's magnum opus," Hunter-Tilney wrote, going on to explain, "I gave her fifth album 1989 a broadly positive write-up when it came out in 2014. But the three-star rating that I awarded it has gnawed at me ever since. I should have given it the full five."

Rolling Stone's Angie Martoccio penned another glowing review, exclaiming, "For many Swifties, this is the re-recording we've been waiting for. Ever since she announced her genius plan to reclaim her masters in 2019, we've been shouting "We want our 1989 TV!"

Added Martoccio: "'1989' is the album that changed everything for Swift, but also for us. After '1989,' everyone became a Swiftie.... The album marked Swift's official abandonment of country music to become a full-fledged pop star." And, the RS article added, though the album's title might have been a reference to the year of Swift's birth, "the album became the moment of her artistic rebirth."