"Who's Afraid of Little Old Me?" Discussion Megathread

I made a video edit for this song with clips from an old Bette Davis film (Hush…hush, Sweet Charlotte), also Gone with the Wind and Black Narcissus. Heroines who are mentally broken to the point of being terrifying. We really are in Taylor’s darkest era.

This song is so cinematic to me. I feel like I can see the music video and the live performance already.

Does this song remind anyone else of Britney Spears? Almost feels like it was written for her. 

Am I the only one who on the first listen thought the bridge said “I’ll sue you, if you step on my lungs” 🤔

It's about olivia rodrigo and her response to vampire

The who's who of "Who's that?" is poised for the attack. I can't understand this lyrics and it is driving me kinda crazy. Could someone shed the light on "Who's that?" as i can't understand the concept

house with all the cobwebs : lover house pre taylors version? I'll sur you if you step on my lawn--> old records vs re records?

It makes me think of how (some) politicians have accused her of being an FBI plant and that her songs are used to infiltrate the masses (the Lin of narcotics in her songs) When she talks about crashing the party, I can’t but think of the R party.

I was tame; I was gentle till the circus life made me mean
Don't you worry, folks; we took out all her teeth

Damn!!!!

I showed this song to my brother who hates most pop music. He LOVED the circus lines and happily listened to the rest of the song.

I can just imagine Taylor levitating down my street, crashing my party while screaming "who's afraid of little old me?" PLEASE THAT'S TERRIFYING like "you should be" BITCH I AM

"Let's hear one more joke" sounds so much like "Joe" instead of joke..

Edit: it would also fit the "talking shit about your famous baby" line in the anti-hero remix

This song gave me Boo Radley from To Kill a Mockingbird vibes

Love this song!

I can’t help but think of a few things: - Olivia Rodrigo lawsuit: “But my bare hands paved their paths” - maybe Joe cheating on Taylor or an ex lover that doesn’t want her writing songs about them: The scandal was contained, The bullet had just grazed, At all costs, keep your good name, You don't get to tell me you feel bad” - maybe Joe called her crazy considering the entire album is talking about her being in an asylum/being crazy: “You caged me and then you called me crazy”

I got these lines wrong the first couple of times I listened, but (and forgive me if everyone knows this) instead of Taylor lamenting personal problems toward the end of the song - it is the ugly "they" who claim these things...

I’m always drunk on my own tears, isn’t that what they all said?
That I’ll sue you if you step on my lawn
That I’m fearsome, and I’m wretched and I’m wrong
Put narcotics into all of my songs
And that’s why you’re still singing along

It's some of the things she's been accused of.

Someone posted a video on X of plankton from SpongeBob to this song and I can’t find it someone please help

Every day this song moves further up my list. I especially love her high harmonies in the last minute of the song when she sings "Who's...afraid... of me?" Very haunting.

I immediately thought of the scene from The Craft where the witches literally crash a party and then Nancy levitates. It’s an aesthetically dark scene, filled with rage and anger.

This song needs a music video reminiscent of Stephen King's Carrie

Yall what if WOAOLOM is about Kanye& Kim

Hear me out. thanK you aIMee (KIM) shows that she (rightfully so) still harbors resentment towards the entire SnakeGate thing. So what if her song that is filled the most with rage is about them?

Verse 1: "The whos who (...) is poised for the attack" -> someone expecting revenge "You don't get to tell me about sad//You dont get to tell me you feel bad" -> (fake) efforts of reconciliation (after 2009 and SnakeGate)

Chorus: "WHOS AFRAID OF LITTLE OLD ME?" -> sounds like a young person screaming bcs they don't understand why this happened to them (2009 Taylor) "You should be" -> present Taylor showing she's not a shy or meek person anymore but instead aware of her status and influence

The ENTIRE 2nd verse is so obviously about the phone call.

"I was tame I was gentle till the circus life made me mean" -> how Reputation was born, by her becoming "mean" and defending her good name

"Don't you worry folks we took out all her teeth" -> after the phone call EVERYONE dared to shit talk her. Kanye opened the flood gates bcs he took out all her teeth which meant she wouldn't continue to defend herself anymore

The bridge showing how much distrust this has placed in her.

Outro "cause you lured me and you hurt me and then called me crazy" is pretty self explanatory too with them originally reconciling just to then use her name and slander her.

I rest my case.

Does anyone else hear similarities between the chorus and the verses in You Belong with Me?

Levitating down your street I'm listening to the kind of music she doesn't like Who's afraid of little old me?

This song is so deranged and unhinged and I absolutely love it

She sounds like Sabrina when singing "that I'm fearsome, and I'm wretched"

This song is so UNHINGED I love it

Who else hears a lot of Phoebe Bridgers on this album??? Especially where she sings “put narcotics in all of my songs”

Everyone is picture Taylor levitating down the street, am I the only one picturing the sounds of her songs “levitating”?? I picture the neighborhood street where the people she’s addressing can’t get away from her because her music has infiltrated society. I picture all the dads brads and chads so in and so forth going mad as the swifties dance and frolick and blast it in the car passing you by.

It pairs nicely with the next simile she used about a record scratch on repeat.

“So I leap from the gallows and I levitate down your street” reminds me of “Honey I rose up from the dead, I do it all the time” in LWYMMD

So. the asylum is the place where all the hallways are, right?

Absolutely love this song. Keep getting it stuck in my head and mashed up with Florida!!! though- is it just me or is it sonically similar?

i need a pissed off witch type of music video for this song sooooooo bad

This song actually breaks me as i used to be a bit of a hater until someone bullied me enough that i did a 180 and love her now. It's just fucking sad that the media have demonised her for her entire life - like you can't imagine being the most famous woman in the world and without a doubt the most talked about. Her poor brain man. It must be so jarring to be SO loved and SO hated.

Ok the part where she sings “you wouldn’t last an hour in the asylum that they raised Me” kinda has the same melody as another of her songs and I can’t figure it out. Can someone help!!

As someone who is diagnosed with Borderline Personality Disorder due to trauma. I struggle with severe abandonment issues, and has been spent a lot of time in hospitals for S.I~ and all the mental illnesses I have is from other people, that now I have to face the consequences, in intensive therapy, and on so many medications (antidepressants, mood stabilizers, psychotics),that I feel like I'm a robot. I'm spending so much time in therapy trying to make up for all the hurt that they caused me.

"You caged me, and then you called me crazy. I am what I am cause YOU trained me"

"I'm always drunk on my own tears, isn't that what they all said" `refers to people always asking me why I cant keep safe, and why I'm always in inpatient

"I was tame, I was gentle till the circus life made me mean"` refers to how people take advantage of me when I'm vulnerable and let my guard down.

i love this song but it convinced me even more that taylor would benefit from a lil therapy

Random thought, has anyone seen the movie Monster House and think this song has a very similar narrative?

"The circus life made me mean" - the movie is about a house that is possessed by the spirit of a woman called Constance, who was captured by a circus and then saved by a man. While they were building their home, she fell into a pit where the concrete foundation was being poured and she was encased in concrete and died, leaving behind her husband who now lives there alone. That's why the house is a monster, because of her mean spirit.

"So all you kids can sneak into my house with all the cobwebs" - this is literally the whole plot of the movie, 3 kids (the main characters) try to sneak into the house without waking the spirit to uncover the mysteries of the house.

"That I'll sue you if you step on my lawn" - the old man who was married to Constance constantly yells at the kids GET OFF MY LAWN!!!

"So I leap from the gallows and I levitate down your street" - at the end the monster house rips itself from the pits of the earth and literally stalks the kids down the street

I mean this is so random but I am just thinking of this movie every time I hear the song now 😅

This was my #1 first go-round, and now on my millionth go-round I think it’s still my #1 … she’s incredible

I was pondering the line "you don't get to tell me about 'sad'" since it seems so specific. Direct quote from Scooter to Variety in 2021: "I regret and it makes me sad that Taylor had that reaction to the deal." I mean...

The song is probably referring to several things but I'm convinced that line (and possibly "you don't get to tell me you feel bad") is about Scooter. Sorry if someone has already posted this!

Taking your power back Taylor! 🫶

I feel so stupid asking but when she says “little old me” who is she referring to? Her younger self? What is “little-old”? Thanks in advance.

I finally figured out this song reminds me so much of the only murderers in the building theme song 

New to the Swiftie world- this song seems to be directed at scooter ? Agree or disagree?

I want this to be the next music video we get. I can't wait to see her floating.

My take on this song is that Taylor sees herself as this creation that is controlled for success and fame. She is the way she is because “they” wanted her to be:

“I was tame I was gentle til the circus life made me mean, don’t you worry folks we took out all her teeth”

She’s talking about the industry here, she is forced to participate but with her hands tied behind her back and not in control herself. Also double meaning with her veneers too which is interesting.

At the end of the song she is basically saying you (meaning her family and the media machine) created a monster:

“you caged me then called me crazy, I am what I am cause you trained me….”

Makes me so sad for her, people paint her as this evil big bad mastermind when she’s actually not 🙄

"that i'll SUE you. if you step. on my la~wn.

that i'm FEARSOME. and i'm WRETCHED. and i'm wro~ng" chills🥶

This song is healing me. I'm the victim of sexual abuse in my childhood by my father, that coincided with some bad bullying in school. As an adult, my sister betrayed and hurt me by repeating the behaviors in our family. It's been a very, very hard few years as some of these things came to light. I am so tired of being a victim. So for me, this song is healing me. It's telling me that I'm done. I'll never let it happen to me or mine again. I love it so much. I hope it represents a lot of healing for Taylor too! <3

Is there a reference here to Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf? A dysfunctional marriage between her and show business. 

To me it's interesting how she paints herself as a few different figures: abused and resentful circus lion with teeth ripped out (Scott Borchetta & Scooter Braun I think being the circus ringleaders that controlled and subdued her for commercial profit), a witch/vampire rising from the death of her public hanging to haunt the people that sentenced her (Kim and Kanye), and also the cliché local legend of that crazy lady who lives in solitude in the neighborhood....

Neighbors call her a crazy drunk who threatens to sue if anyone even steps on her lawn (I think this is her addressing the public opinion of her after the Olivia Rodrigo situation).

Kids spread rumours and tell made up tales of how dangerous and deranged she is, they dare each other to sneak onto her decrepit property - for example at Halloween time, when she is also rumored to put narcotics in the candy she gives out to little kids. Basically painting a very awful, selfish and malicious person.

I see this song as her acknowledging her power and capacity for wrath against the people who have wronged her, but also dealing with the new public perception of her, and the narrative that she is a spiteful power-hungry person who collects fans and wants to destroy young up-and-coming artists too.

My how far we have come since “The Lucky One”

I think this is my favorite song from the album and one of the best songs she's ever written!
It hits SO hard!

PS: Also, as a big Marvel and an even bigger Scarlet Witch fan, this fits SO well for Wanda's character!

I’ve been wondering if this song is potentially a response to Olivia Rodrigo’s “the grudge.”

I don’t want to perpetuate pitting women against each other, and their fallout broke my heart because I adore both of them. I could be totally off base here, but I can’t stop wondering about it. Does anyone else think this is her kind of responding with “sorry kid, the industry made me this way”?

I’ve decided this is one of the best songs she’s ever written 

I can definitely see this being one of the singles from this album.

The tune for 'So I leap from the gallows and I levitate down your street, Crash the party like a record scratch as I scream, Who's afraid of little old me?' is really reminscent of You Belong With Me - 'I'm in my room, it's a typical Tuesday night, I'm listening to the kind of music she doesn't like'.

I love this - it feels like the spooky, twisted evolution of one her most upbeat and innocent pop songs

Potentially delulu post incoming, originally typed out as a text to a friend so it bounces around and may contradict itself or over-explain:

There’s a connection between Who’s Afraid of Little Old Me and Virginia Woolf; there was a play called Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf and it was basically a portrait of a dysfunctional marriage between 2 alcoholics—it’s a dark comedy where the husband burned through his inheritance and planned to marry and kill his wealthy wife. There’s also an imaginary baby in the play that the wife addresses to cope with the fact that the couple was never able to have kids... I think it’s no coincidence that Virginia Woolf herself was British much like Joe and Matty and basically did grow up in an asylum (her mom died when she was 13 and she kept being institutionalized after that) so the line about growing up in an asylum makes sense… there’s also mentions of a circus in To The Lighthouse by Virginia Woolf and one of the main characters in that book is a little boy named James and the main critique of him is that he has an oedipus complex and low key Taylor does look like Joe’s mom BUT ANYWAYS James begs to go to a lighthouse but he can’t because of the weather so instead he wants to go to the circus and Taylor wrote “I was tame, I was gentle ’til the circus life made me mean/ Don’t you worry folks we took out all her teeth … You caged me and then you called me crazy/ I am what I am ’cause you trained me” so like yeah the circus thing isn’t HUGE, but if Taylor was meant to be James in the songs and if this is a connection, she’s suggesting that she did this all to herself by entering show-business, she was gentle and kind before… but also guess who actually had at least 5 of her PERFECTLY HEALTHY teeth pulled? Virginia Woolf. They thought it would cure her mental illness, slight fever, and abnormal heartbeat. Obviously it didn’t help.

There’s also a poet named Augustus in “To the Lighthouse” who is often ostracized as being a failure in part due to his failed romantic relationships—he’s a metaphor for using chaos to create harmony through art, he’s also an opium addict meanwhile Taylor’s out here writing “Putting narcotics into all of my songs / And that's why you're still singing along” so that feels like it’s a dig at someone who did drugs more than it’s saying that the general public is hooked on her songs IMO, so I’m obviously thinking Matty. Was Matty August? Do I care about that or analyzing her lyrics?

We can relate August to To The Lighthouse too. That’d be easy, I mean salt air and rust on your door, very lighthousey, I’m not even gunna dive deeper on that…

The house in To the Lighthouse was a huge symbol much like the Lover house—well the Lighthouse house falls into disrepair over time because “… died that summer in some illness connected with childbirth, which was indeed a tragedy, people said, everything, they said, had promised so well. And now in the heat of summer the wind sent its spies about the house again. Flies wove a web in the sunny rooms…” this could relate to theories I’ve seen people speculate on, but moving on, Taylor wrote, “So all you kids can sneak into my house with all the cobwebs” and it’s like, oh, that kinda feels like she’s saying fans are prying into the Lover house but it’s full of cobwebs just like the lighthouse house—after the excerpt I quoted, it goes on to talk about good memories and then abruptly has a war bombing flashback and that also feels relevant since Taylor did burn it down.

To the Lighthouse also includes a poem by Lord Alfred Tennyson—Taylor loves Tennyson, I just know it, she has to. He published his main book of poetry in 1842 👀 I Hate It Here. Thematically Tennyson’s “'Tis better to have loved and lost than never to have loved at all” is 100% Taylor coded. There’s also much discussion about arranged marriage in Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf which 👀 I Hate It Here. I would honestly be shocked if there aren’t more Tennyson allusions happening. He wasn’t a favorite of mine though so…

I also feel like there’s something about the song that feels like Virginia Woolf’s style. She popularized stream of consciousness writing, so she kinda shifted between characters internal monologues with subtle hints when it changes perspective… How the song starts with 2nd person “The who's who of who's that? / Is poised for the attack” and shifts to first person “But my bare hands paved their paths / You don't get to tell me about sad” and then “Don't you worry folks, we took out all her teeth” feels like someone else, an announcer or performer, is saying it.

“If you wanted me dead, you should've just said / Nothing makes me feel more alive” so that’s moderately suicidal…

Which got me thinking… this is more than a metaphor for a dodged bullet, this could be depicting a su*cide attempt? “The scandal was contained / The bullet had just grazed / At all costs, keep your good name / You don't get to tell me you feel bad / Is it a wonder I broke? Let's hear one more joke / Then we could all just laugh until I cry” that would certainly be a scandal. I could hear someone telling her to keep her name clean in that situation…

And then “So I leap from the gallows and I levitate down your street” has been bouncing around in my head too. What’s our girl doing in the gallows? People hang in the gallows. She unalived herself. She’s a ghost. That’s why she’s levitating. That’s why you should be afraid of little old her. That’s why if you wanted her dead, you really should’ve just said. Virginia Woolf has also written from a ghosts perspective like that, and ghost stories and the supernatural were a popular thing amongst the poets Taylor is drawing from in this album; Wuthering Heights was published in the 1840s as a reference.

Of course I also see the comparison of the music industry being the circus and the song being an overall critique of fame, just some interesting coincidences or allusions I had to get out. I hope some of it made sense!😅

The music sounds SO much like an episode of Westworld.

My favorite to blast in the car! This song is a mix of rep and Folklore for me and I am so obsessed with it!

Love the witch metaphor but then she switches to a seemingly incompatible metaphor about the circus life…

every time I hear it i get a little more afraid!!! There are times the production goes into straight horror movie territory

Can someone explain the what the first few lines mean to me?

Anyone think the bit about putting narcotics into her songs is a reference to people saying she was doing Witchery at the eras tour with evermore set? That’s what I correlate it with. Not her saying she was doing that but like poking fun that people would even think that. Acknowledging it.

Anyway this is my favorite song. The composition is amazing. It would sound lovely if in an orchestra sis this song. Ugh. I wish

This is giving Rep, this is giving YOYOK, this is GIVING masterpiece! I'm obsessed with this and it should definitely get a music video. This will definitely end up being in my Top 10!

After a couple of days of letting it all sink in. This one is a religion/patriarchy/no more people pleasing good girl/deconstruction song for me right here. Probably my fave on the album and that’s saying something because I LOVEEEEE this album.

This song is simultaneously terrifying and heartbreaking. And has a very Pretty Little Liars vibe to it. 

I want a MV sooooo bad!!

I’ve decided this one is my favorite on the album

I really wonder how it would go if she sung this at Eras - Eras wouldn’t exist without the industry (and industrial complex, including fans) that she’s singing about.

It’s just too meta holy fuck

This to me feels like a sister song to Mastermind and how she's appalled that her grip over the fans that she explored so heavily in Mastermind was threatened in the wake of their rightful questioning of her relationship with problematic Matty Healy. Seems like she's lashing out at her fans hardcore in this one and saying 'how dare you question me - know your part, play your part.' That's the latest and most relevant "scandal" that she endured during the timeline that this album examines. "my bare hands paved their paths" is a clear reference to her fans...a path is something you follow. She's saying I made a path for all of you people to follow me and worship my every move and you've loyally done it, as you should. So that when they speak up against her, she flips out and takes it as a personal attack against her -- "if you wanted me dead, you should've just said, nothing makes me feel more alive." "you don't get to tell me about sad / you feel bad" she doesn't really care WHAT the fans think about her relationship lol and she doesn't want to hear it, and she wants them to know she doesnt GAF; and then obviously she doubles down on this in the chorus which is quite threatening and nasty. The whole second bridge is extremely clear on this theme, in my opinion. From the narcissism seeping out of "so you tell me everything is not about me but what if it is?" to "you wouldn't last an hour ..." - it's extremely taunting, she's basically saying f*ck you you could never do what I do and I specifically think she's saying this TO THE FANS as the end of that bridge ends with the kicker -- the extremely taunting threat of "that's why you're still singin' along" LOL like she is making it VERY clear that this is directed to the fans. "I am what I am cause you trained me" she's basically like fuck you dont question me now after I've done all this for you and given you so much of me.

Why is no one talking about the teeth line?? What do we think it means - did people critique her teeth so she got veneers?

Is this a direct response to vampire? It’s all I can think of when she’s sings I levitate down your street

This gives me visuals of Rosalie from Twilight retelling her story of how she rose from the dead as a vampire to haunt her fiancee who tried to kill her.

This songs reminds me of The Witcher

I can’t help but wish the lyrics were:

“At all cost keep your good name, You don’t get to tell me about sane”

It's giving mad women, it's giving what a shame she is fuckef in the head, it's giving masterpiece 🤌🤌

This song is a masterpiece

This song... it just does something to me. I can't describe it. I can't stop hitting repeat. It keeps giving me chills. "Don't you worry folks, we took out all her teeth" aaaa!!

“So all you kids can sneak into my house with all the cobwebs”

I immediately feel like it’s about people posting TikToks going to and inside the Cornelia street house