Throughout her many years spent in the public eye, Taylor Swift has faced unimaginable scrutiny over both her professional and personal lives.
But the 30-year-old pop star is still chugging along, having released her seventh studio album, Lover, last year to generally favorable reviews. On one of the record's highlights, "The Man," Swift ponders how she might be perceived and spoken about if she were a man. To help bring that vision to life, she was made over into Tyler Swift—yes, that's really her in prosthetics—to play a macho, manspreading dude in the new music video for "The Man," which she directed herself.
Swift is a known fan of subtle references in her material, and "The Man" comes full with a basket of Easter eggs. Here are just a few that we caught—knowing her, there are likely many more hidden in there.
Taylor of Wall Street
In the second verse, Swift sings: "I'd be just like Leo in St. Tropez." From commanding an office to being surrounded by scantily clad women on a boat, the music video draws a few visual parallels to The Wolf of Wall Street, in which Leonardo DiCaprio starred as infamous stockbroker Jordan Belfort.
▲13th Street Station
New Yorkers might know that there isn't a 13th Street subway station in the five boroughs, but the fictional stop here pays homage to Swift's lucky number. There are quite a few Easter eggs hidden on the wall, too: There's a sign that prohibits scooters, a major dig at Swift's ex-manager, Scooter Braun. Last year, Braun bought Swift's former label, Big Machine, meaning he owned the master recordings of all her albums predating Lover. The titles of all those records are graffitied on the tile wall, surrounding another notice sign that reads "Missing: If Found Return to Taylor Swift." Clever.
▲Age Gap Double-Standards
The music video flashes forward 58 years (5 + 8 = 13, just saying…) to reveal an elderly Tyler marrying a stunning young woman. It illustrates a gross double-standard in how society accepts age gaps between men and women. It's fine for men to wait to get married until they're older, the video implies, while women often face pressure to marry while they're still young and in their "prime."
▲Handsy Hallway
The luxe hallway of Tyler's penthouse looks eerily similar to the one in Kanye West and Kim Kardashian's Los Angeles mansion. The tension between Swift and Kanye has been brewing for a decade now, ever since the rapper's unforgettable VMAs scandal—which, as Swift revealed in her recent Netflix documentary Miss Americana, had a massive impact on her.
There are also 19 hands reaching out from the hallway's walls, potentially an allusion to the 19th Amendment, which granted women the right to vote. Swift kept her politics private until the 2018 midterm elections, when she spoke out against conservative Tennessee Senator Marsha Blackburn. "As much as I have in the past and would like to continue voting for women in office, I cannot support Marsha Blackburn. Her voting record in Congress appalls and terrifies me," Swift wrote on Instagram. "I will be voting for Phil Bredesen for Senate and Jim Cooper for House of Representatives. Please, please educate yourself on the candidates running in your state and vote based on who most closely represents your values." Voter registration in Tennessee spiked following Swift's statement.
On the Court
At the 2018 U.S. Open, in which Japanese upstart Naomi Osaka won a surprise victory over Serena Williams, umpire Carlos Ramos called three code violations against Williams: coaching, racket abuse, and verbal abuse. Williams called Ramos a thief and asked the referee: "Because I'm a woman, you're going to take this from me?" It spurred a nationwide conversation about how women, particularly black women, are treated in sports. In the video, Tyler plays in a tennis match, during which he smashes his racket on the ground, flips off the umpire, and pelts tennis balls in anger. (Fun fact: Swift's father, Scott, plays the umpire).
▲Be More Likable
As the music stops and Tyler steps off the court, he walks up to Swift in her director's chair and asks how he's doing. "Pretty good," Swift responds. "Could you try to be sexier, maybe more likable this time?" The pop star has spent nearly half her life in public eye now, receiving countless suggestions that she should try to be nicer, more likable, and more attractive. It's criticism that men don't deal with nearly as often; ultimately, this exchange is a perfect message to cap off a video full of important points.
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