In the music video, Swift literally steps out of a slew of frames, including wooden tableaus, life preservers, and more, to break the chain of the ill-“fated” showgirl like the fictional Ophelia. She goes so far as to say that her love life has “saved” her from drowning in insanity, especially given how much “men were gaslighting” her throughout her career. There is a reason why her own story “didn’t end tragically” like the “poetic hero” Ophelia’s. Despite Shakespeare’s, at times overlooked character, Ophelia dying, Swift herself was not “driven mad” like she could have been. (Swift adds that she “loves” William Shakespeare and The Bard is “not overhyped.”) “The Fate of Ophelia” is a rewriting of a character’s cultural history: Swift is asking what would happen if she became impenetrable to criticism–and then she lives out the answer.
Viewers learn that the music video required three weeks of rehearsals, and nods at Kelce with Swift catching a football in a scene. Her love for baking is also incorporated, as the only quasi-celebrity cameo is a round loaf of sourdough that Swift herself baked.
Further on, the retconning of Swift’s discography culminates in the title track, “The Life of a Showgirl,” featuring Sabrina Carpenter. The “Espresso” singer recorded her feature during her days off of touring in Sweden. “That is a showgirl for you,” Swift says, praising Carpenter before introducing the lyric video that includes footage of Carpenter opening for Swift during The Eras Tour. In the song, Swift and Carpenter play two characters mirroring the cyclical nature of fame: one is Kitty, a fictional showgirl who advises a fan to not join the music business, and the other is an aspiring singer who then later cautions one of her own fans against becoming a performer. “The more you play, the more that you pay…/You don’t know the life of a showgirl, babe/And you’re never gonna wanna,” the lyrics warn. The sentiment is one Swift now uses as “fuel” to prove she has endured the industry for more than 20 years. Throughout the film, Swift continues to say that there is a prevailing perspective that apathy equates power, and that respect is granted to those only who appear to be the most “unbothered.”
