This lyric stands as one of Swift’s most misunderstood yet powerful lines. This song explores the burden of being the “eldest daughter” and how it showcases pride and exhaustion. “Terminal uniqueness” is actually a term used in Alcoholics Anonymous, and is the belief that one’s problems or experiences are so unique that no one can understand them. 

When Taylor sings this line, despite remarks on the internet, she is not being quirky, she is showing how even in a busy room, she always feels isolated. The phrase “terminal uniqueness” captures the paradox of individuality: being seen as unique can sometimes not be empowering, and be isolating. Swift pairing “terminal,” a word associated with finality and illness, with “uniqueness,” gives emotional weight to the silent suffering beneath the surface of her image. 

This lyric is the moment her facade cracks, leading into the next line: “I’ve been dying just from trying to seem cool,” which reveals how her need to appear unbothered and live up to her title as the “eldest daughter” has drained her. In an interview with Apple Music, Swift confirms this interpretation of this song. “Every way in which I was speaking in this entire first verse was me trying to assimilate to the way culture tells us to be,” Swift said.

One of Swift’s most controversial songs in her new album is “CANCELLED!”, a song about how cancel culture and criticism can go out of control. However, many people across the media are claiming this song is just an attempt of Swift acting “rebellious” and “defiant.” Swift’s lyrics in this song can come across as outdated and “cringe, ” but this song is actually sarcastic commentary on how society labels women as “scandalous” and “unhinged” simply for existing in the spotlight. This song mocks cancel culture, contrary to the belief that it promotes it. 

The song’s “trendy” language is to prove a point: The real problem is not Swift or her friends’ behavior, but how quickly people twist harmless moments into controversy. This song is not to glorify chaos, it uses irony to show her friends don’t actually “got bodies in the attic” or “took somebody’s man.”

“Did you girlboss to close to the sun?” is another criticized lyric from the song “CANCELLED!”. This lyric has also been understood by the public as Swift trying to be more trendy and connected with the younger generation, especially when using the word “girlboss.” Many listeners are finding this specific lyric “cringe”, but just like most of her lyrics, this sentence has a deeper meaning. 

Swift is not trying to be edgy and trendy, she is mocking cancel culture once again, and the vocabulary of the younger generation who “cancels” her. Swift mocks the performative feminism and social-media language that reduces women’s ambition into trendy buzzwords. Swift uses “The Myth of Daedalus and Icarus” to harness her ideas. Icarus, after escaping a labyrinth with wings made of feathers and wax, flew too close to the sun and his wings melted from arrogance and overconfidence. Swift repurposes that imagery to critique how women who rise too high in the media, who work hard and are successful, are eventually punished for it. She is not using girlboss unironically, she is showing how absurd it is that ambition has become something to dislike in the first place, whilst mocking the vocabulary of the people who cancel successful women.