The Monster on the Hill: "Anti-Hero" and its Connection to Frankenstein

Taylor Swift’s “Anti-Hero” is known as the leading single from her deeply personal album, Midnights. It is the third track on the album, known for typically being a pop hit yet unexpectedly devastating as it captures her anxieties and sheds light on her relationship with femininity in a way that many women throughout history can relate to and have been expressing in their writing. In exploring these anxieties, Swift sings about feeling like a monster. She is hardly the first woman to compare her femininity to a monster. These lyrics immediately spring Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein, since some of its most popular readings examine the monster as an extension of Shelley herself. In this essay, I argue that Swift perceives her femininity in a strikingly similar way to Shelley, despite writing over 200 years apart. As a radio hit, “Anti-Hero” proves that millions of other women and girls also relate to the idea of monstrous femininity. Their shared perception highlights that it is still a relevant, relatable theme in 2022 when the song was released, and my interest in presenting this topic today illustrates that it remains true.