Taylor Swift Addresses 'Squad' and Sexuality Rumors in '1989 (Taylor's Version)' Liner Notes

Swift released '1989 (Taylor's Version)' on Friday

Taylor Swift is reflecting on prior speculation surrounding her "squad" and rumors about her sexuality.

In the liner notes of 1989 (Taylor's Version), the "Cruel Summer" singer, 33, addressed how she tried to change her "behavior" by focusing on her female friendships after she struggled to date "like a normal young woman."

"I had become the target of slut shaming — the intensity and relentless of which would be criticized and called out if it happened today. The jokes about my amount of boyfriends. The trivialization of my songwriting as if it were a predatory act of a boy crazy psychopath ... I had to make it stop because it was really starting to hurt," she writes in the prologue of the time when she was 24 years old.

For Swift, it became "clear" that "casual dating" or having a "platonic" male friend wasn't possible for her.

Related: Who Are Taylor Swift's 1989 Songs About? What She Has Said About the Inspirations

"If I was seen with him, it was assumed I was sleeping with him. And so I swore off hanging out with guys, dating, flirting or anything that could be weaponized against me by a culture that claimed to believe in liberating women but consistently treated me with the harsh moral codes of the Victorian era," she continues.

The pop megastar says that because she was a "consummate optimist," she thought she could "fix" the way she was perceived.

"I swore off dating and decided to only focus on myself, my music, my growth, and my female friendships. If I only hung out with my female friends, people couldn't sensationalize or sexualize that — right? I would learn later on that people could and people would," she writes.

Swift goes on to thank listeners for understanding her motives at the time.

"I’ll always be so incredibly grateful for how you loved and embraced this album. You, who followed my zig zag creative choices and cheered on my risks and experiments. You, who heard the wink and humor in 'Blank Space' and maybe even empathized with the pain behind the satire. You, who saw the seeds of allyship and advocating for equality in 'Welcome to New York,'" she writes.

"You, who knew that maybe a girl who surrounds herself with female friends in adulthood is making up for a lack of them in childhood (not starting a tyrannical hot girl cult). You, who saw that I reinvent myself for a million reasons, and that one of them is to try my very best to entertain you. You, who have had the grace to allow me the freedom to change."

Related: Everything to Know About Taylor Swift's '1989 (Taylor's Version)'

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The "Cruel Summer" singer announced that 1989 (Taylor’s Version) would be her next re-recording as she wrapped the U.S. leg of her Eras Tour in Los Angeles on Aug. 9.

“There's something that I've been planning for a really, really, really ridiculously, embarrassingly long time, and instead of telling you about it, I think I'll just sort of show you," she said, unveiling the cover art and release date for 1989 (Taylor's Version) on the big screen.

Swift revealed in an Instagram post that the re-recording would feature five vault songs.

“To be perfectly honest, this is my most FAVORITE re-record I’ve ever done because the 5 From The Vault tracks are so insane,” she said of the new tracks. “I can’t believe they were ever left behind. But not for long!” 

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