Here's Why Tay Decided To Expose Her Navel

Self-described hater of belly buttons Taylor Swift has explained why she finally bared her navel for all the world to witness on a recent beach vacation with the ladies of Haim. In recent months, media began to speculate that Ms. Swift was altogether without a belly button, or that she sought to maintain her allure (that of near-deity). “One Cut theory is that it allows Swift to capitulate to the crop-top trend without exposing her belly button, thereby maintaining android-level physical perfection,” wrote The Cut’s Kat Stoeffel last summer. “Another is that it’s the most ladylike way to cool off. She’s an android and a role model.”

But when she posted a photo of herself with her friends aboard a yacht clad in a bikini, she very nearly broke the Internet. Taylor Swift is indeed a person, we all sighed. But why this sudden change of heart following public commentary about her despised midriff? It seems we now have our answer. In an interview with BBC Radio 1, Swift told co-hosts Ed Sheeran and Grimmy that she spotted paparazzi snapping photos of her and her friends in their bathing suits and immediately decided that she didn’t want those conspiring belly-button whistleblowers profiting from her photo. “I don't want them to make, like, $100,000,” she said. “And so we're like, 'Get up on the bow of the boat: We're taking better bikini shots so that they don't make as much money on theirs.’"

You do you, Tay.

Image: Taylor Swift/Instagram