Taylor Swift tops Maxim's reinvented Hot List appearing in the June-July issue of the lad mag.
The announcement comes one day after she dominated the Billboard Awards taking home eight awards at which she also premiered her highly anticipated and much talked about video "Bad Blood". Taylor joins the likes of previous Hot 100 stars Candice Swanepoel (2014), Miley Cyrus (2013), Bar Refaeli (2012), Rosie Huntington-Whiteley (2011), Katy Perry (2010), Eva Longoria (who topped the list in 2005 and 2006) and a plethora of other celebs for the top honor. Shot by photographer Thomas Whiteside, wearing dark eye makeup Swift smoulders in a black, netted top and rocks a damp, messy hair look.
In her interview with the glossy the songstress talks about life on the road, feminism, and what it feels like to be named by Maxim the most talented woman alive. She told the magazine that it was an incredible compliment to be on the magazine's Top 100 list. "This year has been my favorite year of my life so far. I got to make an album exactly the way I wanted to make it. I got to put it out exactly the way that I dreamed of putting it out. Every one of these kinds of whims and ideas came to fruition. The videos--I'm proud of those, I'm proud of the tour, I'm proud of the way this has all happened. In the midst of all that, this is really nice. It really feels like a wonderful celebration of my favorite year."
Swift addresses her feelings towards feminism and Misogony saying she finds herself identifying more strongly with the movement as she gets older."Honestly, I didn't have an accurate definition of feminism when I was younger. I didn't quite see all the ways that feminism is vital to growing up in the world we live in. I think that when I used to say, "Oh, feminism's not really on my radar," it was because when I was just seen as a kid, I wasn't as threatening. I didn't see myself being held back until I was a woman. Or the double standards in headlines, the double standards in the way stories are told, the double standards in the way things are perceived."
"A man writing about his feelings from a vulnerable place is brave; a woman writing about her feelings from a vulnerable place is oversharing or whining. Misogyny is ingrained in people from the time they are born. So to me, feminism is probably the most important movement that you could embrace, because it's just basically another word for equality." she continues.
For the Hot List Swift was chosen by readers, however editor in chief Kate Lanphear said the pop star was also her number-one choice. "She was my dream cover, and she was chosen based on her accomplishments and upcoming projects. Taylor is hot in every sense of the word." she told WWD. Under Lanphear's creative direction Maxim's traditional Hot 100 list, which formerly featured semi-naked women chosen by the magazine's readers, is now an all-inclusive lifestyle list that includes summer films, travel destinations, restaurants and trendy beverages. "Curating this year's Hot 100 turned into more than an exercise in ranking women by looks," she writes in her editor's letter the fourth since its redesign in February. And if you look at some of the previous covers, there's definitely a switch up in the way women are represented.
Lanphear told WWD the redesign has resonated with readers. "Seventy percent of our current readers prefer the redesign," she said. While Maxim has found a more empowering way of celebrating women Newsstand sales reflect a different story with sales amounting to 75,000 in March and 63,000 in February. However, a decline is to be expected with a rebrand according to Lanphear, while at the same time subscriptions numbers are positive with the Web site traffic, gone up by 25 percent month over month since the rebrand.
"I think it's definitely a new look, but I think our audience is ready for it, based on the experiences we've had so far," Lanphear said of Maxim's revamped hot list. "Men's interests are so much wider"--spanning bars, cars, TV, gear and every other category covered by this year's inventory--"and we really wanted this issue and this list to reflect them."
Check out the rest of the images from Taylor's shoot below and sound of on twitter using the hashtag #lovefmd and for more from the shoot and interview, head over to Maxim's website. The issue hits newsstands on May 27.
