Dear Taylor Swift,
You’ve done something bad.
Last year I took the plunge and publicly outed myself as knowing the lyrics to every single one of your songs, adamant that you deserved a Pulitzer for All Too Well.
I’ve been to every one of your shows. At my first I threw a plush-toy koala at your feet while you performed in a blue dress and cowboy boots. At another your publicist gave me a pit pass in congratulations of my shoddily made sign (“I love Andrea” – your mum is a sweetheart).
In 2018 you decided it was your time to speak now, putting your weight behind the two Democrat candidates from your home state of Tennessee for the midterms: Phil Bredesen and Jim Cooper. You didn’t care about how this would affect your reputation with your largely red base.
Now, in 2019, you’re fearless in publicly championing the Equality Act, a legislative protection for LGBTQ which is looking to go before the Senate floor.
But if you’re wanting to position yourself as an overtly political artist – one who wears a firm set of beliefs and, more than this, marches them into action – then you must reconsider your decision to perform at the 2019 Melbourne Cup.
This is not something I can remain calm about. Six horses have died as a direct result of injuries sustained from the Melbourne Cup since 2013. Six horses in six years. Last year The Cliffsofmoher, was euthanised on the race track after fracturing his right shoulder.
These animals are forced to race against one another at devastating speeds while being whipped by their saddlemates and jeered from crowds of onlookers who fashion stupid flowers on their heads and smell like overpriced lukewarm sparkling wine.
This event feeds directly off the exploitation, injury and death of what it supposedly prizes: horses. Animal welfare organisations – Peta, RSPCA Australia and Animals Australia – have spoken openly about their disgust and disdain for how we, as a state, ritualise and celebrate this cruelty.
Who profits? Australia’s robust and dominant gambling industry, which has skilfully managed to infest a toxic gambling appetite into our national culture. In 2016-17 we as a nation bet $209bn. We are regarded as the world’s worst gamblers.
We are the only country in the world to immortalise gambling through our national image in the name of a public holiday.
Who loses? Australians lose more than $1,200 a year per capita from betting, more than double that of the second worst offenders, Singapore ($600).
But if there’s one thing that Australia is routinely good at, it’s celebrating the wrong things at the wrong times. It’s an absolute shame that we choose to revere animal abuse and a toxic gambling culture through public celebration. It’s also an absolute disappointment that you’ve chosen to put your brand and values behind our cultural shame.
But I don’t think you want to be associated with cruelty, exploitation or even stupid floral Cinderella’s stepsister headpieces.
I don’t want any more blood to spill. I don’t want any bad blood.
To revamp a lyric from your 2008 Grammy award-winning album Fearless:
I’m still a dreamer, please don’t let me down, it’s not too late for you and your white horse, to turn around.
Please, Taylor Swift, do not perform at the 2019 Melbourne Cup.
• Dejan Jotanovic is a freelance writer based in Melbourne.
