As a longtime, relatively downlow Swiftie, I have a lot to say about Taylor Swift, culture, power & the world… but we’ve made a conscious decision not to explore it on Zee Feed because of how brutally the rest of Australian media has exploiting Swift content for clicks. We’ll all be returning to some level of normalcy by this time next week, so I hope you’ll indulge my musings about Taylor Swift x The Fandom x Climate Crisis just this one time?

I’m going to the Eras Tour in Sydney, which has meant months of fighting the urge to buy something to shiny, sparkly and thematic to wear. If you know me IRL, you’ll know I’m a neutral wardrobe girlie. In 2018, I put myself on a complete shopping ban; I bought no new clothes for just over a year, and ever since then I’ve remained very considered in what I buy and why. But watching Swifties extensively plan and wear elaborate outfits on social media produced crazy FOMO. The vast majority you Eras Tour Outfits online are heavily sequinned, ultra-feminine, or reimaginings of Taylor’s on-stage costumes. I’ve added the same cheap, metallic-mesh miniskirt to cart three separate times, only to abandon said cart every time. Buying it for one wear only is wasteful.

While I’ve remain strong in resisting the cheap, plastic fashion, I have been successfully lured into participating in another cheap, plastic Eras Tour gimmick: the friendship bracelets. It’s been meditative to sit in front of the TV at night and string tiny, colourful beads onto nylon thread, playing an impossible word scramble with letters to figure out what lyrical references and in-jokes could still be made once I ran out of As and Es and Ss (the ‘ceasefire’ bracelets were alphabetically costly). The friendship bracelets are for swapping, right? And while I’ll keep mine as momentos of a very special weekend spent with my little sister, it’s probably a given that some of the junky jewellery I give away will end up in the bin, then a garbage truck, then landfill to slowly shed microplastics everywhere.

Hannah McCann, one of the organisers of Swiftposium (an academic conference on Taylor Swift) tweeted: “There was an archeological paper at Swiftposium about how there will literally be a geological layer of rubbish due to the eras tour, friends it’s bleak.”

How do I square my personal ethics with participating in that?

Firstly, to really tackle this we have to be honest that Taylor Swift the person is not responsible for creating the extent of overconsumption we’re seeing. Themed outfits and friendship bracelets are ideas that fans came up with on our own – there has never been an instruction from Brand Swift to do any of this. Confetti cannons go off at the end of the Eras concerts, but that’s pretty normal for all kinds of big events. It’s hardly an extraordinary source of pollution.

So the conversation is not “How is Taylor Swift contributing to the climate crisis” but “why are we still participating in this?” Young women are more likely than young men to say they care about the environment and to be involved in climate activism. So why with the outfits, the bracelets, the fake gemstones on the face? I can’t give a good answer, except that it feels so futile to deny myself a small pleasure, a bit of fun, when I try so hard to be good in every other aspect of my life. That’s exactly how we end up at the “let people enjoy things!” defence – a silly one, because would we enjoy the moment less without the getup and the bracelets? Of course not.

There is clearly a social dynamic to excess consumption that I haven’t seen discussed very much when it comes to the climate crisis. If you’ve got good links to writing or research on this, please send because I’d love to see it! Because maybe what I’m grasping at here is that it’s the Swiftie fandom as a mass group, not Swift herself, that is worth examining for how and why people will act against their own best interest and values. I include myself in this too.

Because yes, there is no ethical consumption under capitalism… but there is also no requirement for us to take that belief straight to the checkout. So why are we doing that? I’m genuinely asking.

It does matter very much where this examination comes from though, because too much criticism of Taylor Swift and Swifties is motivated by misogyny, pure and simple. The Herald Sun reporting on the carbon emissions of Swift’s private jet is the first time I’ve ever seen that publication give a shit about climate change. As renewable energy analyst Dylan McConnell points out, the AFL (another one of my problematic faves) flights are 20x more – but there will be no report about that by the Herald Sun and others like them. When conservative commentators tie legitimate concerns like climate, cost of living & political advocacy into their complaints about Taylor Swift fans there is a heavy, heavy undertone of misogyny and blame.

Thinking critically about these things doesn’t mean I won’t still have a great time at Eras. It’s much sadder to believe the opposite – that pop culture is meaningless fun that has no impact.

– Crystal
Founder & Chief of Everything at Zee Feed
Follow me on Instagram or TikTok

Good stuff on Zee Feed rn:

“While many TikTok users are making videos about how annoying it is not no longer have good music to use on the app, few mention the predicament of the artists. Should we have access an artist’s work for free?” CLICK HERE TO READ.

Smart stuff on the Internet 💭

All the stuff I found on the web that made me think, smile, or have an ‘aha!’ moment. Spend your Sunday reading them – you'll be better off for it:

We came of age during the Nemesis years — of course we’re turning away from major parties on Crikey
I watched that ABC AusPol documentary and wrote about the rage of it all for Crikey. "Nemesis is over, and what did we learn? For millennials like me, the series covered my entire voting life and has confirmed what many in my generation have long felt: Tony Abbott, Malcolm Turnbull and Scott Morrison were motivated not by civic duty but by the sole pursuit of personal power."

Hanging On by a Thread: Why an independent designer today can dress celebrities, win awards, and still be one paycheck away from shuttering. on The Cut
“When you see celebrities wearing clothes from brands, the celebrities don’t pay for it. The brands do. Fendi can afford to send $10,000 worth of merchandise to a client like Gigi Hadid for free because the ROI on that is insane… I once got really close to having Dua Lipa try on one of my outfits, but I just saw that opportunity evaporate.”

Is feminism really in collapse? on Dazed
“People always see it as meaning women… So feminism equals more women on screen, equals more women on this and on that. And that is what progress looks like. But this is wrong. So what do we do about it? Should we get rid of this term? But that would be a victory for the right because that’s exactly what they want to do. They want to remove all meaning from these words that started social movements.”

My Year of Finance Boys on The Paris Review
“Jake apologized, defended himself, apologized, defended himself, but the more he talked, the more he seemed to see the conversation’s futility. Eventually he put his face in his hands, bent forward, and began to sob… I suspected that he was simply pretending, that if I pried his hands from his face I’d see no tears. But this did nothing to diminish my pity. Fictional tears are no less desperate than real ones; pretending has a sadness all its own.”

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