Speaking of queering pop culture…
Lyrics here.
You can watch the original a capella version of this video by the University of Rochester Yellowjackets here.
h/t to Professor Foxy
You Belong With Me. Now with more gay!
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21 Comments
Oh my god. I love this SO MUCH. There just are no words.
Jos, I
Cute!
I love when people fall in love. It makes some inner part of my soul happy.
This was clever and I thought quite moving (well, I’m a sap for romance anyway.) *shrug*
I also thought this was pretty effective in conveying how infinitely scary it would be to be a gay teenager. God, rejection is hard enough when it doesn’t include the risk of mass ridicule and the distinct possibility of violence. Terrifying. Gives me even more respect for how hard it would be to come out.
Romantic stuff is somehow so much cuter when gay people are involved.
But it sucks because the gay version is supposed to be a parody, a joke. Glad we’re translating it into something serious and good =)
That is cool. I was hoping the guy would be both the first-person narrator and the girlfriend, like in the original video. But it was still cool.
What makes you think this is humor? (Just seriously asking.) Looks serious ( if ‘slashy’) to me. I mean, there is no slapstick or anything, and it is no more ‘corney’ than any other romance meme.
I found it moving as well.
It makes me feel like the song was coded gay all along, since why else would a gal like T. Swift (implausible as a homely nerd) be SO nervous to tell her crush her feelings?
I think he is, look at the teeth and nose.
D’awww! That just made my afternoon.
Yeah, on the one hand, it’s not that awful stale as the het equivalent on the other, it’s also not as prestressed (is that the right term?) as male/female-relationships (gender hierarchies, stereotypes and such).
By now almost every het relationship in movies, series, books etc. cause an gag effect on me.^^° (and het relationships – be it in primary emotional or sexual ways – are inevitable if there’s a male and a female somewhere involved in the story *growl* It beggars DESCRIPTION how that makes me LIVID!!! *RAGE*)
Er sorry.
The vid is really cute.
According to the Youtube-description he is rather not:
“Made by the University of Rochester Yellowjackets. Stars Matt Francis (jock) and Michael Pittman.”
If you watch the original version, you can hear the audience reaction which makes it clear that many of them are taking it as a joke.
That being said, I think this is the sweetest thing I’ve seen in a long time and I’m glad that we (and hopefully the filmmakers) are taking it as positive and good.
I was hoping for them to kiss, it’s neat though.
A lesbian version? Some of us are living it.
I think if you watch the video in its original context (a college a capella show), the queering of the song is less empowering or refreshing and more just a joke. At least that was the impression I got from it anyway. When I watch the video alone I don’t get that, but seeing it in its original setting, I get the same feeling as Mollie. The laughter from the audience just seems too “Hahaha, a guy’s in love with another guy. How absurd.”
Speaking from my experience at my own university’s all-male a capella concerts, I have seen a lot of subtle homophobia in the shows. I think it’s a way to overcompensate for the fact that you have a group of all men working together to perform something theatrical.
Cute! Anybody know who made it? I wonder if they more fun stuff like it.
I didn’t like the original song because it pits a woman against another woman in the typical “You have her, but I’m sooo much better” cattiness.
This is adorable, though! I love when he takes off his glasses.
I disagree. The crowd was cheering at all the parts (not just the romantic ones), and I think they were genuinely delighted at the queering of the song and seeing their friends in the video. Even the youtube comments are overwhelmingly positive. Every acapella group I’ve known have been more than 50% queer, and the concert audience is often made up of family and friends. Supposedly the guy who played the Swift character is gay and the guy who played the jock is not, but I don’t know them personally so I don’t really know.
“I didn’t like the original song because it pits a woman against another woman in the typical ‘You have her, but I’m sooo much better’ cattiness.”
You took the words right out of my mouth.
Oh that is gorgeous.