SBG 111: t.A.T.u.

Lez Hang Out | A Lesbian Podcast

PSA: LHO will be taking a bit of a different direction with our SBGs this season in support of the WGA and SAG-AFTRA strikes. While this means you will be hearing a bit less about movies and TV shows for a while, don’t fret, because we can make anything gay.

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Gays of a certain age, prepare yourselves for a wave of very chaotic nostalgia.

This week, Leigh (@lshfoster) and Ellie (@elliebrigida) hang out to chat about the early 2000s Russian music duo, t.A.T.u. This band rose to fame by making their entire identity revolve around their supposed lesbianism. The ‘All The Things She Said’ music video still lives rent free in the minds of so many queer people, including one Leigh Holmes Foster. It was groundbreaking at the time, debuting in 2002 and featuring the singers wearing schoolgirl outfits while making out with one another in the rain. With very little other queer content available (this was pre-Youtube days!), the music video was not initially considered exploitative but instead was a drop of fresh water in the desert of dehydrated baby gays.

For those who are less familiar with the iconic but problematic Europop stars, t.A.T.u. consisted of two teenage girls, Lena Katina and Julia Volkova. It was created by the creepiest creeper to ever creep, Ivan Shapovalov. He had already decided on the lesbian angle for the band before even auditioning girls for it. The band name itself is an acronym meaning ‘this girl loves that girl’. When Ivan books Lena and Julia, they are just 14 years old. With them being so young, it is easy to see how their producer managed to exploit them into participating in his gay for pay scheme. Something like this would never work nowadays, because we have so many actually out and proud lesbian singers and bands. But back then, it was pretty much just Melissa Etheridge. So when ‘All The Things She Said’ came onto the scene, the sapphics were overjoyed to belt out the angsty teen lesbian lyrics while staring in awe at two girls kissing on TV.

Everything was great and gay for about a year until in 2003 a documentary was released called The Anatomy of t.A.T.u. In this documentary, the girls admit to not actually being gay! This revelation sent queer people spiraling. t.A.T.u. was pretty much the only representation teen lesbians had at the time, and they were not even real! We’ve seen some intense queerbaiting before but nothing even comes close to this.

We know one thing for sure, literally anyone involved with t.A.T.u. Should’ve Been Gay.

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If you did not get in on our Croatian gaycation, we apologize in advance for the fomo you are about to experience. But don’t be sad, because we have another opportunity to travel with Ellie and Leigh (and Mermaid Kristin Sparkle) coming in May 2024! If you want to be among the first to know more about our next Trova Trip vagaycation, fill out the short survey at bit.ly/leztrip. This also helps us to plan even more exciting future trips!

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