why would he do that?
he stands to make “several million dollars” due to Trump’s continued use of the song.
oh, right.
Ha. That implies that Trump would ever pay him anything.
Surely, Trump won’t stiff me with the bill.
He didn’t even pay his lawyers, and he actually needs those.
I cried all the way to the bank
Liberace after winning a libel suit against a news paper calling him a homosexual
He’s saying anything for a dollar. I can almost respect his dedication.
Selling out. It’s the American way.
TIL that Victor Willis of The Village People is a fascist.
“You have to understand, I’m set up to make millions from this song”
Only if Trump pays for using it.
Very slim odds there.
That may be the first time anyone has described anything relating to trump as “slim”.
“Fat chance” would be more appropriate here eh?
Zero isn’t very slim, it’s just nothing
You’ll come to find many people you would have never suspected are OK with fascism, when it makes them rich.
Thanks that was a good read.
Damn, that was a compelling read. When I clicked on the link and saw it was from 1941, I felt a grim resolve to read it in full, because when people post decades old pieces on fascism, it always hits hard (like that Sartre bit about antisemitism that gets shared quite often).
Reading through this piece was a curious feeling, because I was wondering which of the people at this party I might be. Certainly not Mr A, because I am descended from no-one great. I certainly didn’t go to the same school as any Mr A, so I’m also not Mr B. With a certain sense of dread, I considered that maybe I’m Mr C, given that I also started out very poor and worked my way up to where I am (I’m the first in my family to go to university, for example). I concluded that whereas Mr C’s battle against class has left him cold and hard, I have found myself becoming warmer as the years go on.
I was thinking like this throughout most of the piece, perversely waiting for someone I will never meet to tell me whether or not I’m the kind of person who becomes a Nazi. In the end, none of the archetypes described seem to fit me. It turns out that although fascism today functions remarkably similarly to how it did then, the world itself is different enough that the archetypes today don’t map onto the past.
Yes it’s very mature and reasonable to call everyone a fascist. You’re doing the right thing here.
A man who supported the Nazi party because he just wanted better highways is still considered a fascist
I don’t see anyone who’s calling everyone a fascist.
But you know what you call someone who carries water for fascists? A fascist.
What do you like about Trump?
Probably the fascism.
Calling a fascist a fascist is entirely reasonable, even tautological. It’d be dishonest not to. And I don’t know anyone over 16 who talks about maturity as a virtue. Anyway, maturity is a measure of the years you’ve lived, not what you’ve learned from them. I’m old and it hasn’t escaped my notice that most people in my age group are idiots, just like most people in every age group.
He did dress as a cop. The clues were there.
TIL he’s still alive.
My step-son was 11 and constantly singing YMCA.
“Look, I don’t want to freak you out, but in case you get made fun of at school, YMCA is a gay anthem. No problem with that, but you should know.”
He was horrified, so he started singing “I Will Survive” instead. I just didn’t have the heart to tell him.
Where is he learning his songs from?
The fluoride in the tap water
Gay frogs probably
Hello my baby, hello my honey, hello my ragtime gal…
His stepmother Amy has a cousin named Randolph.
Trump rallies?
The oracle has spoken
My brother and I both became obsessed with I Will Survive around the age of 10/11. He’s a full decade older than me, and our parents still don’t understand why that happened with either of us. He’s straight, I’m gay. Gloria Gaynor is just amazing in general, and while we gays have claimed her (and her us), her music could, should, and hopefully will be appreciated by all.
I Am What I Am is just straight up queer, though. No reclaiming that one for straight folk. Gayest song ever, and it’s wonderful. Lol.
Microsoft Cinemania had a clip from The Adventures of Priscilla, Queen of the Desert where they sing that song. A shortened version of this clip (because space was a premium on that CD-ROM).
I used to watch all the clips on that software, and that was my introduction to the song. Didn’t know anything about the movie, just that scene. But I loved the song.
I didn’t realize until literally today, trying to find that clip, that the movie is about drag queens. 🤣
(Mostly) straight guy here. You’re right about Gloria, she’s a hell of a fine singer. Some people are just oblivious about the meaning of songs. I had a college roommate who was ignorantly, aggressively straight. His favorite song? All the Young Dudes. And as far as I could discern, he wasn’t a closet case. Just dimwitted.
Maybe he’s singing the Cake version.
Wait - I sing “I Will Survive” for karaoke, what’s the deal with that? Does everyone now think I’m gay? Because they would be wrong, I’m actually bi.
He just needs to embrace them. I’m a straight dude, I love gay anthems. I made $20 one time by singing I Will Survive for karaoke at a crowded bowling alley, in front of my wife’s entire company. Whatever, can’t embarrass me. I love that song. Didn’t even need the karaoke screen.
Joke’s on them, I would have sang it for free. Any or all that I know. Diana Ross, Cyndi Lauper (I just saw her a couple months ago), The Weather Girls (I have an It’s Raining Men 12" single) and I will belt them all out with my own terrible choreography.
Well done singing that in public. I would have been afraid at first, then petrified
fast forward 10 years, he sits down to “tell you something important” and then is shocked when you already knew 😆
Good that you’re open-minded, he’ll probably need some support later in his life when he comes out.
The more I read the funnier it gets
As for the idea that “Y.M.C.A. is “somehow a gay anthem,” Willis said that “is a false assumption based on the fact that my writing partner was gay, and some (not all) of Village People were gay, and that the first Village People album was totally about gay
“This assumption is also based on the fact that the YMCA was apparently being used as some sort of gay hangout and since one of the writers was gay and some of the Village People are gay, the song must be a message to gay people. To that I say once again, get your minds out of the gutter. It is not.
…
I therefore wrote ‘Y.M.C.A.’ about the things I knew about the Y in the urban areas of San Francisco such as swimming, basketball, track, and cheap food and cheap rooms. And when I say, “hang out with all the boys” that is simply 1970s black slang for black guys hanging-out together for sports, gambling or whatever. There’s nothing gay about that.
“As a straight member of a gay band, I totally didn’t get the point of the gay song I wrote for my gay band”
I’m not gay I just like hanging out with the boys
“As a now-identifying-as-straight member…”
I hate him saying “get your mind out of the gutter” as if even thinking about people who are gay is itself a perverted sexual act.
Gay people exist. Acknowledging this and discussing whether a piece of media is directed at them is not “mind in gutter” stuff.
I don’t want to go so far as to say this person is homophobic, but it sure does sound like some internalized homophobia, perhaps.
He knows the audience he’s playing to
Bingo!
“the gutter” here is the idea that the YMCA — a youth organization helping out young men in need — has sexual intentions in its existence.
That would be sketchy as fuck.
You’ve got some impressively long arms for all that reaching.
I can reluctantly believe that is true (despite the laughable first paragraph where he gives example after example about why such “assumptions” are reasonable) - but he’s old enough to know that once an artist puts art out into the world, their interpretation of it is no longer the only one.
The song IS a gay anthem even if it wasn’t written that way.
edit - they the
There could be some plausible deniability but contextually it doesn’t pass the sniff test
Offering young men ways to have a good time when they’re short on their dough sure as hell doesn’t sound straight.
And we’re SURE this isn’t The Onion? How sure?
I mean, the title and situation is a lot more straightforward than the nuance behind his reasoning and the history of the band.
Not the Onion? Amazing.
Its not “a” gay anthem.
Its the gay anthem. FTFY.
“I Will Survive”?
Not anymore, we’re doing HOT TO GO now!
Instructions unclear. House soundtrack still Pink Pony Club.
Excuse me, my D&D group is exclusively frolicking in the fields to Good Luck, Babe
So there’s an underlying spelling fetish? Interesting.
Dancing Queen by Abba: “Fuck my drag, right?”
Samwell - What What
Okay, that’s just the gay anthem according to south park. :D
There’s also Freedom, which I really like
Jonny McGovern - Soccer Practice
WOW! Not much in the news has shocked and surprised me as much as this article has.
Victor Willis says he will take legal action against any news organization that suggest “Y.M.C.A.” is a gay anthem beginning in January 2025
I’m really curious to know what legal action he intends to take. Doesn’t he have to show some sort of damages for any hope of not throwing his money away on frivolous lawsuits that will go nowhere?
He does, but it can also be things like reputation damage or “the fascists stopped paying for my song because they thought it was gay”.
Who the hell does he think he was making money from before? If not for the LGBTQ+ community, that song would just be some old 70s song. Welp, pulling it from my playlist.
Brilliant. Marvellous, even.
I mean, Liberace sued for libel and won after a news outlet accused of him of being gay:
Lol like Trump is actually going to pay you for using the song, it really is rubes all the way down
He says that, but he seems to really aggressively be sucking Trumps cock here.
While it’s definitely a fairly gay video, it’s actually less gay than I remembered it being. In any case, it’s too late. Boykissers have long since claimed the song.
The thing is, you’re looking at it from 2024 eyes. 46 years ago, it was very definitely a gay video, especially when you throw in things that have been forgotten like the 1970’s gay mustache. It wasn’t really until Magnum PI that straight men reclaimed the mustache.
I should have mentioned, I tried to avoid conflating the costumes of the non-homophobic members with the message of the song, and it still seemed fairly gay. Particularly when they stood in front of a building with “ramrod” emblazoned across its front and sides.
As a boykisser, I can assure you that we’re rejecting it at high speed.
The segment from Can’t Stop The Music should also be submitted for evidence.
Yeah, that’s gay as fuck, especially for the late 70’s / early 80’s.
I’m kind of surprised that the YMCA dance wasn’t in the YMCA music video. I had always assumed that would have been where it started. I guess the dance came after.
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Oh, honey. No.
He should have called the song “Y.M.C.A. (no homo)”
🎶 IN THE NAVY 🎶 (no-homo)
It’s not a gay anthem, it’s only coincidence that it’s played in nearly every gay pub I have been to, on every gay radio station, every gay pride event (with performers), and when my first boyfriend sucked my dick. People just like picking straws, man.
I really thought all the Village People members were gay. Today I Learned:
“From 1978 until 1982, Willis was married to Phylicia Ayers-Allen (now Phylicia Rashad), whom he met during the run of The Wiz, and who later played Clair Huxtable on The Cosby Show”
Beard?
Idk seems kinda gay to me 🤷
Way to destroy your legacy!
Sadly, a legacy doesn’t pay the bills.
