"I'm told cis people have genders too and they're allowed to make art about it" hahahha

Even if her wokeness isn't performative-- even if she genuinely believes in everything she advocates for, it doesn't mean that her "woke" content isn't in poor taste, doesn't mean it can't miss the mark, doesn't mean it can't be pandering.

Somehow I didn't notice after several script revisions that "Um Oh Ah Yeh" is not actually Mamamoo's debut and was in fact the title track from their third EP. It was their biggest hit for a long time so I forgot about "Mr. Ambiguous" and "Piano Man." My apologies! Himbo here!

I think the thing that sits wrong with me about that "I can do everything alone" message at the end is that it sounds closer to toxic masculinity than it does feminism. I would love to see a woman make a video like this where she wasn't trying to literally become a man, but rather redefining what feminine power can be.

A strange personal anecdote: my conservative cis-woman family members loved the man music video. It was kind of refreshing but left me feeling empty in a way that I think you really helped put a point on in this video.

Have you ever heard of Shouta Aoi? He's a japanese singer with a naturally "female" voice as well as feminine looks. He grew up bullied for this but now considers his angelic voice to be his greatest weapon, and he is someone who also proudly crossdresses as well as wears women's clothes regularly. Overall he describes himself as androgynous but identifies with his birth sex, although he will also occasionally casually refer to himself as a girl. If you want to listen to his music, I recommend the song, "I am" which he wrote himself and is about struggling with self acceptance in a non accepting world And for his acting work, (he has played male, female, and crossdressing characters), I recommend the stage play, "Prince Kaguya," which is not translated, but you can read the wikipedia plot summary. It is about a amab character who is raised as a girl and falls in love with a man (who loves them back); it is a beautiful story with heart wrenching scenes that hit really different when your trans (if you see this and are interested, I could explain much more of the plot/offer links)

"playing on Easy Mode like a casual"--love it!

I delayed transitioning for the same reason you did- I thought it was more honorable to keep struggling as a woman than to flip the damn table and do what I wanted.

I love your hair. You look like a hot 90s boy now

All of Taylor’s “wokeness” is so performative and she tells on herself with her thinly veiled classism

"Taylor Swift is... probably straight" - I appreciated this. Everyone knows she was dating Karlie Kloss in secret, the truth is out there.

Related to how you and Korviday talk about the difference between impersonation vs drag: The way I saw the "The Man" video, Taylor isn't doing drag in much the same way a woman cosplaying a male character wouldn't inherently be drag. It feels much more like a character, than a persona, which I would classify drag personalities as. Sure, they gave "The Man" a name, but he was clearly meant to be just a vague man-shaped character on which to place the stereotypical qualities and base the video around. On the other hand a drag king will have a solid identity, defining characteristics, and an actual personality, even if he is based around some amount of stereotypical ideas of masculinity.

Thank you for recognizing that cis people have genders too. The biggest issue I have about this song and the video is that it actually reinforces patriarchy! Feminism is about convincing men to stop playing the game of power and control over every aspect of society, and here she is - PR "feminism" at its worst - encouraging women to be equally oppressive and obnoxious.

i mean... i agree, it feels more like a very expensive, stale gimmick. its inconsistent, and the biggest thing one takes of it all is that she cant get out of her own head -its not bout women, or about men -its about A Woman, and A Man. i didnt know about most of the other music videos youve shown -all of them, even without the music, already feel more of an actual commentary or at least more self aware than The Man. the ones ive seen are Christine and the Queens' and of course Tout Le Memes -a great song and a great video. i think that one is a much better analysis of what the relationship really is, was and probably still is between men and women, between cis straight partners. its not a song about one person, but, as the title says, all of them. but its taylor whos got the money and the fanbase, even if she doesnt seem to have much critical skills or education regarding topics of gender beyond "sexism is bad!"

STAN RINA

great video! i really appreciated the comparison/analysis with mamamoo's "um ou ah yeah" - that really helped bring into focus why my gut feeling after watching "the man" was that it wasn't drag. moonbyul's character was butch and i loved it

a pop music videos analysis by boyform and korviday? that sounds like a video specifically made for my taste!!

I think the way the male character is revered in some contexts (work) and eye-rolled in others (the subway) actually isn’t inconsistent. It gets into the different power dynamics between her employees who need to suck up, and some general public who’s disapproval she can safely ignore. I’m not sure if it’s a specifically gendered thing that a rich person can ignore the scorn of the general public if they choose too. I’m sure there are some differences there.

Snapping the entire time, that was immaculately phrased and constructed. Please do more of these!

I'm going to be thinking about this a lot now. The video does feel off, with a lot of conflicting narratives in it. Maybe if Taylor was seen in the narrative failing whilst doing the same things the man was doing, showing her frustration. Then something like the tennis match where she wins but the man freaks out and throws a tantrum. Idk it all does feel very 2017 social commentary.

I always appreciate how easy you make it to find the sources you use. I discovered Laura Crone's channel via your best of 2019 video (and playlist), and I look forward to finding even more cool content creators via this video's music playlist! As always, your analysis feels both piercing and earnest. Thanks for making the things you make.

Yes! You're back!

i feel blessed to be this early love your videos man

I keep coming back to this several years after the upload. I think its a really good analysis.

Def love all three of you and subbed to all. Amazing to see everyone collab on one piece!! Dylan, I'm really impressed and inspired by your insight, creativity, and technical skill💜Always love seeing you pop up in the recommended vids!!

aaaa !!!!!! this is so good oh my god

Another great video mr.form!

the sbahj reference forced me into astral projection like in doctor strange

1:53 waS THaT a hOMeStucK

Very articulate, thoughtful take, thank you !

During your description of how you would redo the video, all I could think was: "Damn, I'd watch that for sure." Hair looks good, since you asked.

This is a great video, thank you!

really good video! i also had extremely weird feelings when i saw this video, and you really hammered out the reasons in a way i never did. also, really cool to see luxander involved in this :D

Delightfully incisive. I never knew about this song until you dove into it

Well that was a whole playlist I didn't ask for but definitely needed! Taylor Swift has never been my bag, and Gwen betrayed me deeply (and lyrically) when she left NoDoubt, but the rest of this was a musical adventure coupled with a really interesting discussion! Thanks for the fresh thoughts and musical suggestions. :D

I love your eboy hair, it appears we got the same quarantine cut.

it hadn't even ocurred to me that what taylor did in that video could be considered drag. this was a great video btw! you're so well-spoken and it's a delight to watch your analysis. ps. i thought my youtube subscription page was glitching when it started showing the preview for this and mamamoo's um oh ah yeh appeared

really great discussion!

Ill be back shortly (after listening to some music) glad to see you again :)

I absolutely appreciate your discourse. I have also had these same emotions and the video fell flat for me as well.

this is fantastic. Hard same on wishing I passed as well as Taylor in that costume lmao, that getup is wild.

The joy I felt when I saw a new Boyform video on my feed jdjsjdnbd

"cis people have genders too" I don't know, seems sus. Have they like, even seen a therapist about it? I'm just worried about them making a mistake they're going to regret later when they realise being cis is a phase.

Both of my kings collaborating? I feel unworthy 😔🙏

ya hair looks dope. good vid

Hey, I really liked how you put and commented on Mamamoo's "um ou ah yeah" in this video! You also added a lot of clips from "Tous les même" from Stromae. Personally, I'd love a comment from you about this video, especially because it seems to be very popular outside of France and Belgium.

This music video makes me feel...a lot of things. Like, I thought The Man as a song was boring until that bridge hit and it's like two really good lyrics that really stand out. I liked the parody of the alpha male she did, the persona that most media is telling us to admire and relate to. But I do agree her messaging is confusing, portraying the man as both someone resented and someone loved. Honestly, I'm just glad that she has a message. As milk toast as it is, it sure still got a lot of people mad about it.

I’m happy with how nuanced your take on this video is. I’ve been a Taylor Swift fan since I was a kid but something about this song doesn’t quite work for me. Honestly, I feel like the album tracks on Lover were much better than the singles/hits. I see her as an auteur who uses her detailed and personal lyrics to paint a picture of who Taylor is at the time. Sometimes it doesn’t work (Look What You Made Me Do) but other times it’s insightful (Style).

My two new favourite youtubers in one video? Yes!!!

Wow, that costume was so well done!

I like your hair! That's actually one of my favorite hair cuts on men and it looks good. You're very handsome! Great analysis. I think you summed up my feelings perfectly with Taylor's recent political videos about it coming across " like she's making her way through the backlog of politics she opted out of". This especially applies to 'You need to calm down' for me, felt very much 2010ish for me. Same with 'The Man' but to a lesser extent. I loved the dialogue about what makes drag versus just a straightforward impersonation!

the fact that I knew most of the videos and had an emotional connection to them in some way or another, not really connected to if I like the song or not says something about my gender tho I'm not exactly sure what

one thing that disappointed me about the music video was when i was listening to the song i expected her male counterpart to also be a popstar, but in the music video he's not? so it doesn't make any statements about how men are treated specifically in her line of work. in her documentary she makes a lot of interesting observations on how male popstars are treated vs female popstars so idk why she didn't take advantage of that

Good stuff!

That song playlist has some bangers

1:53 are you kidding me, a homestuck reference ? a sb&hj reference ? yes please

I'm a simple man, I see Korviday and I hit the thumbs up.

the music video was really uncomfortable to watch, for me. i went into it expecting taylor swift dressing in drag and talking about gender inequality, and instead got taylor swift dressing in drag and acting like a douchebag. aside from the total non-sequitur of the mv from the lyrics, it made me feel like, to taylor, the swagger and aggression and cruelty in the vid is all masculinity and maleness is - and the fear of turning into that, or being seen like that is what *i* used to talk myself out of transition. i dont think portraying All That as the only way men act helps anyone. also taylor swift isnt even trans and she passes So Fucking Well :'(

Seeing stromae and Mamamoo.... Your taste is exquisite !!!!

sorry im only a few mins in but im just so thankful the algorithm gave me a transguy, FINALLY some content i can actually relate to

really incredible video, great writing and great editing! i feel like there's a lot of complicated feelings but if i could boil down my personal thoughts it'd be that i agree that despite the effort, it's shallow coming from someone who has these resources who didn't need to be a man to become successful and these videos like you need to calm down, at the end of the day- just come across as performative and inauthentic and missing the real root of these issues

I heard a Luxander!

The hair is great

yeah like i think a cis straight woman often does a cis straight male impersonation, where that’s not the feel of a lot of king performances I’ve seen (done by any flavor of LGBT). I’m usually performing as an angsty genderfuck. I don’t even bind or tape usually, I mostly just use pasties. So I’m never trying to “pass” as cis. I’m just a fun masculine-ish entity. That being said that’s just me.. some kings are trans men or even cis men and have a different type of performance than I. But, yeah I think even when it comes to genderbending, if that’s an ok term still, cis people (especially cis straight people) will have a different meaning to that than people who are told that something about how they are their gender is wrong (LGBT people, bc in some way we’re all breaking the rules of what it means to be a Man or Woman, and obv if we’re not binary to begin with)

comme de garcon slaps super hard tho

Your hair looks nice

Never thought I would see Mamamoo here.... this video has left me a lot to think about

Like the hair love the video

Great fucking video! I really like Korviday and I will be checking Lux's content :o)

Didnt mamamoo debut with mr ambiguous? or am i losing my mind?? They had like a bunch of songs before the one mentioned in the video??

I was surprised to see Mamamoo mentioned here

I definitely agree that the music video comes off as somewhat confused; the mixed reactions from the background characters especially. In your video, I was kind of confused by the mixing of the “drag or not drag” discussion into the crit of the video’s message. It was interesting for sure, but was it supposed to pertain to the effectiveness or goodness of “The Man”? Like, I don’t think she was claiming it was drag, and is drag inherently good gender content? The line between drag and impersonation is really fuzzy imo. In YNTCD, Jade Jolie is absolutely there doing a Taylor Swift Impression, and she’s also doing drag. I was also kind of surprised that Taylor being cis was brought up more than being probably straight-my impression of drag king stuff is that it tends to be more lesbians than trans men (though to be fair I have definitely seen a fair few nb drag kings.) Personally as a trans man I was intrigued by the transformation at first, then realized it isn’t something I felt connected to due to the temporaryness and...artifice I guess? Like a prosthetic face or muscle suit is definitely not something I want for myself. I really like the idea of showing the two Taylors more throughout the video, especially since she has a history of doing that (You Belong With Me). However, it might be kind of hard to really show a contrast since Woman Taylor is in fact a very successful person. Idk I’m sure there would have been ways to do it though. I liked seeing Mamamoo talked about here just cause I like their music lol. (btw their debut was actually in 2014 with Mr. Ambiguous!) Anyway this was a pretty fun video to watch and interesting to think about. I really enjoy your channel.

LOVE LOVE THE HAIR ,SUPER HOTT

Taylor swift as the man looks like will menaker

I'm so proud of myself for having watched all those music videos except Rina Sawayama's one. Time to catch up!

This is just a honor to the men women love

As a drag queen, my opinion is that Taylor was 100% in drag. If she were a man dressed and acting like a woman for the entire video I don’t think it would even be a question. Although drag has many facets, in one of its most basic forms and definitions, drag is simply performing as the opposite gender. Taylor did that very convincingly.

Why did piss shot remind me of Shrek?

Your hair looks like mine. But shorter.

The interesting thing about the song for me is that a lot of the things Taylor says she could do/get away with as a dude are things dudes shouldn’t bet away with. Like if she was a man she would be “the man”, but should anyone want to be “the man”? He seems like an asshole.

eeeeeeyyyyyyyyyy nice haircut my dude (also good video, i also found the mans politics shallow and dated. like thats 2015s discourse taylor honey keep up)

The hair is FANTASTIC, the video's lovely. I'm always excited to see crossdressing, but it felt like something was missing, and I think you pretty much pinpointed what that was

Both "You need to calm down" and "The Man" felt really shallow and performative to me, but its frustrating that when you try to point out the issues, everyone just tells you to be thankful Taylor's bringing awareness and supporting these causes. So it was nice to hear your take on it, and hear you talk through some of the issues that I (as a transmasc individual) also had with The Man but that I wasnt really sure how to bring into words. I also think Taylor doesn't acknowledge the privilege she as a rich, white, cis, individual holds, which is why a lot of her "activism" can feel so flat to other marginalized folks.

I miss you dude

just a question: what does "mandem" mean?

I'M TOLD CIS PEOPLE HAVE GENDERS TOO XD

This discussion looks reeeeeally similar to the one feminists were having about Bad Bunny's video for "Yo perreo sola". The song is fine and i quite like it, but the video, although fun, i feel it's pandering to feminist causes that i don't think he can fully understand.

Matt Baume made a good video on Drug. As I understood, Drug is 1) form of self-expression 2) subversion of gender and gender norms 3) inversion of power dynamics, (as _I_ understood). So, man from swift’s video is none of this things - it’s not version of Taylor if she was man, she doesn’t subverts anything and she doesn’t become any more powerful by doing this.

Maybe that's a bit off topic, but here's one of my favorite boydrag(?) music video: kzfaq.info/get/bejne/bpqDaa-rupjUgnU.html

It feels more like she's revealing her shadow self. Like a confession, that is actually who she'd be as a man........which is...........probably accurate...................... :/

Handsome white male (like me) made me cackle, and your haircut looks great

Thassa good coif

I like the hair! Very Leon from Resident Evil.

I guess this is an old video here, but just as an aside, the two Christine and the Queens videos you brought up (for "Nuit 17 a 52" and "5 Dollars") as examples of boy drag raised an eyebrow for me. I can see how Jo Calderone fits a classical idea of drag more, but wouldn't "Nuit 17 a 52" be more in line with Taylor's video, closer to acting (ie. Cate Blanchett) than any sort of gender commentary or exagerration? You even brought this up, so I curious what you felt like those videos had that Taylor's didn't, exactly. I kind of feel like this video needed to establish a stronger baseline of what we're comparing Taylor's video against. It's easy to see Kesha and Beyonce as in their own category of mainstream feminism and cis female gender commentary, but I didn't track with lumping in Lady Gaga and Christine and the Queens exactly. Idk, there's just a LOT of different artists and approaches touched on here, and it ended up feeling a little over simplified to me. Also, I feel the need to mention that the character in "5 Dollars" is not a male drag character, but a butch woman. I was a little surprised you didn't make any distinction there. The video definitely has to do with male codes, but it's very much about owning them as a queer woman. If there is drag in 5 Dollars it would have more to do with class and wealth I think, which does have deep roots in drag performance. It actually might have been interesting to hear you talk more about class in relation to drag as more than just a dissonance with Taylor's status. I hope I didn't misrepresent any of your points, but tbh I just found this video hard to track with. I feel like you touched on a ton of interesting topics but I didn't find any point here to walk away with.

Gwen with Harajukus is cringey AF

Good Content. What are your Future video plans? Enjoy your day xd

12:16 thats not mamamoos first single.... their first single was Piano Man over a year before um oh ah yah was thier second single off their second album. They were already a very established group and just starting to make their own creative decisions which is how a video like that was allowed. Sorry as a big kpop fan I had to add that.

DISTACTION

I think you're super right about all of this. I've especially felt her kinda ineffectual feminist and lgbtq messaging, not to gain "clout" or "woke points" (ugh hate that term), but more to extract and continue to extract profit from lgbtq folks and feminist leaning girls. but maybe i'm coming too hard down on her because i never liked her music. Idk i just can't really connect with the mainstream big music production companies because i know the exploitation they do and the stranglehold they have on Intellectual property as a legal concept. They've thrown their weight around in such harmful ways causing ridiculous lawsuits all to extract wealth out of each other in the name of "protecting the artist". Profit motive is toxic and harmful and stifles creation. Anyway, fuck the big record labels, fuck capitalism, fuck profit motive, and may those who've died at the hands of the state receive justice and may their memories be a blessing.

All the celebrity women she showed in the video, all convinced you that they were dressing in these sexual ways for their own self expression and empowerment. You now felt empowered by emulating the behaviour they were paid to influence you into.