My entire directory of Tatu pictures

[cimorene]

These are mostly organized into themes, but not into chronological order. There's everything here from liner note scans, to vacation snapshots, to candids of humping and kissing on stage, to posed softcore porn. Obviously the contents of this cut are not precisely safe for work. But the nipples are covered!

ALL PHOTOS NOW RE-UPPED AND POSTED HERE

Remember how I mentioned the lesbian romance novel cover? I really want to read the book this would go with.

Comments

[copracat]

Oh my, what treasure.

[effex]

WHEE!

[kmazzy]

Julia - what the heyho is with the eyebrows eh? crazy.

[cimorene]

The eyebrows and the tanning booth!

[torachan]

I really can't help but find them completely adorable, even while being pissed off at the whole fake lesbian thing at the same time.

[cimorene]

I don't have a problem with it because of the statements they've made and the way it's been done with a "fuck you" attitude and themes of struggling with societal repression instead of a light Katy Perry tone. I always got the feeling that Tatu was aware of (and wanted) the gay demographic.

On 17 May 2007, t.A.T.u. issued a statement directed to their gay fans: "When t.A.T.u.'s second album came out, many of our fans of alternative sexual orientation thought that we lied and betrayed them. This is not true! We’ve never done that and we’ve always advocated love without boundaries."[15] On 26 May, they flew out to Moscow to take part in the Moscow Gay Pride demonstration.[16]

[torachan]

It does feel different than Katy Perry, for sure. Which is why I still like them and am disgusted by Katy Perry. But I still am not fully down with the whole stage gay thing.

I mean, after everything, there is still the fact that they are pretending to be gay for an act and then going back to their straight privilege. Why couldn't there be a pop group that really was a couple of girlfriends?

[cimorene]

Well, I know of at least one married pair of lesbians that I discovered via AfterEllen, but they're not very poppy, which probably explains why they're not hugely popular. There are lesbian artists like Missy Higgins and Dar Williams - I don't know their partner status. Maybe they didn't hook up with other musicians?

But I don't look at it as just picking up lesbianism and then going back to their priviledge exactly. I mean, yes, they do that, but does that mean that straight allies can't support minorities? In the absence of actual partnered lesbians doing what they do, I'm happy to look at them, and they don't mind being a symbol to lesbians: there's none of that "lol actually this was aimed at those frat boys, girls are gross!" It meant a lot to me when I found out that they were involved in that Pride event, and finding them in the first place when I was a teenager new to my queer identity also meant a lot to me. There's so little visibility of queers in the media in any way, and I think there should be both straight people representing us respectfully and out queer performers. I don't hold it against the former that the latter is much slower to come to pass; they're probably hastening the arrival of the cultural climate that will allow for more out celebs in the long run.

Of course it's a tricky issue because there is still that voyeuristic element, especially when you consider they were originally founded by some middle-aged white man creep that was the equivalent of Johnny of Johnny's Entertainment. However, after a couple of years they split from him and they now manage themselves and their statements of support, public appearances, the songs they choose, their public anti-war and pro-gay-rights stances all come from them.

My brother-in-law sent me a heavy metal "cover" video of "All the Things She Said" a couple of months ago that featured an all-male band performing a screaming hard-rock-ish version of the song intercut with soundless video clips of a pair of girls in schoolgirl outfits who didn't even open their mouths once, in a pink teenaged girl bedroom, unbuttoning each other's shirts, touching each other's thighs, and posing for a webcam, which pissed me off so badly that I actually watched to the end of it just to see how bad it would get. Now, if Tatu had been presented like THAT - that takes Katy Perry to a whole new level, with the girls barely showing any connection to each other at all so it was more like some godawful Penthouse photoshoot, and completely robbed of their voices on the other hand with those given to dudes who are presented standing up, in a starkly-lit black background, singing with power and emotion, while the girls are all passive and infantilized in these fluffy pink surroundings? I know that a lot of people choose to look at Tatu that way, but if you watch the original video, their focus is entirely on each other and the surroundings are gritty. Granted, they're wearing miniskirts that get slicked down by the rain, but I actually liked that.

[everysecondtuesday]

Eee, how much do I love you for putting this together. So much awesome in one post, it is amazing.

[cimorene]

I wouldn't really call it "putting together". More a case of opening my lj pictures manager and clicking "folder upload".

[zvi]

preeeeeeeeeeeeeeetty.

[heathershaped]

The pretty! <3 (linked here from everysecondtuesday)

[harpers_child]

i'm suddenly reminded of how disappointed my high school self was when she found out they weren't real lesbians. high school self is still holding out hope that one of these days they turn out to be actual girlfriends.

[nicocoer]

Oh, wow, I love how they have matured. *_*

(though, lol, when I first heard of them via a GF the young pixie/elvish look was right up my alley.)