I had a whole lot of emotions surging through me as I watched this video for the first time. I'm going to be blunt. It looked like a dude, Andrew Garfield. of spiderman fame, decided to put on a really bad wig and a skimpy top and to go the one place where she's knew she'd get beat up, a redneck country bar on dollar long neck night.
Then she struts in like a man, shoulders out, all macho. I mean what's up with all that?
MTV's article proclaimed, "We Exist" the new LGBT "Anthem," but sometimes when we write our thoughts are betrayed technology. Such is the case with MTV's article with the HTML link "http://www.mtv.com/news/1825966/andrew-garfield-drag-gay-acceptance-dancing-we-exist-arcade-fire-video/ " conflating transsexualism with sexual orientation.
OK so it's a Gay/Drag anthem. I can live with that. But using a hot cisgender actor for sensationalistic reasons instead of a of a trans woman? PQ says its because Arcade Fire has a Messiah complex. But wait this isn't The Dallas Buyers Club, there was a trans woman who coached him.and Lady J didn't wait months to tell us.
Mouse's anyone?
Of course, I am speaking as someone who made that first step a decade ago. Have I forgotten how traumatic that was or how ridiculous I looked in my really bad wigs and makeup the first days? I guess I have. Well, maybe that mouse in your pocket could be me. But WHAT was Arcades Fire's intended message?
According to Billboard Arcade Fire frontman Win Butler said "We Exist" is a song about a son trying to tell his father that he's gay. At Coachella last month, during the concert as a pretext to the video being recorded, Butler urged the crowd to get behind the same-sex marriage movement in a more demonstrative way saying "The right to marry anyone you want is a human rights issue."?
But couldn't we just stay with MTV's first take on this and call it a drag gay same sex marriage anthem without seeming overly sensitive?
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