My name’s Tatu. Yes. Yes, you see the problem, here.
It’s not even like I’ve heard of it lately that much. Some, yes, but not that much. But it’s still a bit unsettling. For instance, the thread “Tatu on Jay Leno” in Cafe Society.
I mean, it’s not like my name’s that uncommon. In Finland, anyway. I mean, there have been 3574 people named Tatu in Finland since 1900, according to Finland’s population register’s first name service.
And besides, their official name is t. A. T. u. But are they called t. A. T. u.? Nooo. It’s always Tatu. It’s a conspiracy, I tell you, a conspiracy, like the one where the Pope personally anally probes me every night!
Tatu. Heh. I gotta hand it to them, their songs are quite catchy, and the lesbian thing is the best thing in pop marketing since Britney Spears did that Stones cover dressed in a handkerchief.
here you go. t.A.t.U (acronym for “this girl loves that girl” in Russian) are two Russian teenage girls whose hit pop song, “All The Things She Said,” is a lesbian love song with a video featuring much private-schoolgirl-uniform-clad Sapphic snogging. The girls are presenting a lesbian persona to the media; however, I seem to recall them commenting that they’re not really lesbian and mean to get married to boys later. Well, even if they’re not lesbian, the song certainly is.
The whole t.a.T.u. thing is just cyncial manipulation and exploitation of underage sex and homosexuality - and the current meda fetish with “lesbians” (by this I mean the sort of lesbians that look like Victoria’s Secret models and flitter around with each other before letting the Big Man in to show them how it’s “done properly”) - to sell records. And it’s working.
(Forgive me if this is does represent real lesbianism, but as I understand it lesbianism is actually about women having relationships with other women for their own mutual happiness, not to provide titillation to others, namely men. And how many straight groups pose with the blokes’ hand on the girls’ tits?)
My Russian buddy watched them on Leno and says they were wearing Tshirts with a Russian text that basically translated to “fuck war” in the rudest possible language. Phonetically “hooey vyna”, "“vyna” being war and “hooey” being the most rudest possible Russian word for an erect penis.
I’m pretty sure there’s no way to say “this girl loves that girl” in Russian with words that would make an acronym of t.a.t.u. The most straightforward way to say it I think would be… I’m actually not going to attempt to write it out because I’m so rusty I’d screw up all the declensions. But it’d be E.D.L.T.D as far as I can tell. Except it’s not “E” it’s “Eh” (not “ee” or “yeh.” “eh.”).
I was also skeptical because there is no “u” in the Russian (Cyrillic) alphabet. Phonetically that letter looks like “y” in the Roman alphabet. I guess Tristan’s seen it that way, so at least that makes sense.
matt_mcl, do you have a cite for the acronym thing? I’m going to firmly assert that it’s got to be apocryphal. You’re right about the sexuality thing though. Part of their schtick appears to be denying that any of the things they sing about are literally true.
Doesn’t to me … I don’t recognise “ta” and “tu” as russian words at all, and that construction means that the word “love” is not actually IN the acronym, which would be bizarre to say the least.
Mind you, it’s about fifteen years since I did any Russian, so don’t necessarily pay any attention to what I say…
I presume the construction White Lightning is thinking of is “ehta dyevuska lyubit tam devushka” or something similar (I have almost certainly fucked up the declensions there but I have no pride, so I don’t care). That certainly makes sense to me as a phrase, but it’s stuff-all like the acronym itself…
I suppose that “ehTATam lyUbit” might work but that’s pretty forced…
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