The Man

[osprey_archer]

Watch on YouTube

After I wrote about Taylor Swift’s video for “Cardigan,” kore informed me that Swift also directed the video for this song, “The Man,” which is about what cultural perceptions of Taylor Swift would be like if Taylor were, well, a man (Tyler Swift), as told through a video starring an hot white dude who looks like a refugee from Entourage...

Who is in fact! Taylor Swift! In full man make-up! Guys, totally shallow moment, Taylor is just as hot as a guy as she is as herself, oh my God.

And she also has the rich white entitled douchebag dude body language DOWN. The way that Tyler Swift sits on the subway, legs spread so wide he takes up practically three seats! Tyler Swift on a yacht, shouting into the telephone as women in bikinis lounge languidly around! The temper tantrum he throws on the tennis court!

I think this video is particularly interesting in contrast to “Blank Space,” in which Taylor plays in many ways the female version of this character: uber-rich, entitled, accustomed to treating handsome men as disposable/interchangeable, and of course prone to throwing tantrums that leave her mascara in scary black sunbursts around her eyes. It really highlights the different in public perception of two people who are really about the same: Tyler is a stud (if maybe also a manchild), while Taylor is a crazy femme fatale.

Comments

[kore]

I just woke up and this made me SO HAPPY. I love your comparison to Blank Space.

[osprey_archer]

How could I NOT share this video once I knew it existed??

[asakiyume]

OMG that's amazing. I liked that in the scene where Tyler pees "The Man," one of the pieces of graffiti says "1989" and another says "karma."

The three-seat leg spread was HIL-ARIOUS.

(Also the super-creepy 58-years-later scene, oof, yeah.)

[osprey_archer]

Tyler is That Guy and it's hilarious just how perfectly Taylor captured him. You feel like she's met this guy 10,000 times at parties and she's been taking NOTES.

[sbrackett]

Whoa this is so good! Thanks for sharing.

[osprey_archer]

Right? I watched it and I was like THE WORLD MUST SEE THIS.

[brigdh]

Wow, this video is AMAZING! Thank you so much for sharing, because I don't watch many music videos, but I would have hated to miss this.

[osprey_archer]

This video is actually from her previous album, so I've somehow missed it for ages already. HOW?

[silverusagi]

If that hadn't had the makeup process at the end of the video, I never would have known that that was her.

[osprey_archer]

I know! I didn't realize till I saw the makeup process, either, and even then I had to watch that bit like twice before I fully understood why it was there. Then I realized The Man was Taylor and I was like WHOA.

[holyschist]

Man, this is a really fucking good video. (I like how the women on the bus clearly want to shank him.) I gasped at the wedding, oh my GOD. So much smart angry stuff to unpack here.

(She's convincing as a man, yes, but...as that particular man, not hot! Which is a testament to her acting skills, haha.)

[osprey_archer]

I also loved the bit at the end, where Taylor-the-director is giving Tyler-the-music-video-actor (a.k.a. Taylor herself made up as Tyler) notes on his performance: "Could you try to be sexier, maybe more likable this time?" That's so spot-on, and also the contrast in body language between Taylor and Tyler is so striking.

[holyschist]

Right?

(Also I'm really amused Tyler was dubbed by Dwayne Johnson. I didn't even recognize his voice? But I feel like that's another layer, somehow!)

[lokifan]

I didn't realise Tyler was her!!! I've seen it before, ages ago, but zomg.

I love that video so much - especially the shot with her album names graffitied on the wall and "missing, if found return to Taylor Swift" and Tyler pissing on it. Brutal & deserved Scooter Braun attack.

Love the Blank Space comparison (kinda goes with the beginning of Me! as well), so true.

[osprey_archer]

The video became like 10x better once I realized that Taylor was Tyler, and I already liked it a lot. It's just!!!! *chef's kiss&