Village People

Tuesday

June 3, 2025

How Trump’s favorite anthem became the barometer for his policies

“The so-called ‘nation-builders’ wrecked far more nations than they built,” said Donald Trump on stage in Riyadh at the joint US-Saudi Arabia investment conference in May. “The interventionists were intervening in complex societies that they did not even understand themselves.” Calling time on the neoconservative framework for diplomacy – also known as waging war – was jaw-dropping enough. But President Trump wasn’t done. He wanted to celebrate. Wrapping up his speech, the self-proclaimed President of “common sense” brought his friend, the Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, onto the stage to commemorate the moment. Naturally, the speakers blasted out the President’s favorite anthem: the Village People’s “YMCA.

Thursday

March 25, 2021

Chadwick Moore

It’s time to cancel the Village People

Discerning cancellation connoisseurs so far have overlooked one of the most problematic boy bands of the 20th century — and it's time to change that. The American disco group the Village People features a cast of empenised individuals donning costumes that glorify toxically masculine tropes of the time: a police officer, a cowboy, a construction worker, a sailor, a biker and, bizarrely, a Native American (more on that later). This mono-gendered depiction of the local proletariat is laughably outdated. While some might say the only thing lesbians are actually good at is running nonprofits, today we know that Sappho’s daughters are just as good as men, probably better, at chasing down perps, roping steer and erecting skyscrapers. But let’s look at the music.