Even with a new single out, the sour clash of Katy Perry’s ‘Womans World’ still rings in my ears. I think after a career of missteps and mistakes, it has now come time for gays to admit that Katy Perry doesn’t deserve them.
From the start of her career, Katy Perry has always courted some level of controversy. Recently I watched an essay on YouTube specifically on this, and it made me reflect at why Katy Perry’s mixed career really hit the heart of many gays, particularly in the United States.
Katy calls this satire. But a Youtube comment betters describes this as a “parody of feminism gone wrong”
But Katy, even with her early hits and a regular sync deal with Australian Masterchef (‘Hot N Cold’) didn’t square with the gays the same way. I would be remiss if I said Australia didn’t have gay fans, more that they didn’t worship her in the “gay icon” kind of way like Kylie Minogue. More as fun music that will play in the gay bar at times, but the performer herself was of little interest.
I won’t list all of Katy Perry’s career choices (lots of cultural appropriation) but I can demonstrate how her first single (under Katy Perry, rather than Katy Hudson… that’s a different topic) is, by it’s own existence, reason enough for the gays to realize she is not worth your attention.
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‘Ur So Gay’ (released in 2007) is so god-awful offensive and completely bereft of any humor it strives for. Its lyrics are simple listings of tropes equating feminized behavior as ‘gay’ but its meanness is astonishing. “I hope you hang yourself with your H&M scarf,” is the first line. Its the worst line, the rest are continuing humiliation but never hit that level of bullying.
Why do people think this is funny?
At the time of its release, Katy Perry described herself on her MySpace as a “fatter version of Amy Winehouse and a skinnier version of Lily Allen.” Brushing aside the clearly disturbing use of weight to qualify her against (to my mind) superior artists, it’s telling that Amy Winehouse is mentioned. Released in 2003, Winehouse’s debut single”Stronger Than Me” is thematically parallel to Perry’s but was released four years earlier. It also similarly is filled with homophobic and transphobic lyrics, but the way its framed turns this song into a richer experience.
Its lyrics are more frustration over having to be the emotional support to her partner, filled with criticisms of lack of accountability. She only once questions if the song’s male target is gay. But her refrain “feel like a lady, and you my lady boy” is deeply unfortunate. As Amy Winehouse is dead, it’s unclear if ignorance or malice made her use the terms. They were certainly more common and pervasive in popular music at the time (even though “Stronger Than Me” is technically closer to a neo-soul song).
Oh Amy Winehouse. Your father will continue to mine your memory for a payday.
By the time, “Ur So Gay” emerged, the conversation over using homophobia in pop music was already shifting and although it wasn’t designed to be the hit like the follow-up “I Kissed A Girl,” it was a choice that seems calculated to be controversial. I wouldn’t be at all surprised if this experience allowed the Perry team to harness this for future releases.
Perry’s third album, Teenage Dream, with its sugary aesthetic felt more honest than anything else in her discography. It was pure confection. Its cynical construction is why I believe Katy Perry is better loved among American gays: It is pure indulgence, hedonism at its heart. That’s great for pop! The only problem is, the party is definitely over and Perry’s gay fans aren’t willing to admit it. We all admire the skill to create vapid pop that masquerades as empowerment. But with little artistic vision, audience apathy sets in.
This song literally caused Alicia Keys to write ‘Empire State of Mind’. Why need to big-up the East Coast if this is what the West Coast is supposed to be?
So what do you do? You keep your name in people’s mouths through controversy. I would be overestimating the skill and intelligence of Perry and her team to engineer most of her controversies purely for promotional benefit: it’s too risky. But I don’t believe they’d be that unintelligent to continue allowing these circumstances to occur frequently throughout an artist’s career. Particularly one who seems to demonstrate full cooperation with the industry she works for.
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Witness really saw the tides turn when Katy began to brand herself as political and socially conscious. It rang dull and impure. When she began calling her pop “purposeful,” I knew she wasn’t serious. This era did see her American audience base begin to die down.
This was literally the best of the album, and its music video is what sells it. Its not subtle, but at least it says something.
For her new single “Woman’s World” Katy Perry is trying to replicate the theme of Witness. But its video, its lyrics, and its producer demonstrate Katy Perry never had any genuine interest in creating “purposeful pop” either then or now. The dishonesty is what’s so insulting. But then I go back to the thesis I have: this dumpster of a song is, in itself, a performance of sorts. A performance of a misstep to generate publicity.
In the television show Daria, whose titular character is someone I feel would despise Katy Perry, Daria once told her sister Quinn; “your shallowness is so thorough it’s almost like depth.”
Quinn’s genuine “thanks” feels like I could have been said by Perry herself.
Katy Perry doesn’t deserve the gays. We adore artifice if its foundation is a solid one. We may have bad taste or good taste, but we have taste. Katy Perry is the most insulting taste of all: None.
Sources: Billboard, Capitol Records, Hollywood Reporter, MTV, NY Daily News
