The blogosphere is flush with discussion of Katy Perry’s hit single, “I Kissed a Girl.”
Here’s the vid, in case you’ve been living under a rock, or I dunno, listening to actual grown-up music:
As soon as the song hit the airwaves, politically correct homos everywhere cried “Homophobia!”
The offending lyrics seem to suggest that girl-on-girl kissing is “not what good girls do.”
I kissed a girl just to try it
I hope my boyfriend don’t mind it
It felt so wrong
It felt so right
Don’t mean I’m in love tonight…
It’s not what
Good girls do
Not how they should behave
My head gets
So confused
Hard to obey
Silly me, at first I thought the whole cheating-on-your-boyfriend bit was what Katy meant by “not how they should behave.” I didn’t think she was commenting on homosexuality itself.
But one of her other songs is called “Ur So Gay,” about her hated ex-boyfriend. The case against Ms. Perry doesn’t look very good.
I’ve seen different reactions from other gay bloggers.
The New Gay interviewed Ms. Perry about her songs “I Kissed a Girl” and “Ur So Gay.” Turns out she hasn’t kissed a girl. She just sings about it. She’s flirting with the idea of flirting with lesbianism:
The New Gay: Have you ever actually kissed a girl?
Katy Perry: I think I will, I’m holding out for Megan Fox.
The New Gay: So you haven’t actually kissed a girl. Then the whole song is a fantasy?
Katy Perry: Yeah, it’s fantasy, it’s a song about curiosity.
MSNBC then commented on the New Gay interview in article about Katy Perry’s homophobic hits:
The New Gay conducted a confrontational interview that had a rattled Perry actually say, “My closest friends happen to be gay.” She wasn’t being ironic. Celebrity blogger Mollygood pointed out Perry comes from a religious upbringing (she used to record Christian music as Katy Hudson) and in her New Gay interview, Perry talks about how in her “strict, suppressed household,” homosexuality was considered “wrong.” But as Mollygood also says, that’s not so far removed from the message she’s sending with her hit songs, whether she realizes it or not.
But others aren’t so quick to hate on Katy. Fannie of “Ask Fannie” and Below the Belt fame thinks maybe the fact that a song about girls kissing girls hit #1 in the U.S. signifies how we’ve come:
Now, I will be the first to be critical of Perry’s brazen capitalization of queer women’s identities and lives for her own personal gain, and without getting truly lumped with any of those pesky social disadvantages to actually being queer, like homophobia and discrimination. Perry carefully navigates the subtle line between queer transgression and pandering to heterosexual male voyeurism which I have always found oddly aroused by gratuitous displays of lesbianism. However, for all her vices, could Perry’s one-hit-lesbo-wonder be a benchmark in queer inclusion in popular culture?
I’m torn. I want to believe that Katy Perry was just ignorant, not purposefully homophobic. But she’s got the backing of a major music label… Surely their P.R. department sent her a memo… “Hey Katy, Your songs are full of hate. LYLAS! XOXO!”
What do you think? Katy Perry—neo-conservative undercover operative on mission to spread hate—or pretty white girl who doesn’t know any better and wants to make a lot of money?
Popularity: 15% [?]
I think there are a lot of naive people out there and she certainly could be one of them. Or reflecting some homophobia she’s absorbed and never really tried to fix. If her best friends really are gay, you think they’d have said something. Still, the song isn’t too different from our mainstream culture and the voyeurism “Fannie” addresses.
I vote for the money.
I vote for “Going in the way of TATU” or whoever those lesbian girls were a few years ago. Heard of them lately? Nope…and in 6 months, I bet we won’t know who Katy Perry is – we’ll have moved on to the next controversial topic. “I had anal sex just to try it, I know my boyfriend don’t mind it.” I’m copyrighting it, biatch.
She can’t be both a neo-conservative operative AND a money-grubbing opportunist?
I find “I Kissed A Girl” both annoying and pandering to the stereotypical male fantasy, but “UR So Gay” downright offensive. Yeah, let’s celebrate every hackneyed portrayal of what gay men are like! I realize there are worse offenders, but I don’t get exposed to them at the deli at 2AM. (I’m a straight girl, if that’s relevant to the conversation.)
@Corrine, I think I saw something by tatu recently. I know they took some time off because one of them got preggers (not actually lesbians). But maybe it was just an old magazine article, we have lots of old magazines in the library breakroom.
@Ellen, good point about UR so gay. “I Kissed a Girl” could be brushed aside, but that’s downright offensive.
Katy Perry never actually kissed a girl and yet she says that all her songs are like a dear diary. Sounds like she just says anything to suit her argument. I reckon they’re promoting her with all this homosexuality to distract from the fact that she has a heavily religious background. If she came across as old fashioned and bible-thumping she wouldn’t be very popular. Her christianity is evident in i kissed a girl when she sings “it’s not what good girls do”. yeah, good christian girls whose parents tell them gays go to hell. lesbians can be good girls, lesbians can also be bad, it depends on the individual. christians can be good too and also very bad. i just don’t see the need for a songs like i kissed a girl. it just makes me think of those dumb high school girls that are like “oh my god, i just kissed a chick, come on lets do it again, no wait, are the boys watching?” i didn’t think people cared about girls kissing anymore. “i kissed a girl” “yeah and..?” i’m a gay guy and i’ve kissed a girl, that to me is more shocking than katy perry kissing a girl. losers are girls who kiss other girls for guys attention = katy perry is a loser. She should go down on a chick, maybe then i’d have some respect.