This past week at the VMAs, singer-songwriter Katy Perry shocked fans by re-enacting a sexual act between women on stage during a performance with rapper Doechii, kissing her as well. Reactions were mixed, with many deeming the performance as iconic, others poking fun at the shocked and confused reaction of her fiancé Orlando Bloom and some denouncing the sexualized nature of the choreography, claiming it is too suggestive for most audiences to see and that Perry is only doing it for a publicity stunt. But tofor me, this stunt has proven that she hasn’t not learned from the criticism of her 2008 single, “I Kissed a Girl,” as she continues to sexualize, sensensualize and fetishize queer women.
I have been a fan of Katy Perry for a very long time, as her music has been a part of my childhood for as long as I can remember. Like many other fans, I was too young to notice the implications of the actual song; I thought it was just a catchy tune. I didn’t realize how serious kissing a girl was to a lot of people in society, nor did I realize the flippant manner in which she was approaching it. Some of the lyrics in this song include, “You’re my experimental nature,” and “Just wanna try you on.” While this may ring true to people experimenting with their sexuality, or people who identify as bi-curious, it still implies that being queer is a lighthearted and temporary thing when it really isn’t. Regardless of what label one chooses, and regardless of how fluid one’s sexuality is, queerness is an identity that follows you in society with no care about how you feel about it, and Perry misinterpreted these nuances to make a catchy tune. It is not objectively good or objectively bad, but an interesting view of how a straight person interprets queerness.
But the difference between this song and Perry’s performance is that they are separated by 16 years. In 2008, the majority of the public waswere very uneducated about queerness, and gay marriage hadwas not yet been legalized in the United States or most of the Western Hemisphere. The TV show “Glee” (2009) was hailed as a master of gay representation and Ellen Degeneres was still the most popular lesbian. Queer representation was unheard of on children’s television, and “I Kissed a Girl” and “Ur so Gay” were the only gay anthems people had heard of. Nowadays, gay characters are a staple in almost every movie or TV show and very common in children’s mediaTV shows and literature. Gay marriage has been legalized in the United States for almost 10 years, and we have tons of queer pop stars paving the way, such as Girl in Red, Chappell Roan, Troye Sivan, Renee Rapp, Rina Sawayama, Sam Smith, Phoebe Bridgers and more. It doesn’t take long to find a gay anthem that is more accurate to the queer listener than “I Kissed a Girl,” long subject to critique. Yet, while representation in art has gone such a long way, a lot of people’s attitudes have stayed the same.
Why did Katy Perry even write “I Kissed a Girl?” Back in 2008, Perry has admitted that she didn’t know much about queerness. “What I did know is that I was curious, and even then, I knew sexuality wasn’t as black and white,” she said. The song was in reaction to her religious upbringing and the euphoria of experimentation, doing what everyone thinks is immoral and perverse and what feels right to her. That right there is often a hallmark of the queer experience in the west. While she was aware that she hadn’t gotten all of it right, she knew it would get people talking and start a conversation around the implications; leading to queer people having less of a stigma in society. I do know personally that it has caused exploration and gay awakenings for many people, because the song was their first exposure to lesbianism. But many others did not relate to it and saw it as a trivialization of their experiences, and I can see why.
“Some say it’s positive for promoting sexual agency and experimentation among young women,” a critic wroteites for Feministing a few months after the song came out. “I’m going to argue that this song represents a troubling trend in the portrayal of female sexuality- particularly queer female sexualities. Perry’s lyrics reflect the trivialization of queer female sexuality and the cultural norms which state that female sexuality exists for the pleasure of men.” I think both opinions have a lot of merit, but that has already been discussed atin length in 2008. What I would like to argue is that if that unintentionally insensitive song made during a homophobic time managed to break some ground for the queer community, then what does Perry’s performance, which is way more insensitive, serve to accomplish? What would someone who has never been exposed to lesbianism think? Because in my opinion, it just serves to reduce lesbianism to sex much more than people claim the original song does.
This performance does more than reduce lesbianism to sex, however —, it reduces lesbianism to something reactionary. The song was obviously made to elicit a reaction, and there’s is no denying that Perry used the sensational aspect of it in order to gain more listens. Using that logic, Perry used that sensationalism in her performance to get people to watch her, to talk about her, to get the attention on to her. In both instances, she used queerness to put the spotlight on herself, but in this instance it is much more glaring. What is especially interesting about the performance is that it is part of a larger example of straight women doing gay acts to get attention or make someone jealous. Art reflects real life, after all, and this is especially common on college campuses. You’ve probably seen it at a frat party, or even done it! According to a study published in Personal Relationships, it is estimated that 20% to 33% of straight women have kissed each other during a party.
I would like to put on the record that there is nothing wrong with experimenting with your sexuality. If you kissed your straight friend at midnight after pregaming, I couldn’t care less. In fact, I envy you, because if I, as a queer woman, did the same thing, I would probably be called a pervert, the only difference being my sexuality. But I would like to ask, what is it about lesbianism that has so much allure and mysticism? Is it the fact that female sexuality is a relatively new concept and that it fascinates people to see it on both sides? Or is it that it is a shallow turn on for straight men, something that entertains them because they only view it in a sexual way, (which is a whole other can of worms that deserves an article of its own)?. There have been countless instances where people have been afraid to say the word “lesbian” or identify with the label because they saw it as a dirty word. Why is female sexuality dirty and why are we as a society only reducing lesbianism to sexuality instead of a beautiful and complicated act of love?
“People have some weird idea of what it means to be queer,” says a student at nearby Spring-Ford High School. “Like the idea that someone else’s sexuality is for them. That it has to be all glamorous and pretty and cinematic even though it’s also just regular average people. People who aren’t typically ‘pretty’ and so forth. And people just think of porn sometimes. And don’t realize that porn and sex are very different things.” In retrospect from this quote, is Katy Perry’s performance really trying to represent lesbianism, or is it just an act of pornography?
So yes, Katy Perry’s performance may have been entertaining., Yyou might have been drawn in by it. And that’s perfectly fine. But when consuming art like this, think about the perspective of the artist and how skewed it might be —, what they are trying to get from the viewer. In the meantime, consume more accurate and meaningful depictions of queerness by artists who understand that it is not only a sexual act or an experiment, but an entire vibrant community of people.
Emily Rutz is a first-year English major.