Katy Perry: "It's just pop!"

I discovered this and thought I would post it considering I have a track record of tearing apart Katy Perry and her work.

The New York Times' A Pop Cartoon Springs Out of the Playbook discusses Perry's upbringing as an Evangelical Christian, her celebrity "persona",  and her own opinion of herself and her fame.

The part that kind of bothers me is this:

"It was, after all, just pop: that was Ms. Perry’s line of defense, to call her work lightweight, fun, throwaway".

and

"Ms. Stein noted that, unlike Lady Gaga — the totem to all female pop singers these days — Ms. Perry is not very threatening, obscenities and innuendo notwithstanding. “She hews to the model of a pretty girl being pretty and filling feminine roles, really while nominally subversive,” she said. “She might be winking, but the rest of her body is pretty naked while she does it.”"

How the hell can you be a celebrity and not know or understand that what you do and say has an affect on people? Yeah, sure, it isn't fair that you automatically become a role model to people you don't even know -  so don't become a celebrity then. You want people to listen to your music? Then you need to understand that people listen to the messages that this music sends. It is not "just pop". It is not just something to "throwaway". Little girls listen to your music, youtube your videos, watch your interviews and try to imitate you. That is not something to be taken lightly.

As for her "filling feminine roles" - isn't this just her perpetuating gender stereotypes? While I understand what Stein is saying (Perry is simply SAYING she is subversive/going against the norm but is not ACTING that way at all - she is conforming to the very way that society tells her to), the issue I have with Stein's statement is the very fact that she mentioned "feminine roles" without acknowledging that these roles are a patriarchal creation used to perpetuate gender stereotypes. Additionally, she states that Perry "hews to the model of pretty girl". To me, this just denotes that there ARE certain roles and molds for females to fill. And it also sets up the notion of what is considered pretty and beautiful (a celebrity like Katy Perry). Yes, I get that society has set these stereotypes and roles in place but shouldn't we be trying to reverse or change this instead of just accepting them because they are universal? To me, even using those terms in an argument against them is acknowledging their existence and giving them some power.

And the whole "winking while naked thing" - I think this is a big reason Perry is sometimes overlooked as being an unfeminist douchebag. She really camps it up. She's sitting there half-naked but oh look! She's winking! Ha Ha it must all be a joke because she is smiling and laughing at herself! So I'm not gonna take her and her naked unfeminist ass seriously then. Well, sorry Katy, but you didn't fool me. You ARE still naked and you ARE still promoting the wrong message to women everywhere. And to men too. About women.

She is also being compared to Lady Gaga - it says that unlike Gaga, Perry is not threatening and her obscene behaviours and sexual innuendos don't hold out. I agree that Gaga IS extremely obscene but that doesn't mean that Perry is any better simply because her behaviours and statements "aren't as bad". We can't ignore the controversy that Perry sparks just because there is someone out there worse than she. We need to question and challenge it all, in my opinion.

And for kicks, here are a list of other things noted that semi piss me off:

(About Perry's listening party for her new album "Teenage Dream"): "If she were Lady Gaga she might have required a walkway built of trellised stuffed animals or prostrate assistants; instead there were just models in bikinis, eating cotton candy and tossing a beach ball: postcard Americana."

"Asked if she ever regretted not finishing school, she said: “No, because spell-check exists everywhere.” "

"Mr. Thompson of EMI credited her past failures with her ability to be relatable even as she ascended to stardom."

"She values cuteness — “Ready, spaghetti,” she’ll say — but is more biting than gee-whiz." 

"“California Gurls” has spent more than three months at or near the top of the Billboard Hot 100, where it was recently joined by the title track from “Teenage Dream”"

Despite my frustrations here I do, however, semi-halfheartedly applaud the Times for even mentioning that her songs, "persona", and credibility have been questioned throughout her career.