Yay or Nay: Katy Perry

Sorry for the dry spell between this post and the last, I’ve been busy buying stuff for the past few days to get ready for college. (Junior year, here I come!) So as promised, here’s my scathing attack of Katy Perry (well, not too scathing, but I’m mentally sharpening my non-existent claws).

By now, most people in the nation have heard “I Kissed a Girl” (seriously, who hasn’t heard it yet? It’s been number one on the Billboard Charts for about five weeks now and I can’t walk into a damn store with out hearing it.). The first time I heard the song, I thought “awesome, a song about LGBT relationships can be popular!” Upon paying closer attention to the lyrics, I lost some of my excitement, but I was still happy that a song about some girl-on-girl action was actually receiving airplay, and lots of it. And the song, taken by itself, is still a big deal because it looks at the issue of fluid sexuality, and what defines a person as lesbian, gay, or even bisexual (albeit in a superficial fashion.). Katy Perry’s song makes it clear that she was curious about women, however that doesn’t automatically make her a lesbian. So by itsself, “I Kissed a Girl” isn’t that bad (provided that you overlook her whiny singing.).

Unfortunately, I decided to check out the rest of Katy Perry’s songs on iTunes, where I discover “Ur so Gay,” her other single. This song is so rife with gay stereotypes that there’s really no point in listing them all, so I’ll post the song lyrics instead.

I hope you hang yourself with your H&M scarf
While jacking off listening to Mozart
You bitch and moan about LA
Wishing you were in the rain reading Hemingway
You don’t eat meat
And drive electrical cars
You’re so indie rock it’s almost an art
You need SPF 45 just to stay alive

You’re so gay and you don’t even like boys
No you don’t even like
No you don’t even like
No you don’t even like boys
You’re so gay and you don’t even like boys
No you don’t even like
No you don’t even like
No you don’t even like…

You’re so sad maybe you should buy a happy meal
You’re so skinny you should really Super Size the deal
Secretly you’re so amused
That nobody understands you
I’m so mean cause I cannot get you outta your head
I’m so angry cause you’d rather MySpace instead
I can’t believe I fell in love with someone that wears more makeup than…

You’re so gay and you don’t even like boys
No you don’t even like
No you don’t even like
No you don’t even like boys
You’re so gay and you don’t even like boys
No you don’t even like
No you don’t even like
No you don’t even like…

You walk around like you’re oh so debonair
You pull ‘em down and there’s really nothing there
I wish you would just be real with me

You’re so gay and you don’t even like boys
No you don’t even like
No you don’t even like
No you don’t even like boys
You’re so gay and you don’t even like boys
No you don’t even like
No you don’t even like
Oh no no no no no no no
You’re so gay and you don’t even like boys
No you don’t even like
No you don’t even like
No you don’t even like boys
You’re so gay and you don’t even like boys
No you don’t even like
No you don’t even like
No you don’t even like… PENIS

Like I said, there’s no point in sitting here and pointing out each and every gay stereotype, because I don’t feel like writing a book on this. A few things about this song do stick out to me, though. Perry sings “You bitch and moan about LA,” playing the age old game of attributing feminine behavior and using words reserved for women against gay men. She couldn’t figure out a more original way of insulting gay men? She takes it a step further by saying “You pull ‘em down and there’s nothing really there.” So apparently emasculating gay men isn’t enough, because she has to verbally castrate them too. Just because the penis doesn’t get up when you come around doesn’t mean it doesn’t exist.

Katy Perry

The other main thing I want to point out about this song is her assumption that the only reason a man wouldn’t be attracted to her is because he’s gay. It’s not clear exactly who she is singing about in this song, but I honestly don’t believe that someone would write or sing a song so scathing unless she was insulted or wronged in some way. I’m sorry Katy Perry that your boyfriend dumped you for your best friend, or your crush laughed in your face while you confessed your love, but that does not give you the right to attack gay men. We did nothing to you; one of us was probably with you at H&M while you bought some of that cherry chap stick you love so much.

Katy Perry’s contradictory songs are part of a bigger trend in society: girl-on-girl action is fine, hot even, but the moment two men even think about touching each other, pitchforks are sharpened and the mob screams “kill those faggots!” It’s depressing, given all that has occurred in the past few years for gay rights, that these sentiments still exist. Hopefully, in the next few weeks, some new songs will come along to knock this crap off the charts.

Sadly, not Shocking

Today I ate breakfast with my brother, and in some way that I can’t remember, the song “I Kissed a Girl” by Katy Perry came up in our conversation. My brother, whom I am not out to, is slightly homophobic and said that the song was “gay.” No big deal, since I’m used to hearing comments like that, but when I asked him to elaborate, he said that the song was just for “shock value.”* He argued that Katy Perry’s song is ruining young children who hear it and don’t understand what it means. So I guess that when these children grow up, they’re going to be confused out their sexuality.

How shocking, think of the children!

I’m so sick of hearing stuff like this. I argued with him for a little while, but it was so half-hearted since I couldn’t talk much about my own experiences. But why is that every time that a lesbian or gay couple do something innocent like kissing or holding hands, or even every time gays and lesbians are brought up in media, there has to be some controversy around it? How offensive could this song truly be? It’s very clear from the song’s lyrics that the singer is just experimenting:

“you’re my experimental game”

and

“I kissed a girl and I liked/taste of her cherry chap stick/I kissed a girl, just to try it/ I hope my boyfriend don’t mind it/It felt so Right, It felt so wrong/ Don’t mean I’m in love tonight/.

So what’s the big deal? Exploring sexuality, which a large percentage of people do (almost 40%, according to Kinsey), is now on the same taboo list as homosexuality? And is kissing honestly that offensive? What if the song had been “I Fucked a Girl?”

Ah yes, good old vagina. Take a look boys! This ain't for shock value!

*I do agree that Katy Perry’s song is for sensationalism rather than to make a point or to sing about personal experience. But more on that in another post.

A Journey of a Thousand Miles

It’s around 3 in the morning, I should be sleeping, but instead I’m sitting at my computer writing my first blog post. And when people read this tomorrow (or today, I guess I should say), they’ll probably want to know why I chose to start one now, this morning, and why it couldn’t wait until tomorrow afternoon getting acquainted with my bed.

Writing a blog is something that I’ve desired to do for a long time, but I’ve never felt that I had anything important to say. However, this weekend I had to attend a diversity conference for school, which at first I thought was a major waste of time. Why did I need to attend three days of diversity training? I’m a minority, ethnically, sexually, and religiously, and my friends are a pallet of diversity: different races, family structures, religions and economic backgrounds. I have strong feminist friends and others who desire to be housewives. I know people who support black separatism and others who think assimilation is the only method for equality. In my mind, I simply didn’t need diversity training, but I had no idea how far from the truth I was.

During the break-out sessions in our training, we spoke about the individual groups represented within the group as a whole. The first day, I was horribly disappointed because not a single person mentioned issues surrounding the LGBT community. I thought “how could people be so insensitive? They talked about their issues of gender and race and economic background but not about the issues that other people faced?” I went to bed that night and realized that I, expecting others to speak up for me, contributed to my invisibility as a gay man.

The next day, we participated in more activities to explore our personal issues with diversity: one of the more painful ones forced us to look at one demographic we belonged to and to state the things hated about being within that group. The activity, whose purpose was to get us to look at internalized discrimination, was the first time in five years of being openly gay that I critically thought about what it means to be gay and actually spoke up about my sexuality. And you know what? It felt good. The past weekend was the most growth I’ve experienced as a gay male. I’ve decided that I’m going to do that more often: if I expect full equality with my heterosexual friends, I’ve got to learn how to speak up or shut up.