After Katy Perry posted the music video for "WOMAN'S WORLD", the internet comments exploded, so much so she felt compelled to produce a short follow-up explaining that the video was intended to be humorous, fun, and sarcastic (always the sign of a successful joke, right?). Perry's self-described "satire" seemed to alienate women on multiple levels, from being produced by Dr. Luke to featuring the same zoom-ins on her cleavage as a Carl's Jr. commercial, while failing to provide legible critique of the consumers of such content, products, and bodies. She claimed to be going for a camp effect early in the video by "overplaying" to the male gaze before shifting locations and moving to the "Woman's World", where she is wearing a thong, bra, and arca-style leg accessories. At one point, she seems to insert a gas pump into her rear. Short, sexualized clips of female celebrities often go viral on websites like TikTok, but what of Perry's claim that she is not doing this for marketing purposes, but as a social commentary?
Perry's lyrics occasionally seem to hint at a critique of the various roles and labels women attain on their quest to be acclaimed, yet the chorus seems flat, almost intentionally vague, and offers little insight into whether the song is intended to be ironic as well.
"It's a woman's world and you're lucky to be livin' in it (uh-huh, uh-huh) / It's a woman's world and you're lucky to be livin' in it (uh-huh, uh-huh- you better / You better celebrate (celebrate)"
Perry may have been trying to reclaim the kitschy aesthetic that first shot her to fame with smash hits like "California Girls" and gags such as whipped-cream-cannon-bras. Yet, satire is a beast of a different nature, which must have a clear object of mockery to comment on, as the internet has quickly reminded her. If Katy Perry's true aim was satire, her object of ridicule must be boldly called out. In this instance, she appears to coddle, rather than critique, the male gaze. If she herself and her brand of feminism were the subject of the satire, the video would be more interesting on a meta-level, but hardly empowering. Was the point of "WOMAN'S WORLD" truly to show how it is not, in fact, a world in which women can exist free from sexualization and exploitation? That even powerful, wealthy women must cater to the whims, cravings, and visual demands of a male audience in a world not made by or for women? This interpretation feels somewhat generous to me, and, regardless and above all, a producer accused by another female pop star of sexual assault was not the correct choice to deliver the message.
In the video she released following public backlash, she begins with clips of her wearing a construction vest and yelling "girl power!!" and captioned "you can do anything! even satire!" She explains that she is being sarcastic and assumes her audience disliked the video simply because they missed the point. Talking down to her critics did not make them dissipate, and the follow-up video went viral for seeming disingenuous. Perhaps this is because, as Billboard found, Katy Perry has a significantly larger proportion of male listeners than most female pop stars. This begs the question: can artists cater to the basic desires of an audience while also critiquing their viewing habits?
I would argue that the answer is no. Yet, there are other artists embracing femme, queer, multicultural audiences successfully with on-the-nose lyrics that boldly lean into and then explode sexual and cultural stereotypes, such as Alice Longyu Gao, with her recent single "<3 Korean Girls" (feat. Mega Mongoliad).
Through punchy lyrics and playful spoofs, the Chinese-born, LA-based hyperpop artist produces a song which draws on shared experiences of vibrant nightlife and resists, yet draws attention to, fetishization. It's an actual love song for their subject with the pounding, bass-laden chorus:
"I like girls, I like Korean girls / I like girls-girls-girls-girls-gir-gir-gir-girls"
Unlike Perry's video, which may, in some ways, alienate the audience it is purporting to empower, Gao is upfront with their identity while playing on the way lesbian and Asian femme identities often are commodified. Gao employs juxtaposition, portmanteaus, and double entendres in verses.
"In my new jeans, in my new shoes / Kiss my new girl-girl-girl-girl girl-girl-girl / ALGBT, in Seoul city / I fuck with girls-girls-girls-girls-girls-girls-girls"
While Gao's song does not purport to be satire, it creates an effective sense of social subversion and subsequent reflection, mainly surrounding an individual who is insisting they like Korean girls. This allows their pop stylings to be an anthem for themself, their subject, and their audience. They incorporate lyrics in Korean to show the song is not just about Korean girls, but also for them to enjoy.
Gao's music video plays with gendered tropes through the presence of women working a car wash, yet resists the consumerist angle of Perry's. Gao's video forges a unique and specific visual aesthetic of its own, starting off with a faux browser window and "onscreen chat" next to a "livestream" of Gao walking through a Korean convenience store and picking up Sanrio sticky-notes, remarking that "Kuromi is gay, by the way, if you didn't know. It's a gay character in Sanrio." Then, a dramatic cut corresponds with the introduction of the beat, revealing Gao clad in white on the roof of a car. A succession of rapid cuts alternate between Gao and her backup dancers, as they clean the car with massive amounts of white suds, and sync to the bouncing stutter of the chorus. Rapper Omega Sapien is not a voyeur in the scenario, but very much a participant in the car washing, getting sprayed down with hoses and even licking white foam off the roof of the vehicle. The video achieves a playful relaxedness, allowing its spoofs to feel charming rather than strained.
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