âI Kissed A Girlâ came out around the same time that I started kissing girls. It became a weird theme song to my life, like background music that you canât turn off. Holding hands with my first girlfriend in public meant that someone on the street would inevitably sing it at us (in NYC, no less). And when I told some of my old friends about my new relationship, one of them joked, âWas it the taste of her cherry Chapstick?â Meanwhile, it was blasted at the queer parties weâd go to, in a semi-ironic attempt to take back a song that was so clearly aimed at invalidating our experiences. Lyrics like âIt donât mean Iâm in love tonightâ were a sugarcoated, female version of âno homo,â making a pop anthem out of the view that same-gender experimentation is cool and fine as long as you have a boyfriend who doesnât care, and as long as you donât have feelings for the other person. That would be so gay.
 Released on One of the Boys along with the similarly super-homophobic âUr So Gay,â âI Kissed A Girlâ was never really categorized as an offensive thing. Katy Perry even became something of a queer icon: Somehow after actually releasing a song with the words, âI hope you hang yourself with your H&M scarf while jacking off listening to Mozart,â she went on to have her songs covered on Glee, spoke publicly against Prop 8, and was honored by the Trevor Project. She gets away with an entitled, IDGAF-what-you-think brand of homophobia while also appointing herself a spokesperson for LGBTQ rights. Itâs like thereâs this pressure to laugh at her gay jokes because she insists she means well. If you take her homophobia too seriously, itâs on you for being uptight: Kind of like how I wasnât allowed to be offended when men sang it to me on the street. It was just all in good fun.
Slate staff writer Amanda Hess writes, âKaty Perryâs entire persona is perfectly designed for the football audience, and it was only a matter of time before the NFL exploited her potential, and vice versa.â She continues, âWhat this performance on TVâs biggest stage, aligned with Americaâs biggest sport, will confirm is that Perry is the singing, dancing personification of the Cool Girl.â Who is the âcool girlâ? As Gillian Flynn wrote in Gone Girl, sheâs a guysâ girl: âA hot, brilliant, funny woman who adores football, poker, dirty jokes, and burpingâŠâ Add âcasual homophobiaâ to that list and youâve got Katy Perryâs brand strategy, designed to attract a young female audience while winking at the football-loving guys around them. Sheâs trying to appeal to everyone at once: Tweens, dudes who love sports, queers, feminists, misogynists⊠And she might be getting away with it.
origamiaround
ellievsbear
kaledo-art
prguitarman
dededos
izzy806
turnnoffyourmind
vaporwave
