I personally really enjoy Katy Perry’s music. Katy Perry started out her singing career as a Christian singer. She has very much broken out of this at the onset of her successful mainstream career. Her first single, “I Kissed a Girl” explored homosexuality which is not accepted as much in the Christian faith.
Most of Katy’s songs have positive messages of empowerment and being your own person. These songs include "Firework" and "Roar". But she also has a lot of songs about sex like "Peacock", "California Girls" and "E.T.". Songs like “Not Like the Movies” break the “Hollywood” idea of finding your Prince Charming, falling in love and living happily ever after. This is not a realistic idea that most girls and women actually experience. This draws on Katy’s own life and her relationship with ex-husband Russell Brand.
Katy embodies the white image of
beauty. She is white, slim and has big
breasts. One of the positive songs’ of
hers that is popular right now is "Roar".
She is singing about breaking away from a restricting relationship. Many women can identify with being in a
relationship where they were denied to be who they really were or were abused
emotionally or physically. This song
gives women the encouragement to stand up for themselves and not deny
themselves their happiness for others.
She compares herself to a tiger.
This animal is strong and able to protect itself against predators just
like women are able to.
In the music video for this song, Katy
appears alongside a male figure where their airplane crashes in the
jungle. The male figure who doesn’t seem
too concerned is soon eaten by a tiger.
Katy, as a woman is more rational and seems upset by the fact that their
plane crashed. This shows that men are
not smarter than women. Katy is able to
survive on her own. She befriends animals and explores the island. She emerges as a warrior complete with a
staff, grass skirt and a cheetah print top just covering her breasts. I understand that she is an attractive, slim
woman but is it really necessary for her to be half naked? What was wrong with
the clothes she was wearing in the beginning half of the video? The video portrays her as a strong woman but
undermines this by her being half naked.
Katy comes face to face with a tiger but is able to roar loud enough to
protect herself. The tiger becomes her
pet, Kitty Purry. She is portrayed as
the queen of the jungle sitting at a throne surrounded by all the animals. This represents that women are able to
overcome their obstacles or oppressors and become stronger because of it.
Katy Perry is not explicitly a good
representation of women or explicitly a bad representation of women. I think she lies in the middle. She has her positive aspects along with her
negative ones. Many of her songs have
very positive messages of empowerment and being your own person. On the same token though, many of her songs
are very sexual. She is highly
sexualized in her music videos which is not a good representation of
women. Women are not sexual objects and
should not be portrayed as such. Do you
agree? Is Katy Perry a good representation or a bad representation in your
opinion?
Image 1:
http://www.ariacharts.com.au/news/42895/katy-perry's-'roar'-
Image 2 :
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