Editor’s note: This article contains mentions of sexual assault and abuse.
Katy Perry is strange.
Each of the pop stars who rose to prominence in the late 2000s to early 2010s had their own carefully curated images. Lady Gaga was the eccentric auteur and the one who especially brought in the crucial gay audience. Kesha was the unabashed party animal. Rihanna was the consistent hitmaker who could move through different sounds and styles with ease.
Perry was a curious combination of girl next door, bi-curious flirt and campy children’s cartoon come to life.
She could be marketed to every demographic; her silliness — think of the dancing sharks at her 2015 Super Bowl halftime show performance — appealed to kids, but her lyrics were adult enough to attract the attention of a more mature audience. Her status as a pop diva garnered the admiration of the gays, and her sex appeal was all straight guys needed to tune in.
Perry was arguably the most lucrative of her peers. From 2010-11, Perry spent a record of 69 weeks with at least one song on the Billboard Hot 100 Top 10 — all number-one hits from the “Teenage Dream” album. Her career only grew with her 2013 album “Prism,” which contained two more massive hits in “Dark Horse” featuring Juicy J and “Roar.” She was one of the most famous people in the world.
Now, it’s 2024 — and oh, how the mighty have fallen.
Perry has been in a tough spot for a while. She started her own designer shoe line for some reason. Her 2017 album “Witness” was a flop for her standards, while 2020’s “Smile” was a flop, period.
Perry’s 2021-23 Las Vegas concert residency “Play” became the 19th-highest-grossing concert residency of all time, according to Billboard — which is impressive, except that Vegas residencies are typically where pop stars go to die. And of course there’s “American Idol,” which Perry was a judge on for seven years. Her stint on the singing competition show was inarguably her best career move in upwards of a decade; she made $25 million per year, according to Taste of Country.
On July 11, Perry released her first song in three years. “Woman’s World” was the lead single for her seventh album, “143.” It was instantly met with backlash for a myriad of reasons.
As suggested by its title, the song is trying to be a women’s empowerment anthem. But with lyrics like “Fire in her eyes/Feminine divine/She was born to shine,” the song is merely Perry spouting platitudes that she knows the general public will agree with.
It doesn’t work because Perry’s message is nothing new. Her simplistic lyrics have already been said by countless feminist scholars and activists — and in ways that are infinitely more eloquent.
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On its own, “Woman’s World” is inoffensive at best. The music video, however, is where things start to get strange.
The content of the video is, in typical Perry fashion, deeply silly. She is clearly trying to depict strong and independent women, but all that the women in the video are allowed to be are stupid sex objects.
That’s not to say that women’s sexuality and empowerment are contradictory, but they don’t come together here. At one point, Trisha Paytas — yes, you read that right — pulls a rope attached to a monster truck, and the camera takes great care to show how big her breasts are. What are we even doing here?
And then there’s the Dr. Luke of it all.
He’s one of the most successful pop music producers in American music history, prominently working with Katy Perry and Kesha at the height of their careers. In 2014, Kesha filed a lawsuit against Dr. Luke for sexual assault, battery and other claims,” while Dr. Luke countersued for defamation, according to Pitchfork.
After a series of lawsuits that went on for almost a decade, both parties reached a settlement in 2023, the details of which were not disclosed, according to NPR. While dozens of musicians spoke up in support of Kesha in 2016, Perry remained silent until two years later, when Kesha claimed that Perry had also been assaulted by Dr. Luke — which Perry denied, according to NME.
Dr. Luke then successfully sued Kesha for defamation.
Perry did not collaborate with Dr. Luke on either “Witness” or “Smile,” but she has returned to working with him on “143.”
The presence of an alleged rapist on an album about feeling empowered and in touch with the divine feminine after becoming a mother is wholly contradictory. Any crumb of worth that could be found in the message of “Woman’s World” is null and void because of Perry’s platforming of Dr. Luke.
The release of “143” has been the most attention Perry has received in years, but none of it has been positive. Many celebrities have come back from worse, but Perry has a tall order ahead of her if she wants to regain the public’s favor. In terms of pop icons, she may just be the one that got away.
Elijah Ritch is a freelance reporter for the Daily Lobo. They can be reached at culture@dailylobo.com or on X @dailylobo
