If Katy Perry Crapped in a Pizza Box, Would You Eat It?
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Tomorrow I will be attempting to launch a column called “New Gay Icons” that I’ve been brewing for a while. The reason is that I’ve become increasingly frustrated with the spate of contemporary pop stars that crop up out of nowhere, declare themselves to be “gay icons,” throw a couple rainbows or dudes kissing into their videos then dust off their hands and move on.
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Comments
I lost respect for Katy around the time she wouldn’t kiss La Coacha!
But what did she mean by saying her diary is her “Anne Frank?”
And those hot gay guys who do her video- are they paid by her label to do them? A
Plus, announcing you want your song to be a gay anthem- ridiculous! You have to earn it.
I don’t know how many people would eat pizza covered in Katy Perry’s shit, but I know most gay men would eat shit covered Pizza if the shit came out of Lady Gaga’s ass.
I’m not really into “pop” music from the mainstream music industry that Katy Perry and Lady Gaga make, it all sounds the same to me, the lyrics are the same tired old lyrics you hear from 3868964834 other pop songs out there..and without auto tune and other electronic editing, most of these singer’s voices would sound like shit.
sure I’ll give praise to Lady Gaga for standing up for gay people, but at the end of the day her career is still a business, I’ve aid this before, but I can’t help but feel that Lady Gaga, and especially Katy Perry, and some other lady singers who pander to the gays, are really just doing it for the $$$ even though they try to show they love their gay fans. These women are rich and successful, and straight…
honestly, if Lady Gaga didn’t portray herself as a freak-show, and didn’t pander to the gays, hardly any gay men would give two shits about her, she would just be like any other female pop singer out there, but because of her crazy outfits, the outlandish outfits, and her pandering to the gays, she’s seen as this fucking goddess who is completely flawless, which I think is bullshit.
but I think Katy Perry and I guess Kei$ha now that she did her own It Get’s Better videos, is just doing it for the money, you think they really get sad when some gay kid kills themselves? They may only get sad knowing that gay kid won’t be able to buy their music anymore, nothing more. yea, I went there.
and I know that was a bit nasty, but I can’t help but quote the slogan the Gorillaz had when they were releasing their second album, “REJECT FALSE ICONS”
Gorillaz are as much a product as Katy Perry or La Gaga, darlin’. THEY’RE ALL WHORES, as Cristal Connors might say.
Are that many gay men really buying into it? If they are, I’ll bet they’re of the younger less politically motivated stripe, or of the personality type (that is as common in straight kids as it is in queer kids, in my experience) that cares more about a good dance beat than anything a public figure has to say in interviews.
I was much more fanatical about music as a teenager (Depeche Mode and Tori Amos were two of my biggest obsessions, and are still in my music library though no longer in constant rotation), and actually cared very much what my idols thought and said, often ceasing to listen to some acts if they sounded like jerks in interviews. These days, I think it’s impossible to know the hearts and minds of everyone whose career you might support financially, so I try not to care so much about celebrities as individuals, barring extreme political views and/or major personality disorders.
Having said all that, I think Katy Perry is an overrated talent and a clueless bint. But only because, like Lady Gaga (who I like in spite of overexposure), I have found it impossible to avoid learning about her.
I have mixed feelings about this. I think you’re absolutely correct in your analysis of the two songs that introduced Katy Perry to the world. They are both great examples of a kind of lazy thoughtless homophobia rampant in pop culture. Of course as lazy and thoughtless I also find them agendaless. I don’t think either song was written purposefully by Perry or whoever wrote them as insidious peaks into her/their homophobic heart(s), more just the kind of lazy bigotry that creeps into all of our lives. I honestly think she just thought the songs were cute, which is how we received those songs. Let’s not forget that even Marc and Fausto played “I Kissed a Girl” on the podcast. It was a catchy pop song that tapped into the things you mention, but also the naughty transgression of homosexuality that is part of what makes being Gay so interesting and fun.
I don’t think it any celebrity should declare themselves a Gay Icon. I think that is our job. But since few people are idealogically pure, including any of us, I find it a little silly to suggest that our Icons must pass a litmus tests for their progressive pro-gay bonafides before we can decide to respond favorably to their art/product or them as celebrities. We would let with almost nobody to admire, not even fellow LGBT folks.
It just occurred to me that the only way Katy Perry could possibly recant her (however unintentional) homophobia is if someone pointed out how she bitched about Lady Gaga’s use of Christian symbolism in her Alejandro video, tweeting “Using blasphemy as entertainment is cheap” and all that. Doesn’t feel so good when someone mocks (like in UR So Gay) or exploits (like in I Kissed A Girl) something meaningful about your identity for shock value, does it Katy?
I shouldn’t care so much, but she IS really cute and seems otherwise harmless. I’d kiss her myself if she wouldn’t run away… 🙁