After last year’s Kanye West fiasco, the Associated Students of the University of Arizona decided to bring a safer artist to campus. Katy Perry was a smart choice on ASUA’s part. She is famous enough to attract a crowd and will hopefully make our school some money. She also appears sane enough to not be paranoid that a riot will break out at her concert.
ASUA found middle ground by choosing to pool their efforts to bring such an obviously self-explorative artist to our campus. Katy Perry’s album “”One of the Boys”” is an exploration of what it means to be female or male, gay, straight or bi-curious in our society today. Her song, “”One of the Boys”” actually pertains to the fact that she is not, in fact, one of the boys. By bringing this artist to our campus, we are showing our support of sexual exploration as a whole.
While her song “”Ur So Gay”” may seem homophobic based on its use of the word “”gay”” as a pejorative term, it is actually about the conflicting emotions of someone who is dating a metrosexual male. This is a post-modern situation that can cause confusion among many people. What is a girl to do when her boyfriend is seemingly more feminine than she is? Katy Perry explores her conflicted feelings in this song.
Her use of the word “”gay”” to pertain to something negative is a mirroring of its usage in today’s society. Katy Perry exaggerates stereotypes throughout the song, as when she sings that a metrosexual male would masturbate while listening to Mozart, or insinuates that homosexuals are the only people who read Hemingway. Everyone knows that these statements are illogical yet you can hear ignorant people letting them slip all of the time, especially when it comes to calling something “”gay”” to denote a negative connotation.
Katy Perry is using common slang and throwing it blatantly into the listener’s ears to poke fun at the normalization of this obviously offensive term. By making it into a popular song, she is putting it out there for people to finally deal with, hoping to generate real comprehension about what this colloquialism actually insinuates.
The song “”I Kissed a Girl”” is another example of mimicry of popular feelings about homosexuality. While this song continues the stereotype that homosexuality is sexy when exhibited by females, it also publicizes the existence of bi-curiosity. Katy Perry admitted that she had not actually kissed a girl when the song was released, but the song could be an invitation for experimentation.
By choosing to put her name on the song, she has become an advocate for sexual freedom and exploration. Perry highlights why the experience of kissing a woman can be more enjoyable than kissing a man. Women wear “”cherry chapstick”” while men would not typically be found to do so. Perry notes that she hopes her boyfriend won’t be angry with her but the audience is to understand that he will probably be as turned on by this thought as the rest of us are.
Katy Perry’s music has undeniable merit because it has that certain pop gem quality of appealing to masses of people. She is a siren, whose songs make you inexplicably want to listen to them ten times in a row.
During times of hardship, especially when higher education is being threatened with grotesque budget cuts, great dance songs can help lift the spirits of the people. Katy Perry’s “”Hot N Cold”” is not only a song to serenade your microwave while you’re making popcorn; it is also fun to dance to. Dancing and exercise release endorphins, the chemical in your brain that makes you feel happiness and delight. Dancing is good for the people, and we all know how stressed students get. Thankfully we have an artist like Katy Perry, whose songs will pull our puppet strings and get us grooving so that we can all feel just a little bit better.
-ÿAlexandria Kassman is a creative writing and Spanish senior. She can be reached at letters@wildcat.arizona.edu.
