It’s a Woman’s World
And You’re Lucky to be Living In It
Have you heard Katy Perry’s new song, "Woman’s World”? In this week’s Fairer Disputations original, Featured Author Holly Lawford-Smith breaks down the lyrics, the music video, Perry’s claim that it was “satire”—and how it managed to anger all the camps in contemporary feminism.
It’s a Women’s World
Holly Lawford-Smith
Last Friday, the music video for Katy Perry’s new song “Woman’s World” premiered on YouTube. Two days later, on Sunday, Perry tweeted “You can do anything! Even satire!” (I’m sparing you her caps lock). As one of the most-liked replies notes, if you have to clarify that something is satire, it probably didn’t land right.
For those who haven’t suffered through the music video and don’t plan to, let me help you get the vibe. There are female construction workers dressed as though a cheap, construction-themed porno is about to start filming. The power tools have been bedazzled. There is conspicuous whiskey-drinking and awkward dancing. Later, there is a monster truck pulled on a rope by a woman with giant boobs. Perry, wearing weird leg armour and a bikini, fills her butt cheek with petrol from a petrol pump. Nothing makes sense.
If it’s not satire, and Perry is just scrambling for cover after a negative reaction (well, a “negative reaction” to the tune of 8 million views, and trending at #2 for music on Tuesday) we’d have reason to be depressed indeed about the state of feminism. The best that can be said—which is actually not nothing—is that at least it’s a song that both uses the word “woman” and knows what a woman is. We see a sparkling uterus hanging from the rear-view mirror, and a ring light in the shape of the female sign, which Perry steals and flies off in a helicopter with. “She’s a sister,” “she’s a mother,” Perry sings.
This Week in Sex-Realist Feminism: Hospital Birth, Sex Realism in the Secret Service, and California's New Gender Identity Law
This week: Serena Sigillito on hospital births, Mary Harrington on sex realism and the Secret Service, Abigail Shrier on California's new gender identity law, Barbie's girls, parents and the marriage market, FD recommends a book—and more!
From the Archives:
Art professor and critic Alisia Grace Chase takes on the sculpture NOW, which professes to represent law and feminism—but in doing so, elevates autonomy over interdependence.
Sculpting Autonomy: The New Idol Demands Sacrifice
Alisia Grace Chase
“NOW rejects biological reality and any connection to another living being, whether those who came before her or those who will follow. It is a fitting monument for a society that believes women’s agency is founded on complete autonomy.”