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11/13/2008
K.P duty: Is poppy girl-kisser queen of the 100?
Is newly prominent songbird Katy Perry really one of the people who, over the past 365 days, has earned iconic gay status? Should the polarizing "I kissed a girl" chanteuse grace not only this year's annual "Out 100" list, but also the cover of the related magazine? You can count Richard over at Gawker in the "HELL NO!" camp:
Singer Katy Perry is at best a pretty pop princess in retro riot grrl makeup and at worst an enemy of the gay civil rights movement. Her song "I Kissed a Girl" is a paean to girls getting drunk and sucking mug with other girls while their boyfriends watch. I don't want to sound uppity, but it's kind of a shitty song with a shitty message—that cutesy fake homosexuality is silly fun and good for attracting boys. So it pisses me off a bit that she's on the cover of Out magazine's "Out 100" issue this month. Why is this tittering dykesploitationist worthy of gay hero status?
Katy Perry Kissed A Girl And Out Magazine Liked It, But I Didn't [Gawker]
So why is she on the list/cover? Our answer: Because she moves more product than any of the number of truly inspiring females with whom we here at G-A-Y deal on a daily basis. The activists who dedicate their time and their overtime to the cause. The bloggers who have given up the insta-traffic that comes from gossip blogging so that they could dedicate their site to the equality cause. The civil rights lawyers who fought and WON in court. We could make a list of more than 100 females we would put on any list that truly wanted to honor those who have been out, proud, and fighting for the past year. But unfortunately the magazine cover game (especially at year-end time) is not so much of a "hey, look at this interesting person and get to love them!" situation. It is a market much more geared towards the known properties.
Are their fantastic folks on this year's Out 100 list? Absolutely, and many of them are female. Is Katy Perry one of them? Well, we'll let you form your own opinions on that one. But two things are for sure:
(1) Any LGBT list put out by any mainstream LGBT publication is going to be somewhat hampered, since the economic realities of the situation can have a way of taking precedent over deservedness.
(2) As long as there are lists of any sort, there will be a buttload of bitching.
**UPDATE: Out EIC Aaron Hicklin responds to the Gawker piece: Dear Gawker: Kiss off! [Popnography]
Your thoughts
Katy Perry has no place on that list. All she did was trivialize our struggle for the sake of attention. Shame on the people who act like she did anything for us.
Posted by: RainbowPhoenix | Nov 13, 2008 10:53:13 PM
Don't forget Katy Perry's other single "Ur So Gay". That's even worse than "I Kissed a Girl"
Posted by: Jake | Nov 13, 2008 11:30:37 PM
If they want to include Katy Perry, that's fine. However, they should include any kid who ever played doctor with one of their own sex.
Posted by: Mike in the Tundra | Nov 13, 2008 11:52:32 PM
I don't believe she should be on the cover of Outs the Out 100, but i like her song, it reminds me of my first kiss with a boy. It went against everything my family taught me, against the social structure into which I was raised. It was wonderful and amazing but it also left a shift in me as my mind rebelled against what it had been taught. My heart and mind were at odds. it felt so wrong but it felt so right. This is what the song says to me.
A few people decided that her lyrics were offensive to the LGBT population, but they aren't to me. They remind me of a conflicted time in my life. Katy Perrys mother didn't talk to her when that song came, denounced her daughter as against the christian god. Maybe Katy Perry isn't as straight as we think. Take the Ur so gay song, now imagine her singing it to herself in the mirror. It says something different to me as well. Not everyone had an easy coming out, we each have our own demons.
Posted by: Stuart Brotherhood | Nov 14, 2008 2:28:13 AM
Forget how much Katy Perry sucks and should disappear, this "original" review sounds like it was almost plagiarized from a comment I made weeks ago at G-A-Y! LOL:
"The song is more or less a cocktease number for the straight men who gets off on watching some midget filming two drunk college girls sucking face, at spring break = "girls gone wild" bullshit."
http://www.goodasyou.org/good_as_you/2008/09/church-sign-pas.html
Posted by: Scott | Nov 14, 2008 8:14:01 AM
A funny thing I should mention, being the music geek I am LOL.....
A couple weeks ago, when I had to buy AC/DC's new album at Wal-Mart (WHY THERE, ANGUS?!?!?), I was looking through their $7.50 CD's of mostly some good 'Greatest Hits'/'Best of' collections, and it looks like Katy's album is already in that "bargain bin" too, at $7.50 LOL
It may be different at other stores though, because I saw the same CD at Best Buy for about $13, which is $13 too much.
Posted by: Scott | Nov 14, 2008 1:04:45 PM
Not a single lesbian on this "people of the year" cover? This is exactly what's wrong with Out magazine. It's basically a gay guy's mag masquerading as the "gay and lesbian perspective." What a joke.
Posted by: fannie | Nov 14, 2008 5:06:00 PM
Fannie: To be fair, Aaron Hicklin has said that Rachel Maddow was unavailable for the cover photo shoot.
Posted by: G-A-Y | Nov 14, 2008 5:12:23 PM
