Are Katy Perry's lyrics homophobic? | Music

May 2024 ยท 4 minute read
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Are Katy Perry's lyrics homophobic?

I Kissed a Girl isn't particularly offensive - but the lowest common denominator reference points are pretty stupid


Katy Perry: Adding her contribution to the gender politics debate (by posing half-naked in a kitchen). Photograph: Todd Selby

Due to be Number One this Sunday, Katy Perry's I Kissed a Girl is a sparky electronic stompy little number from America.

Part of the reason it's heading to the chart pinnacle is that it's quite good, and part of the reason is that it agrees with the Zoo, Nuts and Babestation belief that women, whether straight or gay, all actually like lezzing off with each other.

"I kissed a girl and I liked it," Perry declares. "The taste of her cherry chap stick, I kissed a girl just to try it, I hope my boyfriend don't mind it, it felt so wrong, it felt so right."

Good lord, this is racy stuff which will totally unintentionally steam up the glasses of Daily Mail readers at breakfast tables across the land.

Perry's a fascinating modern pop artist and the mechanics of her launch - on both sides of the Atlantic - have been clever and, despite the heavy handed sloganeering of her debut hit, quite subtle. But Katy has also attracted a fair amount of debate thanks to I Kissed a Girl and another song, UR So Gay, which attacks a straight man and explains that his problem is that he has too much in common with gay men (for this to work you have to share Perry's world view that gay men are all exactly the same). The song begins "I hope you hang yourself with your H&M scarf, while jacking off listening to Mozart, you bitch and moan about LA, wishing you were in the rain reading Hemingway", and continues in this vein.

Peter Tatchell's waded in, of course, and there's an argument, echoing the Fairytale Of New York debate last Christmas, that whether one is "singing in character" or not, it is perhaps not entirely healthy to send a message around the world that it is alright to use gay terminology as an insult. When I first wrote about Perry back in April I wondered whether Ur So Gay, the US buzz single, would be played on UK radio after the Chris Moyles homophobia row, but in truth the debate around UR So Gay and I Kissed a Girl, which offer intriguing perspectives on masculinity and femininity respectively, should be less about sexuality and more focussed on gender politics. It's a recurring theme on Perry's debut album One of the Boys - Google the title track's lyrics for more of Perry's ideas on gender roles. The album has its fair share of belters, including the Cathy Dennis composition Hot and Cold, which is a great track to file alongside Kelly Clarkson's Since U Been Gone and Pink's U + Ur Hand. Even that opens with the line "you change your mind like a girl changes clothes".

Perhaps the problem here is not that Perry is particularly offensive. Maybe the problem is just that her lowest common denominator reference points are a bit stupid - part of a Perez Hiltonisation of popular culture which dictates that scribbling "bitch" or "fag" across someone's face, or daubing some little spots of sperm on the corner of a man's mouth, is fair comment and the height of cultural criticism.

Anyway, in summary:

REASONS KATY PERRY IS NOT A BIG OLD RUBBISH HOMOPHOBE

1. In a former (and largely success-free) career she used to be a Christian singer songwriter, and Christians are all about tolerance 'n' loving The Gays.

2. Her photo shoots look like an explosion in a branch of Cath Kidston, and there are sometimes homosexual men in London's Kings Road branch of that shop.

3. She's friends with Mika - not that Mika is gay, but he is the sort of person described in UR So Gay so she can't really hate all men who aren't archetypal plumbers.

So, readers, there you have it. Does I Kissed A Girl have you screaming at your radio because it is anti-gay? Do you simply shout at your radio because you believe the song to be terrible? Or have you never heard it because you listen to XFM?

Here's Jude Rogers' take on the palaver.

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