I confess I have very little idea who Katy Perry is. Before Saturday morning, I had some vague idea that she was a singer/entertainer, and apparently has been for some time. My kids don't listen to her as far as I'm aware, and they are my barometer as to "what the kids are listening to these days," as their ages range from late 20s to early 40s. (I suppose I should be changing that barometer to my grandkids pretty soon.)
This morning, though, I stumbled across a news item that featured Miss Perry; she has offended the perenially-offended transgender activist community. This led to me watching the "controversial" video; not my cup of tea, but every cat its own rat, I suppose. I did see the supposedly offending item; in her video, which is for a song entitled "Woman's World," she dares to use a uterus as a symbol of womanhood. You can view the offending video yourself at the end of this story, if you like.
As you can imagine, that set off a firestorm of whining.
The Women's [sic] World video, released on Thursday, sees the 39-year-old pop star channeling a sexy Rosie the Riveter as she sings about female empowerment and dances around a shipyard.
But some social media users were disappointed by Perry's inclusion of a glittery uterus as one of the images seen on the video, saying it was 'painfully cissexist' and exclusionary of trans women.
One enraged X user wrote: 'Not only is the song pure sh**, but the video going "omg let's show a uterus, bc that's what women are!" is so painfully cissexist and evidence this bi*** is NOT in community with queers.'
Cisgender, often shortened to cis, is the term used by some in the transgender community and their allies to refer to people who are not transgender.
Another added: 'by saying "it’s a woman’s world" with a uterus it may send a message that only women have uteri and you’re not a woman if you don’t have one... Women are not defined by such things.'
I would respond to the first "enraged X user" by saying, well, actually, yes, women have uteruses, and men don't. This is a fact. And there's no reason why Katy Perry should be worried about being "in community with queers," as to my knowledge she hasn't claimed to be "queer"; she is "in community" with selling records, and apparently she's doing pretty well for herself in that. As for the "another," first, I'll pick a nit and note that the plural of "uterus" is "uteruses," and, yes, women are sort of defined by having uteruses - or at least being born with them. I think using a uterus as a symbol is in rather poor taste, but it's biologically accurate.
If you're born with a uterus, you're a woman. If you are not born with a uterus (barring some sort of abnormality), you're not a woman. Also, if you screen the video, you can see that this was only one of many images intended to represent womanhood.
These people really need to relax. Sooner or later they will do themselves an injury, getting so agitated over something that they could just as easily ignore.
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Honestly, the fact-challenged aspect of this aside: For the love of Pete, this is a pop music video, not a Supreme Court decision. If these "transgender" activists don't like it, they are free to ignore it; they are free to not watch Katy Perry's videos and to not buy her albums. There are, presumably, young pop artists who wouldn't dream of offending these hyper-sensitive nutcases by showing a uterus as a symbol of womanhood. And it's only one image, one of several used to represent womanhood.
Katy Perry's video does present some graphic images, along with Miss Perry herself, who I will concede is a quite an attractive symbol of young womanhood. She channels, among other things, the old World War 2 "Rosie the Riveter" image, along with many other images of attractive young women being attractive young women while doing things that take some strength and fortitude. (Granted, yes, it's a rather silly music video, but even so.) There's no reason a young woman shouldn't look at this video, glittery uterus and all, and see a pro-woman message.
These commenters, and the others of their ilk that are no doubt still all in a lather over this video, should be ignored themselves. Were I in a position to offer Miss Perry any advice, it would be to keep doing as she's doing. While her music isn't something I'd listen to, she is evidently doing quite well.
I'm reminded of Eddie Murphy, when he was very young and still doing mostly stand-up comedy, being upset when Bill Cosby, who he admired, criticized the very raunchy content of Murphy's act. Worried, he called Richard Pryor for advice. He later recounted the conversation:
Pryor asked him: "Do people laugh when you say those things?" Murphy said yes. "Do you get paid?" Murphy, again, said yes. Pryor advised, "Then tell Bill to have a Coke and a smile and shut the f**k up!"
Katy Perry should take that example to heart. Everyone in the public eye is going to offend someone, somewhere. The only thing one can do is to keep on doing what they do.
As promised:
