Kate Perry: Experimental lesbianism is not subversive

Kate Perry has a pop song with a very catchy tune. It’s about how she “kissed a girl.” Supposedly, this is something she’s very proud of and feels is subversive or bucking the system: It’s not what / Good girls do / Not how they should behave. On the contrary, Kate, it’s quite how good girls are supposed to behave. You talk about experimenting and being curious. You talk about how you hope your boyfriend won’t mind.

Believe me, if he’s like most typical het guys out there, he won’t. That’s his fantasy. The traditional male fantasy is that women will be bi-curious and ultimately heterosexual. They’ll play around with each other, but in the end they just need a penis—that’s the real way to get fulfilled.

Nope. You’re not subversive. You’re not rebellious. That’s exactly what you’re supposed to do, Kate. I’ll be impressed when a male pop star who does not identify as gay says he kissed a boy and he liked it, and he was curious and experimenting and hopes his girlfriend doesn’t mind. That’d be subversive. Then again, people would just think he was closet gay.

3 comments

  1. Hear, hear! I HATE this song. First of all, I don’t feel all that subversive when I kiss my girlfriend of 9 years. Second, I’m tired of seeing “straight” girls pretend to be bi (or anything they’re not, really) in order for attention. Third, Jill Sobule’s song was better, if just as misguided.

  2. I loved your blog entry. You sure did put the finger on the issue here.

    But why is it male fantasy to have Bi girl.. It’s not the same thing for woman ?

    Continue the good work,

  3. THANK-YOU! I know me and some other bloggers (some lesbians, some straight) had a discussion about this at http://www.therottenlittlegirls.com. We all agreed that Kate Perry missed the whole point, especially if you’ve seen her music video. Lesbianism is not an alternative way of satisfying hetero male sexual desire, yet that’s exactly what she made it out to be in this song. Hardly rebellious.

Leave a comment

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *