Unless you've been living in a hole for the past two months, you've heard Katy Perry's "I Kissed a Girl." This song about a sexually curious young woman who kisses another woman is quite the sensation. You can't avoid it on mainstream radio stations, and it's quite common to see large groups of preteen girls jamming out to it.
I've heard several interpretations of the song. Some say it's positive for promoting sexual agency and experimentation among young women. Some dismiss any actual analysis of the song, claiming it's just catchy and that no one listens to the lyrics anyway. However, I'm going to argue that this song represents a troubling trend in the portrayal of female sexuality- particularly queer female sexualities. Perry's lyrics reflect the trivialization of queer female sexuality and the cultural norms which state that female sexuality exists for the pleasure of men.
Hopefully, a simple look at the lyrics will prove my point.
In the first verse, we start out with something that could be interpreted as affirming in isolation: "This was never the way I planned/ Not my intention/ I got so brave, drink in hand/ Lost my discretion/ It's not what, I'm used to/ Just wanna try you on/ I'm curious for you/ Caught my attention." Clearly, this verse is setting the stage for a scene of unplanned experimentation, and that's perfectly fine from a feminist perspective. Young women should have the ability to experiment with their desire in a safe and non-condemning environment. It would be nice if Ms. Perry did not allude to the necessity of "liquid courage" in this endeavor, but the sentiment remains the same.
And then we launch into the first chorus, where things start to get problematic: "I kissed a girl and I liked it/ The taste of her cherry chapstick/I kissed a girl just to try it/I hope my boyfriend don't mind it/It felt so wrong/It felt so right/Don't mean I'm in love tonight/I kissed a girl and I liked it/I liked it." The problems are so glaring I feel like I don't even have to explain them, but I'll do my best to state the obvious. Perry's gal-kissing narrator trivializes queer female sexuality by expressing her own bi-desire as a need to transgress the norms of her previously 100% hetero life. The woman the narrator kisses is simply "cherry chapstick," a fleeting moment of forbidden fruit. The narrator is not "in love" with her, and (of course!) she never could be- She's perfectly straight! Just ask her boyfriend, who apparently won't view her kissing another woman as an act of infidelity. Why? Because, as far as the patriarchy is concerned, lesbian desire, lesbian sex, and lesbian relationships etc are not real. Female sexuality, in any of its forms, is simply a way to turn men on. It's shocking how well Perry's lyrics demonstrate the patriarchal interpretation of female sexuality as a commodity used and owned by men.
Alright, I'm exhausted already but let's move on to the second verse: "No, I don't even know your name/ It doesn't matter/Your my experimental game/Just human nature/It's not what, good girls do/Not how they should behave/My head gets so confused/Hard to obey." Once again, queer female sexuality is a trivial matter. According to this song, it's just an "experimental game" that "bad" girls play occasionally. BUT of course it can only be done with girls they don't know- certainly never with girls they have romantic feelings for. Furthermore, "good," obedient girls never kiss other girls. They remain romantically and sexually reserved for men.
And now the final verse: "Us girls we are so magical/ Soft skin, red lips, so kissable/ Hard to resist so touchable/ Too good to deny it/ Ain't no big deal, it's innocent." Here Perry expresses lesbian desire and subsequently dismisses that desire by labeling it "innocent." For Perry, the occasional desire for a woman to touch the "soft skin" or kiss the "red lips" of another woman is "innocent" (i.e. not lesbian). As long as women only kiss women they don't know and have permission from their boyfriends to do so, they remain within the realm of heterosexual privilege. Women who identify as queer, bisexual, or lesbian, however, are not "innocent." Also, by labeling lesbian attraction as innocent, Perry frames it as unthreatening and trivial- as opposed all other forms of sexual attraction-which are certainly not considered "innocent" in our society.
So there you have it. That's why I want to scream every time I see a group of tween girls singing this song. I'm certainly not arguing that it's wrong for sexuality to be playful or that girls shouldn't be able to kiss other girls without it "meaning" something. But I do think this song is really toxic portrayal of female sexuality. The enormous popularity of the song proves that feminists have a lot of work to do in reforming the way our culture views female sexuality.
0 TrackBacks
Listed below are links to blogs that reference this entry: "I Kissed a Girl" Is Not So Innocent.
TrackBack URL for this entry: http://www.feministing.com/cgi-bin/movabletype/mt-tb.fcgi/8064
You should check out the lyrics to Perry's "Ur So Gay," which are equally troubling.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tWbLkXhGEmo
Thank you for finally saying what needs to be said and addressed about this song! Mainstream media is not only a potent muse, but it is also a glaring reflection of the society in which it is produced. When I hear Katie Perry, my first thought is often not what the feminist, who knows that this song undermines her/his/hir efforts, thinks. Rather, I think about what the individual, who is unaware of the message that they are singing, saying, eating, understanding, perpetuating,and supporting. Congrats on writing an article that demonstates both your critical thinking and your understanding of our broader culture. I, for one, refuse to be miminized to "cherry chapstick"--a receptor of the desire to satiate.
When my girlfriend listened to this song, she was offended for the reasons you just listed: it's insulting to bisexual girls and makes it seem like bisexuality is just a performance put on to make women "sexier" to guys who get turned on by female homosexual acts.
I have to say that I've never really listened to it or read the lyrics, but now on reading them, I find it shallow and insulting too.
This topic was posted by someone else just a little bit ago - you might wanna check out the discussion there, too! :)
That being said, I agree with you mostly. The only parts I really have a problem with are the "experimental game" part, because it's cruel and dehumanizing. I also don't like the "us girls we are so magical" partly because it's gramatically incorrect (I think.) and partially because shit like that makes me roll my eyes. Agh.
Have you seen the video? It's all kinds of interesting. Turns out the whole sapphic pillowfight was just a dream. Hmm.
Society has been reducing women to sex objects, as well as making "sex" = "female body" for such a long time that I think many people, even some heterosexual women, have come to associate sexual attraction to the objectified female body.
The song has nothing to do with relationships or even sexual experimentation.
The lines "soft skin" and "red lips" makes it sound as if she's shopping in an adult toy store store: "hummm, I'll take the soft red one, maybe lube it up with some chapstick later"
This is a great analysis! I also thought when I first heard it that it was just a blatant marketing ploy, how many people are going to buy that song on iTunes after they've heard it, or the whole album? How much publicity has she gotten for writing about -gasp- "bisexuality" (I use quotes because of how she trivializes it)?
lilykins: hummm, I'll take the soft red one, maybe lube it up with some chapstick later
Ah, I laughed at that. Thanks!
thank you for this post! while i'll admit that the song is a bit catchy, i highly dislike it, and am offended by it, for the reasons you've listed. i've discussed it with a few of my friends and they agree that it is patronizing to gay and bisexual women. and as wowcabbage has pointed out, if you watch the video you'll notice that she wakes up next to this said boyfriend. i mean, it's alright to have a dream about kissing a girl in a bar, and maybe, MAYBE even actually kissing one while drunk, but there's no way you can live with a female significant other (or stay at one's house, which ever is implied). and if being "good" means conforming to society's patriarchal views on female homosexuality then i don't mind being considered "bad."
I totally agree with everything said in the comments and post, though I would like to add my $0.02 and just say that the song takes on a much different persona when played at an LGBT dance of high school aged kids. The DJ played this song and the people I spoke to after, many of which identify as feminists and are very involved in the community all sort of agreed that when played in that context, it almost takes on a satirical persona. We danced to it and in more ways than not it felt as though this song in that context was making fun of all the ideals presented in the song. It was ...highly unusual. For that reason, and the memories associated with that night, I do like the song, though I will definitely agree that the scenario I just described is pretty unusual and in any other context it's an extremely problematic song.
I heard "I kissed a girl" for the first time watching the Grammy's last night. As a bisexual feminist, it got my attention. Didn't take long to annoy me. It's got a sexist and homophobic flavor. (Two for one.) In the song, the "girl" being kissed isn't exactly being respected by the "bicurious" singer. In the Grammy's performance, Katy wore a short sexy dress adorned in bananas, cherries, etc. The song was introduced with one of those "lesbians are hot" lines- I'm paraphrasing. Yeck.
Plus the title is stolen. Anyone remember Jill Sobule's song "I kissed a girl" from the early 1990's? Sweet song- and fun to two-step to.
Feministing rocks~