She kissed a girl, but did she really like it?

 After having taken my share of communications courses at Michigan analyzing media that challenges social norms becomes something that is sort of second nature. Although finding success while challenging norms is always an achievement I am fascinated by television shows and celebrities that have found success by both challenging as well as conforming to social norms. With the new release of her movie Katy Perry has been on the forefront of a vast amount of media directed toward adolescents. Katy Perry in my opinion is a celebrity that has built a career off challenging certain social norms but has maintained success by abiding to other norms. 

Her career skyrocketed from the national attention her hit single “I Kissed a Girl” generated. In case you're a little rusty on the hits of 2008 here is a link to the music video. 

Interestingly enough there isn't actually any girl girl kissing in the music video. Perhaps Ms. Perry wanted her lyrics to do the talking, my guess however, is in order to balance out the lyrics that defy social norms it was decided to keep the video relatively low key. This reinforces my point that Katy Perry is kind of the ultimate hypocrite when it comes to sexuality. I am all about challenging social norms especially when it comes to sexuality but because Katy does not identify as homosexual the song that shot her to A-list status in which she proudly talks about kissing a girl and liking it seems to be simply utilizing the notoriety generated from homosexual themes to gain success rather than actually making any sort of stance for equality. And if that is the case, I am completely turned off by any celebrity that uses homosexuality as a tool to gain fame. 

Katy attributed the songs enormous success to the fact that it is ‘catchy’ stating, “I think that it’s one of those subject matters that is, you know, like ‘Oh m God I can’t believe she said that, that someone came out and said it…everyone kind of perks up” (Talking Shop: Katy Perry, BBC News).  The media is often considered largely responsible for promoting normalized gendered images of men and women in heterosexual romantic relationships (Ivory, Gibson, & Ivory, 2009). Therefore the enormous success of her hit song filled with themes of homosexuality seems to be a refreshing challenge to the dominant representation of sexuality within mainstream music.

Katy appears to have been defying common gender norms in her hit song however; her personal lifestyle doesn’t resonate with her performance personality but rather conforms to social heterosexual norms. She was married to male actor Russell Brand and identifies as heterosexual, and don't be fooled by his long hair Katy isn't kissing any girl. I wonder then, what kind of effect does Katy’s contradictory messages have on adolescents who are perhaps in their own coming out process? Understanding one’s own sexuality can be extremely challenging particularly when that sexuality does not conform to societal norms (Bond, Hefner, & Drogos, 2009). Therefore, perhaps Katy’s themes of homosexuality within her songs and heterosexuality within her daily life may function as a positive source of identify for adolescents who are bi-sexual. While the song at face value seems to challenge sexual orientation norms, pushing the boundaries by addressing lesbian and bisexuality the lyrics seems to conform to norms. Lyrics referring to same-sex kissing as, “not what good girls do” suggests that woman who identify as queer are inherently ‘bad.’ She also states in the song, “just wanna try you on,” proposing that being queer can be a temporary experiment, this also seems to establish Katy as a ‘good’ girl who is simply trying out queer life and therefore her actions can be excused.  The song functions as an example of something that challenges social norms within terms that white, straight hegemony society finds acceptable. 

Since  “I kissed a Girl” Katy’s performances have grown increasingly more outrageous. In her music video for “California Girls” Katy at one point shoots whip cream from two cans attached to her breasts. From her constantly changing hair color to her ‘camp’ like outfits Katy has consistently challenged the norms of pop artists. In fact, she arguably has made a career out of defying Hollywood norms. Her flashy outfits and colorful hair have gained her attention and placed Katy in the pop star spot light. However, while her outrageous outfits and performances have gained Katy notoriety she has held onto certain celebrity norms, such as marrying a fellow musician, maintaining a thin body, and most importantly remaining extremely sexual. It seems that in today’s society in order to remain in the spotlight as a celebrity one is required to challenge certain norms in order to receive attention, however, those challenges must be balanced by norms that the celebrity accepts in order to remain well received by the public.