Katy Perry: Ur So Straight

If you paid attention to the top 40 over the summer, then you've probably had the unfortunate experience of hearing Katy Perry's single, "I Kissed A Girl." It shares its title with Jill Sobule's 1995 coming-out hit, but little else.

Yeah, you wish

So, dear reader, I'd like to direct your attention to a fantastic article written by Annie Holub for PopMatters. Holub examines how, in its "I'm a dirty girl but I was really just drunk" flirtations with bi-curiousity, "I Kissed A Girl" is really one of the more homophobic songs out there. Treating queerness as something taboo, to be fetishized, as Perry does, is one of the more idiotic moves I can think of in pop music today. I know Perry is young, but I'm pretty sure The Real World covered this whole culture of drunk straight girls making out more than a decade ago. It was mindless then, and it's just flat-out dumb now.

This isn't to say that I find Perry offensive. Rather, I'm just not sure how "I Kissed A Girl" can still manage to be a hit in today's age. Is queerness really still such a taboo subject? Or is Perry just relying on a generation of suburban tweens whose parents and schools have decided not to talk about the subject? It's worth noting here that Perry began her career as a Christian recording artist, before some producer or other told her of the benefits of aping Lily Allen. So maybe that's why her views of queerness are stuck far, far in the past.