Katy Perry Takes a Beating for ‘Satirizing Women’: “It’s Not Satire if You Gotta Explain It”

From her upcoming album 143, the pop artist Katy Perry released the music video for the single Woman's World on Thursday. Critics and fans alike wasted little time expressing their disapproval of the purportedly feminist song on social media. However, now Perry seems to be trying to repair the damage. She addressed the criticism on Saturday by clarifying that the video was supposed to be 'satirical'.

Perry shared a video on X of herself standing on set with her background dancers and expressing her opinions regarding the Woman's World music video. She said in the video, "We’re kind of just having fun, being a bit sarcastic with it. It’s very slapstick, and very on the nose. With this set, it’s like, ‘Ooh, we’re not about the male gaze, but we really are about the male gaze’." She wrote a caption along with the clip, "You can do anything! Even satire!" Nonetheless, not everyone understood the satire or Perry's intended message.

One user wrote, "Dude im sorry but somehow this was the most cringe thing ive seen on the internet all night and dude it wasnt a great night to be on the internet. ive def tried to have caty purrys back in the past but someone explain the joke to me or the impact she wanted this to have<3." Another chimed in, "It’s not satire if you gotta explain it." 

Another individual made fun of her video, stating, "Didn't everyone think they were trying to do satire but it was so bad that it didn't matter?" One more critic requested that her PR staff issue an apology. The individual wrote, "This was your last ditch effort to save it but it didn’t work. Your pr needs to go from album rollout to apology in order to minimize the damage."

As reported by Today, Perry's first new song since 2021, the energetic anthem Woman's World, was supposedly inspired by her experiences as a new mother and is designed to commemorate the reality that women are 'unstoppable.' Perry expressed her inspiration for Woman's World in a recent interview with Zane Lowe of Apple Music, where she discussed the 'transcendental' experience of becoming a mother and discovering a 'feminine divine.'

She said, "I always respected my mother, but after I gave birth, there was this huge level of growth of respect for her. Just watching her as I grew up, all the invisible work that she did … Just how women are unstoppable." Furthermore, she acknowledged that her name is often associated with uplifting anthems like Firework (2010) and Roar (2013), and she expressed her belief that Woman's World carries on that legacy.

However, upon Woman's World debut critics and fans alike were quick to criticize the pop song and music video, with some claiming that Perry had objectified and oversexualized women and others casting doubt on her working with the divisive producer Dr. Luke. Reportedly, Pop sensation Kesha had previously accused Dr. Luke of sexual assault in a high-profile case that took place in 2014, as reported by BBC. Kesha was counter-sued for defamation by Luke (aka Łukasz Sebastian Gottwald). After over ten years of court battles, the parties finally settled in June 2023.