Woman’s World: Political Pop for No One
Added 2024-08-07 17:09:33 +0000 UTCLast month, Katy Perry — one of the most cherished names in pop by millennials and Gen Z — promised her musical comeback in the form of a fiery, progressive feminist anthem. What arrived instead was a soulless, alleged-predator-produced declaration of nothing.
Joined by Nikita Dumptruck, we examine our complex relationships with an American icon, the successes and failures of Political Pop, and the unforgiving life cycle of female pop stars.
Comments
Another commenter said this too, but the "divine femininity" stuff is soooo troubling! Very much a right-wing/tradwife concept now. It just reeks of gender essentialism to me. I think it's also particularly dangerous as a gateway concept to the far right for women - I think it's easy to try and define yourself as a woman in opposition to patriarchal conceptions of masculinity, but in doing so one falls into the trap of traditional gender roles and expectations, and that leads down the tradwife road. So bleak. I'd love to hear what you think of that particular pipeline, Matt. We hear a bunch about how men are led to the far right but not so much about women. This ep (and all others!) are so wonderfully thought-provoking and nuanced. Thank you so much for this!
AndyH
2025-05-16 14:08:36 +0000 UTCThis felt like a good time to revisit this. 👩🏻🚀🚀
kinga.krl
2025-04-16 20:22:48 +0000 UTCOmg I've always listened to the uncensored version but I found out she wasn't saying PMS right in this moment
Ruth
2025-01-12 08:32:08 +0000 UTCYou should do a video talking about Yes, and?
Melanie Buss
2025-01-04 03:19:22 +0000 UTCThis has become one of my comfort videos ❤️
Dovis Bellwood
2024-11-13 14:47:20 +0000 UTCHow did you forget the I want your peacock cock cock 🤣
nefefeli
2024-09-26 12:22:08 +0000 UTCI honestly think they made this video intentionally male gazey and out of touch because they knew people on twitter would be meming it and it would stir controvery and draw attention to the album - the producer wasn’t willing to have her flop like witness did again so he was like you know what will get people to listen!!! Like i think they were fully conscious of how stupid this looked and did it intentionally. There will be a lot more attention on whatever she drops next for sure and I wouldn’t even be surprised if the next album ends up being a substantial comeback.
Lucy Ramsey
2024-09-18 20:47:47 +0000 UTC“there should be a slur for that” lmfaooo💀💀💀
walker
2024-09-13 20:36:13 +0000 UTCHahaha there's a Modest Edit of the Katie perry music video stoooop
Gabrielle Veilleux
2024-09-12 18:06:07 +0000 UTCi’m a spotify listener and this is the first time i’m watching the video version and those uh huh clips sent me 😂 i was not prepared 😂😭
Ster
2024-09-06 06:36:29 +0000 UTCI would die if you did a deep dive on divine feminine/masculine
coro
2024-09-04 21:03:11 +0000 UTCWait! ISn’t Espresso about being addictive and keeping your ex awake with the mere memory of you? Isn’t that what it’s about? :0
Edeline Bratzke
2024-08-27 02:04:38 +0000 UTCI think it’s really weird that in the video when she’s trying to show how great women are and what they can do an anvil falls from the sky and they run over a car in the truck. Like women are here and hot and sexy but also bad at driving and construction work.
Rose Savage
2024-08-24 13:36:11 +0000 UTCI’m 28 and as you listed all her hits, I’m shocked to realize the entire lyrics are permanently seared into my brain!!!!! SHUT UP AND PUT YOUR MONEY WHERE YOUR MOUTH IS THATS WHAT YOU GET FOR WAKING UP IN VEGAS—
Ive Velikova
2024-08-14 22:12:40 +0000 UTCSuper interesting! There is a tendency among new agey "spirtualism" that sells women products and practices to FEEL empowered in order to divert them from organizing for real political/financial/social change.
Elizabeth
2024-08-12 21:37:31 +0000 UTCI think no. Part of what makes Brat so interesting is it's vulnerable exploration of being adrift in your 30s. You're still going out but there is a little voice inside that is becoming increasingly jaded, you know you aren't young young, even if you aren't old OLD. A lot of stuff loses it's sparkle and adventure. You have to start imagining a future and not living in the present. Katy's problem is that she hasn't found a way to mature and change, she's trying to offer the same stuff from 20 years ago.
Elizabeth
2024-08-12 21:34:13 +0000 UTCShe does partially own Bragg's which has... A wild history and is kind of along the lines of griftiness. Maintenance Phase has a great ep about them
Charlie
2024-08-11 01:17:46 +0000 UTCJust wanted to say, on Trisha Paytas and their gender identity she has said numerous times on her podcast that when she made the trans video it was not actually a troll and she was genuinely struggling with her gender identity and body dismorphia as well as undiagnosed BPD and a drug problem. She has since said she knows now she isn't trans but identifies as gender fluid, and used she/they pronouns but has said she is also happy be called he/him if presenting masculinely.
Ssketch
2024-08-10 17:13:29 +0000 UTC"she's a daughter, she's a sister, she's a mother" not ONLY defines women in relation to others, but it's eerily similar to the sad plea whenever a woman is violated and the public ignores it -- "she's someone's sister!" This base-line appeal to empathy implies you know your audience fundamentally don't see women as human
For Autumn
2024-08-10 15:46:50 +0000 UTCGirl. 6 minutes in and what??? Werk
Cheniere Voo
2024-08-10 05:26:42 +0000 UTCThoughts about the construction scene. The stone you noted was actually an anvil which famously fell on multiple Looney Toons and Tiny Toons characters. It was a direct reference to those cartoony ridiculous moments.
Mitzen Okada
2024-08-10 03:35:05 +0000 UTCTake it back
Dayle Moon
2024-08-09 18:18:48 +0000 UTCTHIS is a fascinating point. divine masculine/divine feminine are zeitgeisty terms that have gotten extremely weird extremely fast (reminds me of twin flames universe)
Matt Bernstein
2024-08-09 18:06:21 +0000 UTCI think it's also important to mention the "divine feminine" bit. The mlm "girl boss" girlies became grifters with online master classes in essential oils or some holistic garbage to help reach the "divine feminine." It's very right-wing adjacent and definitely not the terms most feminists are using. It is not at all suprising that a popstar would be peddling the same crap. My next guess is she's going to come out with some sort of line of greenwashed products that we'll see in Wal-Mart or Target.
Kainonononono
2024-08-09 18:00:18 +0000 UTCYES!! I hoped and wished that you would make an episode about this!! I have always had such a weird relationship with Katy Perry. I think it had something to do with her expression in music videos, like, I could not figure out if she made satire or she was real. If that makes sense. I also know that I felt a lot of internalized sexism, she provoked alot of different things in me, also my desire for woman.
Azadeh Ghavamrad
2024-08-09 08:26:10 +0000 UTCrepresentation is so important
Matt Bernstein
2024-08-08 23:10:01 +0000 UTCAmazing vibes, thank youuuu 🤍 girl, so confusing remix is the song of the year fucking heaaal me
Carolina Herrero
2024-08-08 22:20:54 +0000 UTCDon't mind me, just a middle aged straight guy who loves the work that you do!
moshingsafely
2024-08-08 21:30:12 +0000 UTCwait this is hilarious
bigforeheadbitty
2024-08-08 20:27:00 +0000 UTCwhen I was little and loved Hot n Cold, I only ever heard it on the radio, censored, where “bitch” was just cut out and left instrumental. so I thought Katy saying “PMS” was her saying “pee a mess” as in men have bad aim, and then the censor was her not knowing what to compare that to, just that she would know cause she’s seen the mess. so funny to find out the truth this way
Emma
2024-08-08 18:35:10 +0000 UTCthank you for being here <3
Matt Bernstein
2024-08-08 17:24:36 +0000 UTCnext time we are in a pop culture crisis i'll be sure to ring her up for a return to The Sofa
Matt Bernstein
2024-08-08 17:23:55 +0000 UTCi am so sorry.
Matt Bernstein
2024-08-08 17:22:24 +0000 UTCI liked Katy Perry as a child but have never heard the you’re so gay song and nothing could’ve prepared me for that opening line 😭
Carly Hughes
2024-08-08 14:33:56 +0000 UTCKaty Perry was original brat.
Britt Fox
2024-08-08 12:47:25 +0000 UTCSigned up to the Patreon exactly because this video was coming. Did not disappoint. I love to overthink pop music too XD
swiftyfor2024
2024-08-08 12:40:24 +0000 UTCGreat video! Also the lyrics saying “she’s a mother she’s a sister” just prove that this was written by male suits in a boardroom… like women only exist or can aspire to be accessories to male subjectivity? But I also really appreciate what Nikita said about criticism and taking risks. We need experimental music now more than ever
Aninja
2024-08-08 07:43:39 +0000 UTCI'm so prone to cringing, I hadn't been able to listen to the full song or watch the full video before this! Given the transphobia and hateful rhetoric specifically related to public bathrooms, the urinal scene was in really poor taste! The messy lipstick reminded me of the "She's so crazzzzzy!!! Love her!!!" meme. Thanks for this video- now I never have to engage with this particular cringe again.
Anjali
2024-08-08 00:24:27 +0000 UTCnobody gets me like u whenever i first play it people are like why THIS katy perry song of them all then they see the light its truly a masterpiece chappell roan could never (im kidding i too am annoying about the fact that red wine supernova was my top song of LAST year)
Annika
2024-08-08 00:11:17 +0000 UTCwaking up in vegas a HIT of unmatched proportions. a perfect pop song. pure bubblegum ecstasy in 3 min 18 seconds
Matt Bernstein
2024-08-08 00:08:59 +0000 UTCNikita is delightful. I could listen to you just chat about pop music and everything all day. I've never been a Katy Perry fan at all but it's still interesting.
Jules Inkwell
2024-08-07 22:59:59 +0000 UTCi live in las vegas and it is tradition that whenever we go to the strip we simply must blast waking up in vegas
Annika
2024-08-07 22:45:00 +0000 UTCI hoped you’d cover this topic! Excited to listen to this one 🩷
Carla Sibson
2024-08-07 22:38:59 +0000 UTCI more or less live under a rock as far as pop culture, so I'm usually clueless about these bonus eps going in. I really enjoy them though and I appreciate you making sure to explain the background of everything for people like me lol.
Francis Peterson
2024-08-07 22:38:44 +0000 UTClol dr luke is still kim petras’ main producers. its one of the reasons i cant really get behind the slutpop era cuz like.. dr luke wrote those horny songs. but people dont give a fck because the albums are bangers
Creamer
2024-08-07 21:05:36 +0000 UTCLoved this video! It's nice to shift focus sometimes from more incendiary or hot button "political" issues and focus on a pop singer, but there's tons of interesting politics going on with Katy Perry and her new single too that were well highlighted and discussed in this video. I'm a long time listener but recent Patron, and super happy to have seen this video as my first Patreon exclusive. Great work and very insightful!
Lemonna
2024-08-07 20:31:02 +0000 UTCLoved it <3 such a welcoming break in this crazy world.
Mathieu
2024-08-07 20:14:42 +0000 UTCAhhh, such a great video! You both can just put the finger on the important things so well and your voices were so nice to listen to! Loved the video, thank you!
tyn_pet
2024-08-07 20:08:15 +0000 UTCUgh thank you Matt for educating us on the CRUCIAL interconnection between politics, social issues, and pop culture 😭😭 especially now. Love u
Florence Lambert
2024-08-07 19:49:29 +0000 UTCI remember the "I Kissed a Girl" era very well. Katy Perry started her career as a contemporary Christian singer, so there was a lot of "Is this real or pandering" talk about the song. If you look at her whole music career it's really not surprising that this is where we're at.
Christian Scholer
2024-08-07 19:33:48 +0000 UTCPersonally (again not to be the annoying SJW) but I REALLY did not care for the line "We're not going away." Even the worst misogynists don't want the women that Katy is talking about to "go away." They want to take away our bodily autonomy, our right to consent, our right to leave our partners. It feels very much like they're co-opting queer liberation. Also kind of reminds me of the one of the gender critical talking points, that giving equal rights to trans people would somehow "erase" cis women. I'm sure it wasn't intentional but I can't not hear it and like y'all said if it was a better song I might not have even noticed.
Symone West
2024-08-07 18:53:23 +0000 UTCOmg yesssss! I’m so excited for this one!
Kelly T
2024-08-07 18:04:17 +0000 UTC"Externalised homophobia - also known as - hating gay people." unfortunately was hilarious
Anna Poplos
2024-08-07 17:24:59 +0000 UTC
