You’re Oppressing Me, Katy Perry
We recently talked about how relatively minor incidents can sometimes feel much more significant than they really are. There are a lot of thought-provoking stories in the comments and I urge you to check out the comments thread if you haven’t had a chance lately.
I was reminded of that conversation today when I was listening to Katy Perry’s “California Gurls” on the radio, and feeling vaguely oppressed by the lyrics. In case you don’t know the song, the chorus goes like this:
California girls
We’re unforgettable
Daisy Dukes
Bikinis on top
Sun-kissed skin
So hot
We’ll melt your Popsicle
Oh oh oh
Admittedly, this is a stupid thing to feel oppressed by. But growing up as a lifelong California girl, I was always conscious that I didn’t live up to the familiar stereotype. I grew up with the Beach Boys song, of course, and all the videos that showed what a California girl was “supposed” to look like, and it wasn’t me. I freckle instead of tan, my hair is brown instead of blonde, and I certainly am not the thin but busty girl in Daisy Dukes and a bikini (and usually white and blonde) rollerblading on Venice Beach, who is the typical “California girl.”
Probably only seven girls in the world meet all these qualifications (and one of them is Chrissy Snow from Three’s Company) but I didn’t really understand that at the time—I just felt like I wasn’t measuring up. I guess I was afraid I would let people down, in some weird way. (And by “people” I mean “heterosexual men” who, of course, must have an unlimited supply of stereotypically beautiful, scantily clad women to look at and imagine having sex with at all times.)
So, it was a childish fear, which my all-grown-up feminist brain can easily dispense with, but it resurfaced thanks to Katy Perry, and I figured it might be interesting to share it.
Here’s the video for “California Gurls,” which is admittedly pretty cute… but it also presents girls as objects—Katy Perry is naked in it, and one girl is literally unwrapped like a present, and they are decorated in candy (because they are intended to be consumed, after all), and Snoop Dogg raps about girls being “tan, toned, fit, and ready,” and the whole thing is, from a feminist standpoint, very problematic. I mean, “We’ll melt your Popsicle”? This song is addressed to men, and promising them sexual gratification with a wink. Which is kind of Katy Perry’s schtick, right? I mean, “I Kissed A Girl” is one of my favorite gym songs, but it’s still all “tee hee” about bisexuality, presumably because men think hot chicks kissing each other is hot.
Anyway. The point being, I was driving around thinking about this today, and wondering if anyone else had a similar story about something minor that nevertheless makes you feel somehow oppressed. And I’d also love to know if there are stereotypes about the people who live where you live—and if so, whether you live up to them or not.
Posted by mo pie
Filed under: Art, Celebrities, Fatism, Feminism, Kids, Music, Personal, Question, Sex & Romance, TV, Video
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I can’t freaking stand Katy Perry. The casual misogyny in her songs is cringeworthy. Facebook recommended that I “like” her recently, and I spend several minutes wondering where I’d gone wrong in life.
I can’t stand her either. She’s so plastic and her talent is questionable.
I’m with you on this. I grew up feeling like I was a failure at being a California girl because I did not match the stereo type.
Katy Perry is fail for me for two reasons:
1. I am not going to be caught in daisy dukes. Period. I am still a California girl. I was born here. I was raised here. That does not make me eye candy.
2. Thanks to her “I Kissed A Girl” I get more crap. I am bi-sexual and so many guys think that means I am like Katy Perry. I am only into girls for a guys attention. GRR! Due to this type of thinking I automatically get put in the easy/sluty category. Then the sexual harassment begins.
Katy tried to make it as Christian singer, when that failed, she developed an image she thought would get a rise out of people. Clearly, it’s working for a lot of people, but there are also others who are tired of her sexy, but in naughty childish way (“hee hee, I’m kissing girls and shooting whipped cream from my bra!”)
It’s funny that California has this image of sand, surf and hot girls in bikinis. I was born and raised in Maryland, still live here, and this state is virtually ignored. We’re known for our crabs and seafood, not a female stereotype. Which makes it a little bit easier on me.
I’m tired of rappers who present women as golddigging oversexed shrews. Sure, there are women out there who act like that, but that’s the exception to the rule. I’m not after a man’s money, not begging for sex, and not interested in always wearing expensive designer brands. This is probably why a lot of female R&B/hip-hop singers sing about being independent; maybe they’re tired of how they’re portrayed in urban culture too.
Arghh! I don’t like that song for exactly the “woman as a consumable object” points you made above. Every time it comes on the radio, I change the station.
This is so weird – I heard this song on the radio this morning on the way to the bus, and the “Daisy Dukes, bikinis on top,” made me think to myself it must be even harder to grow up as a fat girl in California than in other states. Honestly.
I personally liked “I Kissed a Girl” because I went through what she did – conservative upbringing, realization that girls are kind of awesome (sexually), and trying to be comfortable with it. You deal with it in a “hee hee, guys will like this” way because you’re denying it. It’s hard. Now I’m okay with it, but I understand the mentality, the experience she was trying to put across.
Personally, I think that “fat” girls can be toned and fit, too (I mean, seriously, Queen Latifa? She looks like she has muscle to me) and I interpret sun-kissed very differently than most people.
I don’t have the same experiences, though.
(Personally, I am a fan of the songs with sexual innuendo because I find them entertaining. I know this is like, feminist fail or something, but I doubt I am a feminist.)
In regards to Snoop Dogg, though, even though a lot of his songs are about sex, etc., he treats his wife like a queen, and often mentions treating women like that in his songs (a few actually mention his wife in that way). He is one of the only rappers I really respect in any way (I like Eminem, Ludacris (because he’s, well, ridiculous) and Snoop Dogg, primarily – they’re the most talented, imo).
I seriously get depressed every time I hear this song. It affects my self image in a really negative way. I was just about to write a post about it actually! FU Katy Perry for damaging my hard won self love.
I have to admit this song makes me cringe when I hear it on my way home from work in the middle of the night.
I’m not sure why it bothers me, whether it’s the daisy dukes bikinis on top when I know I’d never wear either in public, if its the sun kissed skin when I’m blindingly white, or if its the way the sex is just thrown around casually.
I suppose she’s doing well enough as an artist- like it or not its getting stuck in our heads even if it is in a cringeworthy way.
So, being a California Girl but also a Bay Area Brat I kinda kicked all the steriotype stuff to the curb around 10 when I figured out all of that was in reference to So Cal, and growing up Nor Cal, well, we just are basically two different places, so whatever. I will say, though it gets old when I go other places that stereotype is so very ingraned in the American culture. Everywhere else I go I tell them I grew up in CA and you get a very… unique respose, and not necessarily a welcome one.
I don’t know, I find most pop music intolerable and reject its message full stop. If anything music like this makes me feel bad for women who fall into that ‘generally accepted desirability’ category, because it suggests that they are for public consumption and not worth much more than the appearance of their bodies. That can be just as dehumanizing as being rejected for mine.
I had to look up “Daisy Dukes,” by the way, since I had no idea what they were.
I have to admit, Daisy Dukes are probably the one article of clothing that I categorically refuse to wear on my “fat girl” body. It’s not about modesty, since I wear ultra-short skirts and dresses, but that particular type of garment is just bad news for me. >.<
I’m a 3rd generation Californian and a typical California Girl. That’s right, short, brown, and fat.
I’ve recently started liking country music (don’t tell anyone). I like the way females are portrayed and the way they portray themselves. Women are portrayed as beloved, sexy wives and they portray themselves as sh** kickers and proud of who they are.
I think I need me a pair of Daisy Dukes.
I too am from California (and yes, my name is Katy also, weeeeee!). I definitely do not fit the California girl mold. I’m blond, yes. I have green eyes, yes. I am really fat, yes oh wait that’s not right. I also don’t tan so much as burn and get splotchy. I always hated that stereotype since it very clearly included me. Plus, when I would meet people in chat rooms a lot of guys assumed I lived on the beach and was a surfer girl. Yes, because ALL of California is beach-adjacent.
err, *excluded me.
There’s a spoof to the California Gurls music video called California Gays (check it out on YouTube) that playfully puts Katie Perry’s version to shame, with the choreography alone! Now I (almost) smile when that song comes on the radio.
Man, I HATE this song!!!!! I was born and raised in Massachusetts, but have lived in California for 16 years. I saw a number of blondes in bikinis rollerblading in Venice, but they were idiots! I had NO DESIRE to experience that level of harassment, thankyouverymuch. (One time my dog went after one of them. My dog is a feminist, lol!)
There was a Gretchen Wilson song a few years back that said “Aren’t you glad we ain’t all California girls.” In one line she sang that she’s not “afraid to eat fried chicken.” Well, the video was filmed, of course, on Venice Beach and featured Ms. Wilson parading around in her bikini, having dropped 20 pounds or so after making her first 2 videos and being criticized for being “too big.” Kinda missing the entire point of the song!!!!!!! And the whole thing just pissed me off.
thanks mo, i LOVED this post. grew up in so cal in a beach town, and you know i spent every day in daisy dukes and a tiny bikini top, tanning and perfecting my popsicle/blow job pout. ok maybe not. but i did TRY to tan and get my jew fro straightened and lemon-bleached, and constantly diet… and felt like the hugest failure on the planet. my two best friends felt the same way, and they were thin and blonde!
frig you, katy perry.
and snoop, what can you say?
I thought I was the only one that was irked by this song!
As for the minor thing that makes me feel opressed, it’s this crappy “Team Player” t-shirt that I first saw on the boardwalk in Jersey ( click the link for a pic: http://www.zazzle.com/team_player_tshirt-235156033432638766). It’s got the universal man/woman icons on it, only the woman is bigger and it says “Team Player” underneath, the implication being that the guy wearing the shirt will “take one for the team” and chat up the fat friend so his bros can hit on the hot chick at the bar.
WTF! There are plenty of men for whom I am the one they WANT to hit on, the the bullet they take so their friend can get the hot girl. I *am* the hot girl! Stop opressing me with your douchebag t-shirts!
Ugh, sorry the link doesn’t work. And I meant, “…NOT the bullet they take…”
It’s been a long day.
I hate that it’s annoyingly catchy because then I find myself singing it when I dislike it. I digress.
Growing up in Kentucky, anytime I go somewhere else in the country or just chat with someone else from another state… I get one of the following:
Wow! You’re wearing shoes!
Can you all really marry your cousins?
You have such pretty teeth! And all of them are yours!
You don’t sound like you’re from Kentucky!
The last one irks me a lot. I’m a classical singer who has taken loads of diction classes. I speak with a flat accent like most Hollywood actors. I am also well educated.
Judging from this, I should be walking around barefoot with three teeth, married to my cousin, talking in an incomprehensibly thick accent and probably carrying a bucket of KFC for good measure.
I hate the backwoods hick stereotype so much.
For what it’s worth, I never run into this problem overseas. Mostly they talk about our horses. Which is refreshingly positive.
i honestly think you very lovely ladies are taking this song more personal than it has to be…im a latina living in the valley…and im no where near the “valley girl/california girl” stereotype and that doesnt bother me and it shouldnT bother you. you all seem like clearly educated ladies why be hurt by a song? the part i like about the song the most is “fine fresh FIERCE! we got that on lock, westcoast represent!” that what being a california girl means to me. yeah sometimes living here in LA sucks cuz i am biggest person when i go out but at the end of the day im am in control of my life and no one else!
The stereotype of Australian girls seems to be pretty similar to the stereotype of Californian girls. We’re supposed to be Anglo, thin, fit and sporty, preferably busty, definitely blonde and conventionally pretty. I grew up in a small coastal small on the east coast of Australia and this was definitely the female ideal.
Unfortunately for my high school self, I’m biracial, brunette, anti-sport, pear shaped and not conventionally pretty. I was thinner then than I am now, but I felt fatter – I couldn’t articulate what I disliked about myself, so it manifested in a desire to be thin. I realise now that what I wanted was to look completely different. Ultimately what I needed was to like myself.
I don’t understand why singers need to hyper-sexualize themselves. So many of them make themselves objects, possessions, etc. Not much has changed in the last forty years for women.
I really love this insight, Frances–well said.
@Laura Oh man, that really sucks. It’s a great example of a hurtful regional stereotype.
Being a California woman born and raised, I’ve developed a hate for the song “I wish they all could be California Girls.” Worse, I live in Southern California where all of these “beauties” are supposed to be. A few semesters ago, I wrote a paper on the California Girl and how oppressive the stereotype was.
There’s a parody out of Katy Perry’s song talking about how all females in California (in LA, actually, and I live in LA county) have eating disorders and are whores.
The parody bothers me, and I’ve never even heard the original song, but I’m sure it’d bother me too.
I talk to people online and whenever a male asks me where I’m from, I always get the “Oooh… so you must be a tight little beach bunny, then” response to my saying where I’m from. People are quite put off when I say I prefer to be pale, have dark hair and eyes, am fat and love it, and tend to hate the beach.
Why can’t we just be women?! WOMEN! I demand to be a woman from California, not a California “girl”.
Of course, just a post or two ago here mentioned:
That assumption is about as “oppressive” an attitude as the song is, I believe. Its a lot easier to be thin-skinned about something when it happens to affect/describe you or a good friend than if it affects someone else, no? Regardless of reality, its easy to assume that something is innocuous when its about other people.
Well I take your point, Richard, but the “zero is just a size” thing was started by Sophia Bush, a very petite person, so that’s why I really don’t think the intention was to be anti-skinny, more anti-placing the label of “zero” on any woman. But I agree that it could be misinterpreted, and that I wouldn’t blame anyone who is a size zero (for example) for finding it problematic.
Whenever I see they’re making fat jokes in a cartoon, I think how can this cartoonist moral justify sending that message to children. Sure, some of them may be under the illusion that fat = unhealthy. In most cases it’s a cheap and easy gag.
I stopped watching Flapjack, after trying to explain to the show’s creator on their website that there are many things wrong with stating on a show that a fat woman is avoiding the truth that she’s fat, by telling people to stop joking about her, and the message is that they should understand their place and that is to allow people to make fun of them. Then ending the episode saying the fat women found her perfect date, a man made of chocolate. When I told him he was sending negative messages to children, he said he wasn’t hating fat people and blocked me from his Myspace. I no longer watch that show, it’s disturbing to see someone who seems to care more about the money to be made from the cartoon industry, than what message he’s sending to children. Particularly because he has a son, who he said was the inspiration for the character Flapjack. He’s okay with teaching his son fat people are to be made fun of, and are only able to have an emotional affinity for food?
Well, it seems that show hasn’t been played much lately, so I guess that will teach the creator to insult his audience. Chowder was based on the idea of a chef’s apprentice who was a fat cat-bear-racoon thing (it’s a running joke, that nobody really can tell what animal Chowder’s supposed to be), it did have the typical oh the fat kid can eat anything and their stomach is a bottomless pit jokes. I liked the show though, I feel like I have to justify watching it despite such stereotypical depictions of fat people, oh I can’t believe I forgot about Endive in regards to this. I think it maybe was it was making fun of itself, in regards to the fat jokes.
As far as California Gurls goes, I understand some people would find the video objectifying of women. The thing is, it seemed more like the girls were having fun, it reminded me of how 80’s videos were. It’s different than, a woman simply standing around and being an object for men to gaze at. Also the whipped cream bra thing, shows that Katy isn’t taking the whole sexual icon thing that seriously.
I liked the video, I can see where it is bringing up tired old stereotypes regarding women in music. Compared to another video I saw by Ciara where she talks about how her boyfriend likes how she “rides it” throughout the video, it’s not that bad. It appears to just be a girls having fun video, we need more videos like that.
I hate about 95% of all pop music. Yeah, a few talented singers slip through (Christina Aguilera, Lady Gaga and Kelly Clarkson I can handle, but that’s about it). It really disturbs me that frequently women perpetuate the objectification and stereotypes worse than men.
I’m going to go listen to GBH’s “Big Women” now. Makes me happy.
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This is why I often go on a media diet, because it can really drive you mad if you ingest too much of it. I think Katy Perry has her place and I take no issue with her, its trashy but some people like it and some people don’t. I think women as a collective need to start unplugging and start demanding more and better representation, things we want to hear and see.