Hey girlboss! Live laugh love! This is what a feminist looks like! Slay, queen!
Those aren’t the lyrics to Katy Perry’s new song, “Woman’s World”, but they might as well be. The sickly-sweet pop tune, which sounds like it was written by a Pokémon called Giggly Girly Puff or an AI version of the Spice Girls but was, in fact, co-written by five adults besides Perry (including industry pariah Dr Luke), describes women in terms as broad and patronising as possible. “Sexy, confident / So intelligent!” Hooray, I’m a flower and a thorn!
It doesn’t get better from there. The lyric “She’s a sister, she’s a mother” has the unfortunate echoes of a prominent man accused of something unsavoury, seeking to prove his respect for women by citing his proximity to one. Meanwhile, “so soft, so strong” sounds more like a jingle for toilet paper than an anthem of empowerment.
Since it was released on Friday, “Woman’s World” has been subject to a snarky backlash, the scale of which is hard to remember. Whether you’re objecting to its outdated, limp feminism, or to the infuriatingly repetitive beat – like someone pressed “demo” on GarageBand – you’ll be in good company; yet the song remains on Radio 2’s A list, blaring into the nation’s ears with a frequency that borders on cruel (I say this as someone who’s been listening to it on repeat while writing, and can practically feel her brain cells atrophying).
Look, the last thing I want is to join a Perry Pile On. The poor woman was clearly trying to do something cool and failed – but mistakes are part of making art, and I hope she dusts herself off before getting straight back on the pop-horse. Meanwhile, wouldn’t it be kinder to everyone involved to let the song quietly fade into obscurity? The internet has obliterated “Woman’s World” like so many bullies swarming a kid in a dorky outfit on the first day of school; it’s time to lay it to rest, and for the nation’s DJs to follow suit. Please: enough.
I’m getting a bit tearful, because I’d like the song to stop, but its ubiquity begs the question – what is radio for? If it is for trying out new songs, that moment has passed: the people have spoken, and wish to consign “Woman’s World” to history. If radio is for playing music that is “good” or “well liked”, well, then that should ensure “Woman’s World” is never played again. Yet on and on it blares, not only in my dreams but seemingly every time I get in a taxi or enter a supermarket. It’s only been three days; just think what a state we’ll all be in come August.
As her first release since 2020 album Smile, which failed to make much of an impact, “Woman’s World” is not just a song but Perry’s (unfortunate) vehicle of choice for an apparent comeback: the single is “the first contribution I have given since becoming a mother and since feeling really connected to my feminine divine”, she said in a statement. But just because a pop star feels like having another crack at the charts, should it follow that we all have to sacrifice our ears on her altar?
Oh, our eyes too – I haven’t even mentioned the music video, somehow surreal (anvils, robo-horse-legs) and insipid (Sexy Rosie the Riveter, peppy dance moves) at the same time. In the wake of criticism/snort-laughing, Perry has claimed satire, posting a clip of herself on set laying out her thinking (like all the best jokes, satire famously gets funnier the more you explain it). Ah, the close up of Perry’s breasts was poking fun at the male gaze, not pandering to it! False alarm, as you were.
Perhaps with time and space to heal, we’ll be able to account for how this tragedy happened in the first place. For too long, radio has been beholden to big-name artists and slick PR campaigns, whether or not they yield anything interesting; the wreckage of “Woman’s World”, and the sheer breadth of the damage it has wrought, should be a teachable moment. It’s not good for anyone to have a terrible song played over and over again, least of all its artist (least of all me). Never again, we say (we plead) – looking at you, Radio 2.