I was in the car recently and the song Roar by Katy Perry came on and I found myself feeling really pissed and wondering why I felt pissed. Katy Perry inspires no rage from me. She writes catchy, cromulent pop songs. Her public personal is professional and inoffensive. She's cute. I sing along. And then I remembered - I was pissed about when Katy Perry was on SNL and she did that song. Let's take a look at screengrab from her performance:
The xy component of the internet at large got its boxers all up in a bunch about the grave disrespect that Katy Perry showed to the fellow playing guitar there. How dare she ask guitar dude to wear this ridiculous outfit? Who the everlovin' eff does this poptart think she is?
Note there is a woman singing somewhere behind both of them who is dressed in the same manner as the guitarist. No one was particularly upset about the indignities she was forced into. Weren't her professionalism and artistic integrity equally as threatened? Hasn't she worked as hard to make it, studied her craft with the same diligence?
Apparently not. We are inured to the potential humiliation of the countless female background singers and dancers costumed in whatever nonsense best sets off the image the (male) frontliner is trying to suggest.
On a stage men (especially white men) are privileged with an assumption of legitimacy that women (especially women of color... but that's a whole nother blog post) are not. If you got pissed off about Katy Perry's furry guitarist - pay attention to the other musical acts you watch and check yer damn privilege.
It's 10:30 now, let's all enjoy whatever cray Lady Gaga brings to the SNL stage. It will not achieve the soaring heights of Kanye West's cray.... oh shit, you guys think I'm kidding, right? You know I love Kanye, for real? I mean, he's not on my fantasy dinner party list because I'm pretty sure he's a narcissistic asshole. But he does some really amazing stuff! Let's watch a little Kanye West SNL cray. How amazeballs and gorgeous is this?
