Katy Perry might have stolen the show recently when she boarded Blue Origin’s New Shepard spacecraft. She rocketed to the edge of space on an amazing 11-minute trip! The flight was intended to mark a new chapter for women in space exploration. Yet within hours of the gala’s end all hell broke loose, with critics claiming Perry’s actions at the event exposed a huge rift between celebrities and normal people.
As such, many viewed the Blue Origin flight as a celebratory milestone for women. Yet instead, it became what some described as a poorly executed circus. Opponents slammed this all as overly staged, more music video than real space flight. Perry stole the show by posing with the setlist for her next tour at 30,000 feet. This led to a lot of speculation regarding why this self-driving vehicle pioneer really chose to join the race.
Observers waited to see Perry celebrated as a cutting-edge reformer, but rather—despite its promise—he quickly ran into the firestorm. Critics criticized her as living in a bubble divorced from the grim realities that the average American is facing. According to one source familiar with the situation, “This billion-dollar brand is using its very public platform to humiliate a woman. Their words express the seriousness of all that’s at stake.
Back on the spacecraft, Perry met with new backlash for singing her sweet nothings to her new space companions. She referred to them jokingly as her “astronaut girlie friends.” Her showbiz behavior, highlighted by a fishy-smelling landing kiss, earned the contempt of top fans and teammates as well. In defense of Perry to be sure, it’s not crazy to find this mistake beyond parody, as Emily Ratajkowski herself pointed out, and plenty interpreted her inclusion as scenester posturing.
It was the contrast between Perry’s lavish jet-setting and her rhetorical commitment to environmentalism that made this trip so explosive. Environmental activists criticized the initiative, calling out the irony of advocating for space travel when not addressing the environmental consequences involved in those behaviors. One commentator stated, “Saying that you care about Mother Earth and it’s about Mother Earth, and you’re going up in a spaceship that is built and paid for by a company that’s singlehandedly destroying the planet.”
Perry’s critics were quick to call him out. Her critics dubbed her a faux-feminist, claiming that her performative acts undermined genuine advancements for women’s representation in space exploration. At the same time, industry comrades were making their own calls on the file. As director Olivia Wilde tweeted in response to all this, “Billion dollars bought some good memes I guess,” a perfect summary of how ridiculous all this is.
Gayle King, who was on board, defended the flight by stating, “It was called a flight, it was called a journey. There was nothing frivolous about what we did.” She went on to underscore the importance of that journey for women by claiming, “We were altering the course of womankind.” This defense did nothing to stop the growing doubters of Perry’s campaign.
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