Ummmmmm wow, I had not heard that Ur So Gay song... homophobic much?

Like someone else in the first thread said-- give me Jill Sobule any day.

Yeah, I'll be honest, I really like the song. (and I'm not going to deny, as a guy, that adolescent slumber party fantasy)

Still, I think we understate how nuts this guy is.

Oh, and as for the Ur So Gay song, yeah, homophobic.

I understand it's a guilty pleasure, but I can't understand anyone liking this song. I find it to be extremely irritating, as well as homophobic and ignorant.

My daughter receives Brio magazine, a Christian publication for teens, and there is a "question" posed in one of the segments that asks about the song. I can't remember the exact answer, but it basically says that Katy Perry is very talented and should focus on more wholesome pursuits, and follows up with some verses to "check out" what the Bible says about homosexuality. My daughter in turn asked me, and I answered honestly, that I had kissed a girl--and liked it, just not as much as I liked kissing boys.

Of course, Brio readers believe that Hummers are better for the environment because they last twice as long as a Prius, but that's a whole other thing.

I Kissed a Girl is awfully catchy - but it's irritating. Katy Perry can get cred for talking about homosexuality in the mainstream, but she's actually just reinforcing this "faux-lesbian" trend of girls making out really for the sake of guys. Also, Ur So Gay is so homophobic and full of stereotypes and just plain obnoxious.

Since someone already mentioned it (in both this post and the last), here's Jill Sobule's song "I Kissed a Girl" as an a kind of antidote to Perry:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SclQZ4W2VZ0

As for the church sign, it's totally awful and inappropriate but, sadly, not all that surprising to me...

wow, I saw about half of that "Ur So Gay" video. More vegan bashing as well as homophobism- I know "gay" is a term widely used, but it's still a homophobic term. Guy doesn't eat meat!?! Must be a fag!

actually, Katy Perry can go fuck off in hell for all i care. she is totally repulsive, mysogynistic, homophobic and a female chauvinist pig.

FUCK OFF, KATY PERRY!!!!

I totally agree with the critique of the lyrics in terms of kissing girls for other guys, and suggesting that it's not an authentic feeling to have in and of itself. However I have to say that I don't think it's all that bad. Especially for young, already pop-obsessed girls.

Before I was fully conscious of my current feminist beliefs (or my own sexuality) I was heavily affected by the pop culture around me. And I did kiss girls, but to tell you the truth, I don't know if I would have if the pop culture around me didn't tell me it was (on some level) okay. And maybe I did do it the first time to try and be cool, but it definitely opened my eyes to a whole new world once I had tried it. And after that I did it because I wanted to, regardless of "cool".

I spend most of my days working with young girls (ages 10-15) for my job. The fact that they LOVE this song is interesting to me. In a way, I think they just want it to be "allowed" to be able to kiss girls if they want. Does it SUCK that young girls feel like they need to be "allowed" to do something so obviously healthy and "normal"? Yes. Is it a reality for the daily life of MANY teenage girls? Yes.

I see adults in their lives tell them over and over that they can be who they want to be, do what they want to do, even love who they want to love, but at the end of the day, pop culture (unfortunately) has a power that we don't. And if this needs to be a stepping stone to their sexual consciousness, then hey, I still think there are worse things.

i can't believe this webiste would attempt to justify katy perry in any fashion.

she blatantly misrepresents her sexuality in order to sell albums, while simultaneously insulting the gay and lesbian community. by definition she is a whore and a disgrace to music.

On the one hand, in a way it's a tiny sign of progress that Katy Perry can, in theory, write a song about kissing another girl and have it be a hit.

Unfortunately, the song's a complete and total botch, in ways that have been explained here several times.

I don't even find it very good, musically, and this is coming from someone for whom teen pop is a massive, and not even guilty at this juncture, pleasure.

Her new song "Ur So Gay" definitely makes my heart cry a little bit. Even though the lyrics to "I Kissed a Girl" aren't really that queer-friendly at times, it still subverts heteronormativity; "I kissed a girl AND I liked it." It's a bit of an anthem for being bi-curious, which is great; however, "Ur So Gay" brings back "gay" as an epithet, which I thought that, by the time you were in your early twenties like Perry, you should definitely be over. This is NOT grade 6. We should all be mature enough to know that "gay" is NOT and SHOULD NOT be an insult reserved for the gay you're breaking up with...

Wow.

I've somehow managed to avoid hearing any of this woman's output, but I googled the lyrics to "UR So Gay" and am dumbfounded. I'm very much with SarahS on this one: how can a supposedly mature person still think in those terms?

Anyone see how gay = emasculated in this song? In fact, gay = no penis. Real mature, and makes no sense.

Somehow that gay as epithet mentality gets around to gay men are not real men--> are not masculine--> are like women (cuz girls are so lame, hur! /snark)--> don't have a penis/has a teeny tiny penis. Glad to see she ascribes to the insult culture of twelve-year-old-boys.

I'm going to go out on a limb here. I'll first say that I agree with a lot of the comments along the lines of this being a guilty pleasure etc. But I'm going to speak from my own experience.

I'm a college age MtF transwoman and a lesbian. Most of my friends are queer or queer friendly and we love Katy Perry. Honestly, I understand where all the anger is coming from and I think she could be a bit more aware of what kind of impact she has. But, all that said, we don't mind. Most of the stereotypes that are portrayed in "I Kissed a Girl" and especially "Ur So Gay" are so shallow and non-representative of our particular community that we have a hard time being offended. Is she really helping end queer bashing or adding to the conversation? No. Are there way more important queer and feminist issues to be worried about. Yes.

Why don't we spend our energy talking about Sarah Palin, the terribly way she and Hillary Clinton have been covered in the media, the deaths of Lawrence King, etc. instead?

I especially like the subversion of heterosexuality in "I Kissed a Girl" even if Ur So Gay doesn't do the same thing. I've also heard reports that her producers have encouraged her to play up the "hope my boyfriend don't mind it" and "it was all a dream" mentality about the song because, get this, the music industry is super homophobic.

P.S. Am I the only one who hears "Ur so gay" to the tune of "You're so vain?"

I like the song too, but yeah, it is kind of irritating. But I think that in the song, she is portraying a straight girl who was probably drunk and kissed another girl most likly for attention from the boys. As a lesbian, i don't think in the song she was alluring that she was/is a lesbian, or even bi; most likly she is bi-curious, but will untimatly date guys. The main thing that irritates me is that she is so degrading to the girl she is kissing. But then again, lesbians who play with the straight girls should know what is going to happen.

I also looked up the lyrics to "ur so gay". The first lyric in the song says " I hope you hang your self with your H&M scarf." Sounds like Katy Perry has a hatred of men. Also, she demonstrates the classic defense mechanism of an insecure female when she attempts to degrade his genitals in the line "you pull 'em down and there's nothing really there".

Can't say anything redeeming about the girl except that the song is grand and makes me feel grand and the Sobule song is hardly a decent antidote no matter how more sexually correct it may be for the simple reason that it sucks.

Hi all I'm a longtime lurker but I just had to comment on this. I live here in Ohio and this was on the local news before it attracted nationwide attention. I'm glad it did because it because I was beginning to think I was being touchy about it. The problem is,I don't think that people are listening to the lyrics other than hearing I kissed a girl. When I first heard this song I found it irritating while everyone else is like "it's such a good song, she's being honest about her sexual feelings". I've also been told that she is trying to be "ironic"(huh?) and that she is sending a message about it being ok to be a girl who like girls. If that's her message then why does she wake up next to a guy? I think the line is "I got so brave drinking hen." (You'll have to excuse me if I misquoted that,I am hard of hearing and have had to listen to this numerous freaking times to understand anything beyond the lines, I kissed a girl and I liked it.) Her message is I kissed a girl but.....it doesn't count, it's ok don't worry it doesn't make me gay or bi because..I was drunk. The video plays into the Girls Gone Wild mentality, where girls/women have the handy excuse for their behavior, "I'm drunk,I'm turning guys on! and they'll think I'm sooo hot for making out with another girl."
I've kissed a girl, I liked it and hey I was sober! As far as I am concerned kiss whoever you want to just don't get all wimpy and say but I was drunk.

This girl kissing is way better!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SclQZ4W2VZ0

NatalieUGA,
sure, there are more important things to discuss.. but talking about politics all the time can get depressing.. i find lighter posts like this refreshing. i can only talk about palin so much before getting nauseous. =P

I actually don't think the lyrics are about kissing girls for guy's viewing pleasure.

"My head gets so confused."
Sexuality is not black-and-white. I see nothing wrong with experimenting when you're confused.

"I kissed a girl and I liked it"
Girls who kiss girls just for the viewing pleasure of guy do not enjoy the actual act. She is doing it for her own pleasure.

I don't like the song "Ur So Gay" but the majority of her album is great. "One of the Boys", "Thinking of You", "Waking Up in Vegas", "Manniquin", and "Fingerprints" are all great songs. I wouldn't call them feminist songs but they certainly not anti-feminist.

Just an FYI, Katy Perry's folks are Christian Evangelicals and her background is in the church... I don't want to discriminate, but that really only makes her songs even more offensive.

I didn't really see anything offensive about I Kissed a Girl. I agree with Toni that I didn't see the kiss as something for boys' benefit because of the "I liked it" line and to me the drink was just what gave her courage to try something she wanted to try anyway. I do think the video was really tame and geared more for male viewing pleasure than to appeal to a female's bi-curiosity. I think they could have done something sexy but really neat with the video instead of something so tame. However, the Ur So Gay song is really offensive in two different ways. First it seems to imply that if a man doesn't conform to stereotypical gender roles he is somehow not straight. This calling someone out meanly (I wish you would hang...) for not conforming to traditional gender roles has troubling implications for females who also don't conform to these roles. Of course, the other troubling part of this song is using "gay" as an insult and lumping all gays together as being a certain way, which it appears is less than "real" men. Oh, I forgot, gay men can't have a big penis either??!! I can just see Katy Perry's ideal boyfriend. He reads Maxim, drives a pickup truck jacked up on big wheels, barbecues, wears flannels, has muscular arms but a slight beer gut, and listens to country music. Oh yeah.. he also isn't socially conscious enough to vote but if he was it would be for McCain and Palin.

If you take the billboard as it stands...does that mean that anyone at all who kisses a girl is going to hell...like, what if a man said it? But then Eve is responsible for "the fall" so I guess it is yet another boring misogynist statement.

A friend of mine did a very funny cover of Perry's "I Kissed a Girl" - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3JXYfJKRznA (entitled A Tragic, Pathos-Laden Cover). I only heard the original because I thought I should compare the two, and I can't say I was impressed with the message or the 'dream' ending! I'm definitely much less impressed with 'Ur so Gay", though. It really pins down why I HATE it when my students use that phrase - and why I ask them not to, around me!

Actually, I think the point of the song (Ur so gay) was that the girls didn't really like boys, but that they were pretending to in order to "fit in". I also think she was just making fun of the super-hyped emo boy look (which in itself is somewhat funny but offensive).

Jill Sobule's version is definitely much better! having heard it the first time back in august when I was at the now-closed, manhattan lesbian bar, ruby fruit on hudson st.; I was not very impressed! this one seems to be much the same, high femme girly-girl bullshit type of video meant more for the sex starved man's pleasure; than anything else! of course, and being a transsexual lesbian woman I can say this; I am sure that this has to be the hit of every drag performer's show![ most of them being cross-dressers whom, while dressing up for show; still live daily as Men and don't wich to give up their " Men's room Privileges"!]