K aty Perry’s new single is a depressingly retrograde racket, a faux-feminist pastiche paying tribute to the “feminine divine”. Titled “Woman’s World”, it would have been mortifying enough in its natural habitat of a Hillary-for-president fundraiser in 2016. But now, in 2024, it sounds little more than alarmingly antiquated.
With its Rosie the Riveter visuals and dreary lyrics about sisters, mothers and sexy confidence, the track also marks Perry’s return to music following two poorly received albums and several years manning the judge’s desk on American Idol , a show that rivals only Tony Blair and the mice in my kitchen cabinets in its refusal to go away. The internet, meanwhile, has decided that Perry should face the kind of digital flogging previously reserved this year for the beleaguered Jennifer Lopez and Justin Timberlake . Perry’s ethics, creativity, styling and choice of collaborators have all been put on trial at the Pop Culture Hague in recent weeks, with viral tweets and memes declaring her not only out of step with the times, but a punchline very much deserving of mockery and criticism.
Some of it is fair – the “go girl!” caterwauling of “Woman’s World”, for instance, is lent an air of fraudulence by the presence, on its production credits, of Dr Luke, a man who has long denied allegations of rape by the pop star Kesha . Some of it feels harsh. But it all suggests that the road ahead for Perry will be far trickier than she may have .