Listen to Katy Perry's song "I Kissed a Girl" right now, and you might feel a bit different about it than you did 10 years ago. Yes, it's still as catchy as ever—Perry's throaty vocals are strong and the sledgehammer beat means business—but the lyrics might give you pause. "I kissed a girl, and I liked it," Perry firmly announces, while making multiple references to the the taste of said girl's cherry Chapstick. Throughout the song, Perry bemoans the fact that kissing girls isn't what "good girls do" and that she hopes her boyfriend doesn't "mind" her experimentation. "Just wanna try you on," she sings at the jump. "I'm curious for you."
The song was branded as "lesbian-friendly" in 2008, but to be clear, there's nothing genuinely queer about it. Some critics have said the lyrics "reflect the trivialization of queer female sexuality and the cultural norms which state that female sexuality exists for the pleasure of men.”
To be fair, that's something our heteronormative culture did quite a bit during the early aughts. Think back to Britney Spears and Madonna's kiss at the 2003 MTV Video Music Awards, or the two girls making out at the Halloween party in Mean Girls. Even if Perry does consider herself sexually fluid, "I Kissed a Girl" winks to queerness without offering much nuance.
Thankfully, we've (mostly) moved past this, which is why Perry admits she'd rework some of the lyrics to "I Kissed a Girl" if she released it now.
"We've really changed, conversationally, in the past 10 years," she told Glamour. "We've come a long way. Bisexuality wasn't as talked about back then, or any type of fluidity. If I had to write that song again, I probably would make an edit on it. Lyrically, it has a couple of stereotypes in it. Your mind changes so much in 10 years, and you grow so much. What's true for you can evolve."
Watch, below:
Well said, Queen Perry, and now we're itching for you to release "I Kissed a Girl" again. The 10-year anniversary is coming in April, after all: Sounds like an excellent opportunity to rerecord the song—with more progressive lyrics—and silence the critics for good.
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