Let’s recap: We’re about 3 months into the second Trump administration. Our country has been launched into a mass deportation crisis. Trans people’s identities are actively being taken away and women’s rights are hanging on by a thread. On top of all of that, the economy is in danger, and ordinary people are struggling to put food on the table. Amid this chaos, the wealthy celebrities in our country are…going to space?
On April 14, 2025, Jeff Bezos’ space company Blue Origin launched the first ever spaceflight with an all-female crew, with crew members Aisha Bowe, Amanda Nguyễn, Gayle King, Katy Perry, Kerianne Flynn, and Lauren Sánchez. The flight only lasted about 11 minutes and reached a height of 60 miles, right about where the atmosphere meets outer space. These women are being presented as trailblazers who are making history and uplifting other women through their trip. I don’t blame them for wanting to take the trip, but honestly, I don’t feel empowered by a bunch of space tourists.
Call me crazy, but as a wealthy celebrity, I think the most empowering and impactful thing you can do is use your money and resources to help people in need. I honestly can’t seem to figure out who this spaceflight is helping in any way. It would be different if they were professional astronauts, doing work and preparation to fly to space, which could empower women who want to go into the male-dominated STEM field. On the contrary, I don’t think they achieved anything besides exercising their right to be rich and do rich people things.
A clip came out of the women in the rocket shouting in unison “Taking up space!” It was upon seeing this clip that I had to put my phone down and go for a walk… genuinely. The fact that these wealthy, prosperous women have the nerve to use a term meant to empower women as a part of their space tourism is baffling to me. Typically, the phrase “take up space” is meant to fight back against the belittling of women and discouragement of them achieving their dreams and being their truest self. Here, it is being used as a cheap pun to emphasize their so-called empowering mission that, in their minds, will surely uplift the women who are losing their rights in this country.
What shocked and disappointed me most was TV host and Blue Origin passenger Gayle King’s response to the backlash. She says: “Have y’all been to space? Go to space or go to Blue Origin and see what they do.” I can’t make this stuff up. My sincerest apologies, Gayle, but I don’t know if I’m going to be able to come up with the alleged millions of dollars for a ticket to ride Blue Origin. This immense ignorance over how much the average American citizen struggles to afford to live is what makes this spaceflight so upsetting to me. There are so much these celebrities could be doing to help people in need, and they consciously choose to fly in space instead.
Let me not forget to mention the elephant in the room here – flying with Jeff Bezos’ company? As if it wasn’t ignorant and ridiculous enough to take a needless spaceflight, to do it with the corrupt billionaire Amazon founder who reportedly mistreats his workers is just the cherry on top of this nightmare. There is not a doubt in my mind that Bezos’ main goal was not to empower women but to look like he was, potentially trying to garner support or just seem progressive. Oh, it should also be noted that one of the passengers, Lauren Sánchez, is his fiancé. You do with that what you will.
The truth is, I just don’t really care about space right now. I care about the plethora of problems that our people and our planet are facing every single day. If female empowerment is what celebrities want to accomplish, then that’s great! But I think there needs to be more conversation on what is really empowering and what real activism is. I think I would feel far more empowered if I saw this same group of women at a march or making a large donation to a charity. It may seem cool, but I don’t think space tourism is helping anyone, and the more we encourage this phony activism, the more separated we become from the wealthy elite.