The “California Gurls” music video has Katy Perry nude in a cloud and includes this lyric from Snoop Dogg: “Kiss her, touch her, squeeze her buns.” And yet I fear this song did more for women than Katy Perry’s recent expedition to space. Why is this? Well, at least when watching “California Gurls,” neither Katy Perry nor I pretended that it was a great work of feminist media, beyond possibly being an anthem for California women. Her recent Blue Origin flight, however, was made to seem feminist when it actually showed just how distanced from reality celebrities are.
Blue Origin
Blue Origin is Jeff Bezos’ private space startup. On April 14, the startup sent six women, celebrities and scientists, into space for 11 minutes. This was the first all-female space flight since a Soviet flight in 1963, in which Valentina Tereshkova completed a solo trip to Earth’s orbit for three days. Tereshkova’s flight was a professional space flight and garnered Tereshkova the status of “feminist icon.” Blue Origin, on the other hand, is a private space company that is trying to pursue commercial space travel; whilst the crew did include two scientists, the other four crew members included celebrities such as pop singer Katy Perry and Jeff Bezos’ fiancée, Lauren Sanchez. On paper, this may seem like a success for feminism: an all-women crew, Amanda Nguyen pursuing her dreams of being an astronaut after her sexual assault made her feel like it was no longer possible, and Jeff Bezos arguing that this flight would encourage more women to pursue careers in STEM. However, when I watched the flight, all I could think of was how performative it was and how out of touch it seemed with the current climate.
Jeff Bezos and commercial space travel
For starters, the mission was funded and created by Jeff Bezos, the founder of Amazon, who currently has a net worth of $190.9 B. This would not be too bad if he were using his extreme wealth to develop space science. However, the Blue Origin mission was part of his endeavor into commercialized space travel. This commercialized space travel is being developed for space tourism rather than for improving space travel for future scientists. The current mission only allowed these women to experience weightlessness and to have a view of Earth from space, because they didn’t have time to do much else, and there was no scientific goal. This mission allowed Bezos to develop his commercial endeavors, as there was no purpose to this mission beyond sending people into space. It was not for science but to fulfill Bezos’ capitalist agenda by developing another avenue for him to gain extreme wealth.
Nobody needs to travel to space for the fun of it, and commercial space travel is of no help to any real-world issues. Instead, it actually causes problems by creating another meaningless avenue for the extremely wealthy to invest or display their wealth. Half the crew being celebrities is very telling, demonstrating that commercial space travel will be for the select few. It will be a hobby for the rich whilst the rest of us suffer with crippling bills, the dwindling of essential resources, and a lack of social welfare.
environmental impact
Beyond this, commercial space travel is genuinely harmful to the environment, but I wouldn’t expect the man who created the most unsustainable delivery service in the world to care about this. Blue Origin’s recent female flight expedition emitted no less than 75 tons of carbon per passenger, based on its length, according to a 2022 World Inequality Report. As we continue to experience a global environmental crisis, which disproportionately affects women, the poor, and people of color, why should we rejoice as six privileged women help to ensure that the globe gets warmer? What makes it even worse is that these women pretended to feel more connected to the earth as they landed, with Perry kissing the ground once they landed. Perry was not more connected to the Earth when she landed, as someone who was connected to the Earth would have never partaken in a mission that actively destroyed the Earth. Instead, they would have channeled their energy into preserving ecosystems, which many marginalized and indigenous communities already do.
Jeff Bezos and Trump
What makes this mission’s environmental impact worse is that the women on this flight presented themselves as progressive but were willing to go on a flight funded by a man who has been cozying up to President Trump. Bezos is not stuck in his political beliefs; rather, he seems to follow those who are successful. At the current moment, this is Trump, whom he attended the inauguration of and met with. In my mind, going on a space mission funded by a man who has openly supported a President who wants to deny women access to abortions, makes sexually charged comments about women, and is currently unfairly deporting immigrants, including women immigrants, isn’t exactly feminist. These women are allowing Bezos to profit from a false narrative of feminism by being part of his all-female flight crew whilst he works with people who are eroding women’s rights.
Other aspects of the flight
Now, don’t even get me started on other aspects of this flight, whether it be the women’s Austin Power female sidekick-esque outfits, matching blowouts, full faces of make-up, female-friend support crew consisting of celebrities such as Oprah or Kris Jenner, or Perry forcing these women to listen to her singing in an enclosed rocket. None of it felt feminist to me. Rather, it felt like classic white and liberal feminism, which focuses on improving the rights of a few select privileged, most often white women, to be just like their privileged male counterparts. This is opposed to more radical and impactful forms of feminism, which look to advance the rights of all women, to combat gender norms, and to dismantle hierarchies that allow people like Jeff Bezos to thrive off extreme inequality.
I do not see this flight as a win for women, instead, I see it as a regression for women, as now the privileged few have realized that they can get away with their hyper-capitalist projects as long as they pretend they are for the greater good. It shows just how much intersectionality is neglected when the mainstream discusses feminism, because the wins of wealthy, privileged women are not wins for all women. Katy Perry’s music discography is more useful to women than this, because at least we know it is nothing more than catchy pop songs that we can all sing along to.