Kissing A Fool

(Note: I was on vacation last week so I post this a day early to atone)

Every so often, a musical artist will come along and sing something that’s supposedly controversial and s/he gets kudos and attention for being “edgy.”

Katy Perry is one of those artists. If you don’t know the name, you surely have heard the song, “I Kissed a Girl.” I’ll admit it’s catchy, although she ripped off the exact same title from singer Jill Sobule, whose 1995 song authentically raised eyebrows for its time.

On the surface, Katy seems to be celebrating same-gender intimacy, trying on the veneer of the high school outcast rebel who boldly walks on the wild side and doesn’t give a damn what her classmates and teachers think.

Instead she’s indulging in a few of the hoariest gay stereotypes ever.

The hook, always the easiest part of a song to remember and sing along with, just describes a girl buzzed on alcohol who hopes locking lips with a cherry-Chapstick-wearing hottie doesn’t make her boyfriend mad. And she takes pains to emphasize she’s “not in love.” But the second verse is what really bothers me. Check it out.

No, I don't even know your name
It doesn't matter
You're my experimental game
Just human nature
It's not what good girls do
Not how they should behave
My head gets so confused
Hard to obey

Where do I begin?

On the surface, it’s tempting to applaud a presumably straight singer for “daring” to sing about a gay kiss. We’re assuming she must be cool with it – and gay people – if she sings about it. Artists like her sneakily advance our cause in the pop culture realm, and thus the attitudes and social mores of the general listeners, by trumpeting girl-on-girl action like it’s not a big thing, so some might say. She may even be a Girl Power advocate – an honorary Spice Girl.

But dig deeper, like a college writing teacher used to beseech to me and my classmates. First, I am so over seeing gays and lesbians reduced to experiments and games from those who want to test drive all afternoon but not sign the lease. This makes gays seem like an exotic adventure and worse, an overcoat that can just be slipped on and off.

That kind of mentality fuels the false thinking that gayness is not an orientation but just a lifestyle that can be temporarily adopted or chosen, which is still the way of thought by several family members of mine even as they say they accept me.

And what is it with this not being how “good” girls should behave? Sure, let’s paint lesbianism with a forbidden shade, as if it’s a gasp-inducing, OMG sin to share a same-sex kiss. Even as Katy purports to be liberated by the experience, she confesses to be scandalized by it at the same time.

Being edgy means behind ahead of the curve, not woefully behind it. Nowadays a same-sex smooch is merely a secondary plotline on Gossip Girls and likely the main reason viewers flock to MTV’s A Shot of Love with Tila Tequila. Of course there is always homophobia and backward thinking, but the currency of presenting things like this as shamefully illicit has long dropped in value.

Of course Katy Perry fans can argue that she (and the songwriters) is only presenting the kiss as a shock to show how ridiculous it is to place a sense of scandal on same-sex intimacy, thus making regressive souls re-think their assumptions and prejudices.

Look, I don’t know the girl. But I feel confident enough to bet $1,000 she’s not that clever and subversive by half. What’s more likely is that she and her record company wanted to release a tune with a title they knew would pique curiosity – and attract airplay and sales.

After all, the video conveniently declines to actually show her smooching an actual girl. So she’s big and bad enough to sing about it, but becomes too timid to actually show it. Whatever.

Flirting with gay territory has brought Katy a hit. Now I’m waiting for a song that describes a same-sex relationship with truthfulness, humor, depth, and cleverness and presents it as completely normal.

Now that would be edgy.