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Katy Perry wore a corset to stroll down Sesame Street and, in an instant, a show that has a long history of fighting for justice and liberty by normalizing things like interracial relationships and international cultures - and even homosexuality - became the frontline of America’s fundamentally prudish need to demonize and control women’s bodies. A show that was born the same year that I was, and to which I give partial credit for the fact that my generation was the first one with a shot at eliminating prejudice from our daily lives, showed us that the fight for autonomy and respect is one that should be surrendered to some angry mommies. Angry mommies, after all, are scary.
I’ve watched the Youtube video a bunch of times, and although I’m still no fan of syrupy pop songs (and pleased that my daughter prefers Vampire Weekend to Katy Perry,) I think Ms. Perry, and her bouncy boobies, are just fine. She seems smart, funny, fun, engaging, talented and strong enough to run down a street singing her own song. That’s what I want for my daughter. That is a great message. Especially since my daughter’s boobs are growing right before my eyes, and although it traumatizes me, I don’t want her to be ashamed of them – or her own song.
So I’m listening to all these mothers bitch and moan about Ms. Perry’s perky pair in her golden corset, and I can’t help but think “what a bunch of hypocrisy.” How many of these mothers let their kids watch The Little Mermaid? Have you seen what that chick wears? Pasties! She wears pasties! (Granted, if I had boobs like that, that’s all I’d wear also.) She also wears a “skirt” that is so far below her navel that if she were old enough to have pubic hair, Sebastian would have to become a pubic crab of the Brazilian sort of pluck those pubes under the sea, and everywhere else.
I’ve long had an issue with The Little Mermaid. It’s not that I don’t agree with the fundamental premise that “everything’s better down where it’s wetter,” it’s that the lesson of the film is that the girl should give up everything she is and has in order to be “part of your world.” She sets her eye on the guy, and her entire world becomes consumed by getting his attention and fitting into his world. That’s bad enough (and, to be clear, the mass of most of mass-media messaging) but she LITERALLY gives up her voice and her ability to swim and therefore to be with her friends and family. Rendering her mute and imprisoned. Nice. That’s right honey, in order to get the guy, you give up your strength and autonomy, and need to look just like the rest of their world. Ugh!
I am guessing that the mommies who are so angry about Katy Perry’s teenage ta-tas were perfectly happy to let their little girls absorb that aqueous nonsense of The Little Mermaid, and didn’t bat an eye. As much as I’d love to run through the whole Disney line-up (especially the fact that the reason you never see pictures of Tinkerbell bent over from behind is that you’d be able to see the magic cave where she keeps her fairy powers) this is actually a serious issue.
The messages that we send our girls about their bodies will, whether we mean for them to or not, shape how they feel about their bodies, their value in the world and their own power to both protect their bodies from harm and use them for pleasure.
Step one: teach our daughters that their bodies are nothing to be ashamed of. When the entire world goes into an uproar because Katy Perry was shown to have boobs, we teach girls everywhere that they should be ashamed of the fact that they have boobs. (And we didn’t even see her nipples, like the infamous Janet Jackson ‘wardrobe malfunction,” which also made mountains out of very lovely
