Katy Perry reaction has ‘crossed a line’

Over a week after Blue Origin’s all-female flight crew flew space, it is clear the heated aftermath has crossed a huge line.

OPINION

Of all the things that have been grievously claimed by the never ending cost of living crisis - like eggs, the freedom to indulge in all the smashed avo that fits in an average mouth and

the bright hope of home ownership - hobbies are the latest to go.

This week The Atlantic grimly reported that “For a lot of people, it’s getting too expensive to knit or fish.”

It’s lucky then that the internet has discovered a new hobby which is free and does not require four-ply yarn or a new salmon lure.

Floggings are back baby like Y2K jeans and Lindsay Lohan.

Who knew that Katy Perry and her pitiable attempt to thrust her way back into headlines by going all the way to space would end up being a real canary down the coal mine moment?

MORE: Joe Rogan’s $22m A-list lure after show slump

Everyone loves a good mob scene but in the last 48 hours the anti-Perry dunking has gone from being a sideshow to exposing a darker, bigger crisis.

For the last week the internet has been relishing mocking Perry and her 11 minute ‘mission’ of dipping her toe gingerly into space as part of Jeff Bezos’ Blue Origin all-woman rocket trip.

The whole thing was an endeavour exquisitely ripe for ridicule, such as one participant road testing their makeup and hair by skydiving in Dubai first (true) and the ‘astronauts’ all trotting about in outfits suitable for singles night at a Reno Trekkie convention.

The Blue Origin trip was marketed as some bold and courageous step for womankind because nothing matters more to feminism right now than seeing if lip filler jiggles in zero gravity.

Katy Perry holding a flower in space. Picture: Supplied

It did not work, nor was it going to, given the impossibility of anyone swallowing this as genuine article empowerment.

The whole thing was painfully stunty, made even worse when Perry used her precious 180 seconds of weightlessness to toe-curlingly plug her upcoming world tour.

The backlash came thick and fast, particularly targeting Perry, with a parade of names joining the chorus of much deserved and withering criticism, with even food chain Wendy’s getting in on things, posting of the California Girls singer, “Can we send her back?”

But lines do exist and we have now stepped over them.

Over the weekend came the latest podcast from Joe Rogan who, along with guest Tim Dillon (news stories say is a comedian but I’ll let you be the judge of his material), despite the Perry/Blue Origin being a week old got in on the act of stoking the flames.

Katy Perry kissing the ground upon return to Earth. Picture: Handout / BLUE ORIGIN / AFP)

“Let’s not minimise the sacrifice they’ve made for a great nation, for the world, in fact. They’re profoundly different now,” Rogan joked.

“These b*****s seem fine though, these ladies,” Dillon said.

Err, come again? “B*****s”?

This one word is symptomatic of a much wider vibe shift that’s been going on online.

Of late, the world has really gotten a taste for getting stuck into women.

Yes, even more so.

Perry is just the tip of the iceberg. Many of the biggest Hollywood stories of the year have centred on really energetically, use-two-hands, aren’t-we-having-a-good-time-dumping-on- women and just in the last month we have gotten a fresh crop.

Joe Rogan talked about the space flight with guest Tim Dillon. Picture: YouTube / Joe Rogan Experience

Earlier this month White Lotus star Aimee Lou Wood called out Saturday Night Live for a skit that parodied her teeth, calling it “mean and unfunny”.

When Stranger Things star Millie Bobby Brown emerged in March looking like an actual grown woman (albeit Baywatch era Pamela Anderson walking a 90s MTV red carpet) the internet nearly lost it and Brown later called out the focus on her looks as “bullying”.

The gold standard in all of this is Blake Lively whose ongoing dispute with former It Ends With Us co-star and director Justin Baldoni has gripped the internet.

Indisputably part of the fascination in the case is seeing former golden girl Lively being torn down and supposedly ‘unmasked’.

Oscar-winner Anne Hathaway went to a Ralph Lauren fashion show this month and the internet was immediately swamped with stories about her euphemistically dubbed “fresh-faced” look.

You could nearly hear the sniggering.

Tim Dillon's comment sparked outrage with many. Picture: YouTube / Joe Rogan Experience

Also enjoying similar treatment was Hilary Duff after she posted photos of herself earlier this month.

Some of the comments - “Why did she do Botox, I swear to god everyone else is the same” and “Women hate themselves by modifying their body.”

Her husband musician Matthew Koma responded to it all with, “Get fckd [sic] butterfly.”

Let me ask you, do male stars (and their appearances) ever come in for so much feverish and generally negative attention and scrutiny?

Brad Pitt’s face has clearly seen the inside of a doctor’s office but you don’t see new photos of him and his forehead triggering the internet and setting off a right proper hullabaloo.

This fun deluge of scrutiny and criticism that women face is not restricted to those with their own stars on the Hollywood Walk of Fame with new research showing things have gotten so bad that online misogyny is causing younger women to turn their backs on social media.

Blue Origin’s all-female crew pose in their space suits. Picture: Instagram

In March, Amnesty International released a report cheerily titled Toxic Tech, which surveyed

more than 3,000 British Gen Z’ers (16-25 year-olds) and revealed that one in five women have ditched or taken a break from Instagram, TikTok and X because of misogynistic content.

The report also found that the majority don’t feel safe on social media - only 49 percent do feel safe and I would hazard a guess they all own Lynx body spray.

How bad are things? Over half of Gen Z reported seeing misogynistic content at least weekly and 41 percent said they had seen content from Andrew Tate in the last month.

Who knew that 2007’s iconic “Leave Britney Alone” moment would still be depressingly applicable nearly 20 years on?

So in summation, the un-fished fish are winning, wool stocks could end up in surplus and I have a bad feeling I’m going to need to find more synonyms for ‘misogyny’ before too long.

Daniela Elser is a writer, editor and commentator with more than 15 years’ experience working with a number of Australia’s leading media titles.

Originally published as Katy Perry reaction has ‘crossed a line’