Is Katy Perry Holding Empowered Women Back, Or Are We Missing the Joke?

There is a moment in Katy Perry's new video for "Woman's World" where she sticks a gas pump into her backside and turns the clock backward to a 2010s era pop video that had Rolling Stone magazine offering some heavy criticism: "rarely has someone so misread the room." For her part, Perry defended her video suggesting that it was supposed to be satire and "a bit sarcastic," which had others wondering whether the video and ensuing controversy was just another example of how our culture seems unable to appreciate a joke anymore.

The video, if you watch it, may strike you as over the top in many ways. If you know ahead of time that she means it to be sarcasm, you'll probably see it that way and notice moments where the unrealistic expectations of women are depicted. If you don't know, the video could easily come across as objectifying women or at the very least, offers an extremely dated look. And possibly the video manages to be both offensive and insightful at the same time.