Pro

Katy Perry, part of a full-female crew, alongside Lauren Sánchez, Amanda Nguyen, Kerrianne Flynn, Aisha Bowe and Gayle King, was a passenger on an 11-minute ride to space in Blue Origin’s New Shepard rocket.

While many argue that the trip to space was an elitist display of money and power, the greater importance of the trip undeniably marked a moment for women in STEM in today’s society. Despite the media focus on pop star Katy Perry, other women on the flight, such as Aisha Bowe, a former NASA aerospace engineer, and Amanda Nguyen, a bioastronautics researcher and civil rights activist, were much more deserving and qualified for the trip.

Katy Perry’s inclusion was overwhelmingly problematic; if she wasn’t on this flight, would people have responded with the same disgust? Probably not. So, why does one woman change the entire narrative of the Blue Origin mission? Because her presence allows the media to do what it does best — ridicule women. When Pete Davidson was supposed to take part in a Blue Origin flight in 2022 that got delayed because of technical issues and then canceled, did any outlets react like they are now? No, because Pete Davidson is a more palatable person for people to accept in participating an elitist display such as this one.

Con

Let’s take a moment to first reflect on when Katy Perry was the perfect pop star, constantly making hits and having her voice heard worldwide. Nowadays, she’s in the news acting like a buffoon. It’s worth noting that this is not the first time that a group of celebrities partook in space tourism. Unfortunately for us, Katy Perry, desperately holding on to relevance, used this as a PR stunt that was framed as a pro-woman movement. This, of course, begs the question: What does this do for women?

The reality of this “feminist statement” was an underwhelming 11 minutes that had no historical significance and was done in incredibly poor taste. It should be said that everyone can do whatever they want with their own money. It should also be said that Perry does not have to continue constantly proving how out of touch she is.

Of course, she will always go lower than rock bottom. The second Perry stepped off the spacecraft, she kissed the ground in front of the cameras as if she had been doing space research for months. What she really did was sing and announce her tour setlist, most likely to create a few more headlines. In the grand scheme of things, the worst part of this entire thing was Perry proclaiming herself as an astronaut.

To my knowledge, Perry does not have a degree in a STEM field, nor has she completed a test pilot program — so how can she assume this title, taking away from real astronauts who have spent their entire lives working for it? The bottom line is that there was no reason for this to be shoved in our faces, let alone happen at all. She may eventually make another hit and change people’s minds about her, but for now, she is leaving a bad mark on her legacy.