I kissed a girl and I...

...liked it?  Made money from it?  Turned my boyfriend on? Did it ‘coz it worked for Madonna?  In Katy Perry’s case, probably all of the above. 

Yes we are all familiar with the popular song; we hear it every time we go to Poptastic and our straight friends think we may like it because it mentions girls kissing girls.  But is this all we have to cling on to in this wilderness of lesbian role models?  Can we not all just let go of this Katy Perry life raft and maybe doggy paddle to another one, with, say, Tegan and Sara on it?  (couldn’t resist the corny metaphor, sorry reader!).

Beth Ditto recently called the song a “Boner dyke anthem for straight girls who like to turn guys on by making out or, like, faking gay”.  For those of you who don’t know, Beth Ditto of The Gossip, is actually a lezzer and is actually quite a feisty bird who gets her kit off every now and then. AND she was on the front cover of the bloody NME!  A feat which should not go unnoticed in a publication which has notoriously been male dominated since the get go.  So what of the pink pound then?  Are we just being manipulated by pseudo sapphics? “She’s [Perry] just riding on the backs of our culture, without having to pay any of the dues and not being actually lesbian or anything at all.”  Maybe Ditto is right, by the Gay Community’s seeming adoption of the song, though, it certainly raises the question of our own naivety in terms of being manipulated to buy a product.  One thing positive though, Ditto is certainly not afraid to voice this, and I hope her influence will tempt other high profile lesbians to do the same.

Of course Perry isn’t the first one to do this (Madonna and Britney snog, Pink’s constant flirt with her gay audience over her so called ‘bi-sexuality’) and she certainly won’t be the last – as I write there is probably a girl band now penning a suggestive tale of lesbian fantasy, looking up rude lady words in the dictionary and practicing their sexy moves with each other…

Maybe it doesn’t matter.  Maybe it’s just a song and people like it.  Or maybe we are so desperate for positive lesbian imagery and role models in the media that we simply do not have any choice.  suckered by Perry or snogged?  You decide.