Katy Perry’s career took a while to build. But once she hit, she became a sensation of all sorts. But homegirl is decidedly unlucky in love. Many of her biggest songs really trace the outline of her romantic maturity and, I think, can work as a crude roadmap to similar young girls who have no idea the kind of power they have when they start out building relationships.
When we first heard from Ms. Perry she was trying out the language of love. Waking up in Vegas, I kissed a Girl. It seemed as though all was going pretty well but then came the crushing blunt force trauma of having dumped a guy who would rather get “wasted” than be on Team Katy. So that one ended and became Circle the Drain and it would be on the California Dreams album
So Miss Perry learned that maybe it wasn’t so worthwhile if a rock star dude picks you. He has to stay awake during foreplay, for starters. He was history. And then Katy Perry laid on a cotton candy cloud naked and had the world in the palm of her hand. She was the California Gurl.
Enter boob-loving Russell Brand who took one look at her famous 23 DDs and found a kind of love. Katy fell hard too. This was the best thing Katy had ever experienced. Russell Brand thought she was pretty without any makeup on, and laughed when she told the punchline wrong! She was his teenage dream and they fell into a passionate affair, sex on the beach! What could possible go wrong?
Well, when you go that high, you have nowhere to go but down. Sadly, Brand broke Katie’s heart and there she was, again ALONE! He took almost everything from her except:
Poor Katie Perry couldn’t make that relationship with Brand work. She apparently thought it was her – she wasn’t enough, she wasn’t home enough, she wasn’t good in bed enough. She nursed a broken heart and then attached herself to John Mayer. Accept me? She pleaded, not realizing that she’s Katy Fucking Perry. Well, after Mayer pulled his usual shit with her she just said, you know what? Fuck this noise. Something clicked and she figured out that she is worth more than the men who will accept her or reject her. And now, you’re going to hear her roar:
Seriously, it’s hard to imagine that anyone who looked like Katy Perry would ever feel like not enough, or would ever feel that she doesn’t have a choice. Love is a pop song sometimes. Other times it’s a horror film. And still other times it’s a rock anthem. It will chew you up and spit you out. It will do damage to you or it will elude you for all of your life. Or you’ll be one of the lucky ones who finds someone to love you just as much. It’s a terrible virus and a cure all in one. But maybe there isn’t anything better a human being can feel, even if you have to face down rejection.
I spend way too much thinking about me.
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