“Woman’s World” arrived Thursday and was immediately met with a scathing reception (for example: here , here , and here ) more so for its accompanying music video — which was accused of catering to the male gaze in contrast to its empowering-if-outdated messaging — than the song (which was co-produced by Dr. Luke) itself.
Perhaps anticipating a backlash even while filming the video, Perry shared a behind-the-scenes clip from the “Woman’s World” shoot where she explains her logic behind the more controversial moments of the video.
“We’re kind of just having fun being a bit sarcastic with it, it’s very slapstick, and very on the nose,” Perry said of the first half of the video, which features gratuitous body shots, the singer suggestively dousing herself in whiskey, and faux-peeing in urinals.
“And with this set, it’s like, ‘Oooh, we’re not about the male gaze but we really are about the male gaze,’ and we’re really overplaying it and on the nose because I’m about to get smashed which is like a reset, a reset for me, and a reset for my idea of feminine divine, and it’s a whole different world we go to after this.”
The “reset” Perry is alluding to is the moment in the video when the construction site scene concludes with the singer getting “smashed” by an anvil, after which the visual takes on a tone more in line with Perry’s “idea of feminine divine.” (However, this portion of the video also features another of the more maligned moments, when Perry shoves a gas nozzle into her butt to refuel.)
“We wanted to open this video making it look like a super high gloss pop star video, and that’s what it is,” Perry added, noting in the clip’s caption, “YOU CAN DO ANYTHING! EVEN SATIRE!”
“Woman’s World” is the first single from Perry’s upcoming album 143 , her first LP since 2020’s Smile . “I set out to create a bold, exuberant, celebratory dance-pop album with the symbolic 143 numerical expression of love as a throughline message,” she said in a statement about the album.
In June, Rolling Stone reported that Perry recruited her former Teenage Dream collaborators Dr. Luke, Max Martin, and Stargate for the new record, as well as a few others she hasn’t worked as closely with in the past. “Katy knew exactly the album she wanted to make and put together the team to make it happen,” a Capitol Records source told Rolling Stone. The decision to re-team with Dr. Luke, especially on a song about female empowerment, has similarly been met by criticism.
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