But the kid-themed bright colors, spinning peppermint forest, and wide-eyed kewpie-doll smiles belie Perry's underlying ranchy adult-themed sexual message.
Perry cursed, sang about kissing girls, pretended to eat a pot-laced "brownie," and talked in code about getting drunk, partaking in sexual orgies, melting boys' popsicles, dissing parents, and having wrong things feel so right. She appeared in an endless parade of glittery, precociously sexual "little girl" outfits that focused attention on her body, with spinning peppermint candy plastered on her chest like targets, bras shaped like cupcakes and Hershey's Kisses.
The audience ate it up.
The crowd, largely made up of screaming pre-adolescent and teen girls and their moms, matched Perry's candy-coated visuals of rainbows hearts and peppermint swirls. They were almost as colorful as the action on stage -- sporting blue and pink wigs, cupcake bras, blinking hearts and glowsticks covered in cotton candy. Girls just wanna have fun! Right?
The local media lauded Perry for providing endearing pop entertainment that "appealed to the 10-year-old girl in every young woman ... Mindless fun!"
But is it really?
The fluffy, pink, girly, candy-and-fun-wrapped package is just an underhanded way to deflect criticism from the way the show subtly promotes the sexualization and perversion of young girls. The over-the-top, frivolous nature of its presentation shouts, "Hey, this is silly, fun fluff, so don't take it seriously, OK?" (Katy's only joking. Lighten up! Ha. Ha. Ha.)
But is this the type of message that we ought to toss at our children under the guise of "fun"? Wrap it up in as much pink cotton candy as you like, but the idea of an adult telling a 10-year-old girl that she should get drunk, disobey her parents, use pot, dress provocatively, kiss girls, and have sex is appalling and irresponsible. Not fun.
I know that the millions of parents that paid to have their little girls take in Perry's worldwide tour will differ. I know that they'll say that the negative message is negligible ... that the good far outweighs the bad and that it IS just harmless fun. Yet I can't help but think that the reason Perry needs to use so much sugar and sweetness in her presentation is to mask a message that parents would otherwise find extremely distasteful.
After all -- as the fairy tale makes abundantly clear -- you can't get a girl to swallow the poison unless you hide it in a beautiful, sweet apple. Or in this case, a sticky sweet piece of Katy's candy.
Mary Kassian is an author, speaker and professor of women's studies at Southern Baptist Theological Seminary in Louisville, Ky. This column first appeared on her website, GirlsGoneWISE.com. Born and raised in Canada, she lives with her husband in Edmonton, Alberta.
Copyright (c) 2011 Southern Baptist Convention, Baptist Press www.BPNews.net
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