current mood
A post shared by KATY PERRY (@katyperry) on Apr 18, 2017 at 6:57pm PDT
“Are you serious? You’re using pics of our Goddesses as memes?” one commenter wrote. “Please Katy!! Don’t use such type of Indian God’s and Goddess’ pics to represent our mood. Do you know what this pic means and what’s the story behind it?” said another. FYI: Kali is the Hindu goddess of death and destruction, and she is often associated with sexuality as well. In this particular image, Kali is trampling her husband, the Hindu god Shiva, after slaying a demon.
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Some commenters defended her. “I’m sure this was nothing personal towards anyone’s belief,” one wrote.
This isn’t the first time Katy’s been accused of cultural appropriation. In 2013, the singer performed at the American Music Awards in a full-on traditional geisha costume, and in 2014, she sported cornrows in her “This Is How We Do It” music video—costume choices that critics say appropriated Asian and African-American cultures.
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However, in recent years she has mostly strayed away from these problematic themes. She voiced support for the Native American protesters at Standing Rock on Instagram and participated in the Women’s March on Washington in January. She was also recently honored by the Human Rights Campaign for her support of the LGBTQ community.
On #Thanksgiving, a day with complex origins, I want to speak up in support of the Standing Rock Sioux Reservation and their protest of the Dakota Access Pipeline. Please take a moment to familiarize yourself with what is going on in North Dakota. While it may not be on your front pages, this is not a frightening series of events for “them”, it is frightening series of events for all of us. The pipeline in question, would carry crude oil through land sacred to indigenous peoples and put a crucial water supply at risk. We have seen the results of unintended oil spills before and they are crippling to the health of the surrounding people and environment. To all those peacefully protesting to protect history, to protect that which is personally sacred and to protect our life sustaining water sources, we are here shoulder to shoulder with you across this country. We cannot afford to be complacent with our rights and we cannot afford to be complacent with the rights of our neighbor. Testimonies from the protests alarm me and should alarm all of us: Some 400 people who were held in detention during demonstrations have suffered what Mr. Kiai (UN Special Rapporteur) called “inhuman and degrading conditions.” He is concerned over both the scale of arrests and the conditions in which American citizens are being held.“ Marking people with numbers and detaining them in overcrowded cages, on the bare concrete floor, without being provided with medical care, amounts to inhuman and degrading treatment,” he said. Protestors have reported facing rubber bullets, teargas, mace, compression grenades, and bean-bag rounds while voicing their concerns over the environmental impact of the pipeline and throughout their attempts to protect burial grounds and other sites that are sacred to the Standing Rock Sioux Tribe. – UN.org During this holiday and beyond, let us stand in solidarity with all those who are trying to protect it. I made a donation and I hope you can too today. See the link in my bio how you can donate. Also, it’s easy to donate in by texting WATER to 82623 #IStandWithStandingRock #NoDAPL #waterislife by Bill Mckibben
A post shared by KATY PERRY (@katyperry) on Nov 24, 2016 at 2:14pm PST
just wanna be =
A post shared by KATY PERRY (@katyperry) on Jan 22, 2017 at 11:27am PST
Katy hasn’t responded to the comments on this post. When asked about her reputation for cultural appropriation in a 2014 interview with Rolling Stone the singer said, “I guess I’ll just stick to baseball and hot dogs, and that’s it…can’t you appreciate a culture?”
Appreciation or appropriation—what do you think?