On Katy Perry, Woman’s World, and THAT whiskey scene

Image: Still from Katy Perry Woman’s World video

Earlier this month, noughties pop star Katy Perry released Woman’s World, a comeback single that… didn’t quite go to plan. Her depiction of women who drink whiskey raised eyebrows. But stop clutching those pearls – there’s much more to worry about than a stereotypically hot woman pouring a drink over herself.  

It was 2008 when US pop starlet Katy Perry burst onto the radio airwaves. Breakout song I Kissed A Girl topped the charts in 16 countries, spending five weeks at the top spot here in the UK. Since then she’s notched up 14 more UK top 10 singles, five UK top 40 albums (two reached number one), and is indisputably a household name. It’s important to stress this – Perry has built a long, successful career where she has agency, resources, influence and power. From Las Vegas residencies to her 2015 half-time Super Bowl performance, Perry has long resided in the upper echelons of the pop machine.

Obviously external success doesn’t always equate to freedom of choice (Britney Spears’s conservatorship springs to mind). But in Perry’s case, she has the privilege of both creative direction and songwriting. Which is why Woman’s World is utterly baffling. Regressive, dated and cacophonously tone deaf, it presents a garishly toned, 2D version of ‘women can have it all!’ feminism. Is it supposed to be satirical? Perhaps if we were still in the late noughties. At best, it’s lazy. At worst… it’s co-written and produced by Lukasz Gottwald, aka Dr. Luke. Sound familiar? He was sued by Kesha for sexual assault and abuse. Gottwald denied all allegations and counter-sued for defamation. A great guy to have on your track about women's empowerment.

Breaking news! Woman drinks whiskey!

We’ll leave the wider commentary about the track there, because this is a whisky space, and there is a whiskey featured in the video! In fact, I first became aware of Woman’s World because I received a handful of direct messages on Instagram about it. They were coming from a place of outrage. And why not? At the start of the video, Perry, a conventionally beautiful woman clad in conventionally sexy clothing, grasps a bottle. It seems to be an attempt at making a statement that women can do anything men can! Including drinking whiskey! GROUNDBREAKING!

Oh wait! She’s also on a building site! Sat up high on a steel girder with her pals in reference to the iconic 1932 photograph of ironworkers eating lunch atop a skyscraper. Drinking whiskey at height?! Seems safe, and very in line with responsible drinking messaging. Cue eye roll.

There are two other scenes of note. Perry, still on her girder, swigging from the bottle and visibly not enjoying said whiskey. And later, when dressed in an outfit that modern beauty standards would have us believe is even sexier, she pours the drink over her breasts. Hot? To some, maybe. For me, it just adds to the confusion. One, it seems to muddle the whole video even further. And two, I don’t get why people only seem to get outraged by this sort of portrayal of women and whisky. 

The bigger picture

Aside from the signal that Perry and her creative team are wildly outdated in her assumptions about who drinks whiskey these days, (2020 Distill Ventures data suggests that 35% of US and UK whisk(e)y drinkers are women), it’s interesting to me what stokes our collective anger as whisky-loving ‘feminists’. 

There’s LOADS wrong with Woman’s World and the visuals that go with it. But if we’re distilling it down to how whisky is portrayed, I think getting mad about it in isolation is kind of missing the point. 

The main thread of what I saw on social media was around how Perry was playing into ‘sexy’ stereotypes by pouring whiskey over herself while in a bikini. My first thought, honestly, was ‘so what?’. What are we trying to police here? The tropes are boring, yes. But if a woman wants to prance around covered in whiskey, what’s that got to do with us? Have we got to the point that a woman’s perceived sexiness is the problem? 

I think it’s a really interesting area to explore. Because yes, in whisky marketing, Portman Group rules state that alcohol should not be linked to sexual success, or cause serious or widespread offence on a number of grounds, including gender. There is an argument (and one I would stand by), that if this video was a whisky ad, it should be banned. But it isn’t an advert. It’s a music video. And ultimately, it’s a woman choosing to portray herself as ‘hot’. 

There’s such a big difference between how an individual chooses to present (in this instance, a hot woman being hot), and a company leveraging that appearance ultimately for financial gain. 

Getting angry about the former is literally telling women what they can and can’t do. What they can and can’t wear. What they can and can’t post about themselves. The second is literally responsible marketing. 

Not keen on whiskey. Image: Katy Perry Woman’s World video

Can a woman be critiqued for their actions? Absolutely. The whole opener to this piece is about why Perry’s Woman’s World is a huge miss creatively and culturally. But it’s interesting to explore where that critique is coming from. If it’s because we don’t like a woman looking ‘sexy’ with whisky, why is that actually a problem?

This isn’t just about Perry. I’ve been part of, overheard, been aware of conversations about actual creators and writers in whisky being ‘too sexy’ on Instagram. It’s 2024, but we still have a problem with a woman drinking a dram in a bikini, for example. Like it’s an image for consumption, and not just someone documenting having a nice time. And even if it is for something or someone, who says it’s for you? 

My final point with all this, which I think the contradictions of Woman’s World actually sum up quite helpfully, is can we just look at the bigger picture? If a woman – or indeed anyone of any gender – wants to revel in their hotness in proximity to whisky, just let them. Let’s instead talk about, and get angry about, the structures that are actually holding underrepresented groups back. Access to opportunities, pay inequalities, exclusion – and not just on the grounds of gender. In the case of the video, we should question the odd, lazy, at times bonkers versions of feminism and empowerment portrayed. But what’s really the point if we’re not also addressing the issues in the music industry that allow harmful behaviours and [alleged] predators to thrive?

Yes, everything is connected. But all the while we’re pointing the finger at women just having a nice time, we’re not holding those in actual power to account. And we’re certainly not affecting any change.