On April 14, the news resonated with the promise of an inspiring milestone: Katy Perry, an icon of global pop, would join an exclusively feminine team on a space trip Courtesy of the Blue Origin company, created by the tycoon Jeff Bezos. The initial narrative hinted at a literal takeoff towards new heights for women, a symbol that even the cosmos could be conquered by the united female force. But the initial euphoria dissipated quickly, giving way to a storm of criticism: haters Perry’s social networks flooded with comments that pointed to a much more earthly reality: The deep disconnection between stratospheric luxury and the concerns of the majority of land inhabitants.
The ship’s crew New Shepard On the NS-31 flight, it was also made up of Perry by the pilot Lauren Sanchezcurrent Bezos couple, the famous television host Gayle King, Aisha Boweaerospace engineer, the filmmaker Kerianne Flynnand the Astronautical Human Rights and Researcher Amanda Nguyen. The campaign seemed designed to evoke images of diverse women. Leaking all the most obvious resources of the pinkwashingescorting the two white women, on board there were A woman of Mexican descent, one of Vietnamese family and two African -Americanto complete a photo worthy of appearing on the cover of an English book. The crew He defined in an obvious feminist wink: “The Six Taking Up Space” (the six occupying space). The Creyrs’s costumes (co-created by Sanchez) were designed by the luxury brand Allwho shares creative directors with Oscar de la Renta. These tight catsuits Blue with airs the iconic Star Trek series gave the crew Superheroines.
“You are officially an astronaut,” says a notera to a Katy Perry barely landed, after she kissed the ground in a comic gesture when she got off the ship. How do you feel? “I feel super connected to love,” said the singer while holding a Margarita in her hands, tribute to her daughter (Daisy means Margarita in English). Perry defined her “feat” as only in the background to the experience of being a mother: Daisy’s photo, looking at her with admiration while ascending to space, toured the news portals.
THE SPACE: Another recreation patio for the rich
The NS-31 flight consisted of an ascent to experience the lack of gravity, enjoy some views of the earth and descend healthy and saved. The trip was brief: a total of 11 minutes, but it meant a big step (and above all A great advertising campaign) For the nascent aerospace tourism industry.
Blue Origin, the company founded in 2000 by Jeff Bezos, owner of Amazon, has invested a lot in the development of its suborbital rocket New Shepard, specifically designed to transport passengers on short trips to the edge of the space. Bezos, whose fortune is estimated at more than 200 billion dollars, has received great criticisms for its wealth, especially in relation to working conditions at Amazon. The mission that sought to feed interest in private space trips, crashed into a tough reality: The reception in social networks brought out the cynicism that plagues all the actions of the billionaire: “This is not historical. Only rich and stupid people spending millions of dollars on a short, expensive and meaningless trip,” said puncture one of the thousands of X users who commented with disdain towards the new multimillionaire hobby.
-The inclusion of viral figures such as Perry and the driver Gayle King It is no accident: Bezos publicly expressed his vision of making space trips more accessible to a greater number of people and is not the first time he uses celebrities to advertise his new “entrepreneurship.” In 2021, William Shatnerknown precisely for playing Captain Kirk in the Star Trek series, traveled with the company on flight NS-18, the company’s second flight to transport civilians. In July 2021, Bezos himself traveled in the NS-16, opening a series of suborbital flights that led dozens of celebrities and entrepreneurs to ninety kilometers on the earth’s surface.
Voices from Earth: The perspective of commoners on the Internet
For Bezos, who hoped to use this advertising trick to fogone the sales of his space flights, this gesture of female empowerment was shot through the cylinder head: social networks were flooded with voices that offered a very different perspective to the narrative of “Girl Power” space. Only in Perry’s video after lowering the messages from hate They contrasted strongly with the desires of love and harmony spread by the singer. “The muppets had pigs in space now we have Botox in space.” “I need a vomiting bag and I am not even on the flight”, “all I know is that if I could have gone to space, it would have spent a little more time looking out the window and less to a camera making advertising.” Virtually all the comments defined the gesture as “cringe” and lacking touch.
A user compared the trip with the famous phrase of the Guillotinated Queen Maria Antonieta “who eat cake.” Many criticized flight expenses when comparing them with the salaries of Amazon employees, just above the minimum wage. In the dystopic current political panorama, the cyber parallels that threatened Bezos with having the same end as the decadent French monarchy were not lacking. Many users also questioned the environmental impact of these flights: “I am happy that your space costumes are made to measure but I wonder … What will be the carbon footprint of this clown?”
Katy Perry’s flight, with her aura of “Girl Power” Baluarte of Luxury Space Tourism, contrasts with the first space trip commanded by a woman: the cosmonaut Valentina Tereshkova In 1963. Tereshkova, daughter of an employee of a factory and a tractor driver, became the first woman to orbit the land as part of the Soviet space program, a project financed by the State and conceived as a collective achievement of the working class. While Tereshkova marked a significant advance for world female empowerment by showing the world that women could reach educational and professional levels equal to those of man, Blue Origin’s mission exposed to liberal feminism and the pinkwashing at its maximum expression.
Failed pinkwashing
The case of Katy Perry’s space flight serves as a hard lesson for public figures, brands and campaigns that seek to connect with their audiences exploiting political fights merely as a sales strategy. This incident also claims the role of social networks as a fertile sand for criticism and accountability: the immediacy and horizontality of these platforms allow carefully constructed narratives to fell quickly to public scrutiny.
Poor Perry was, being the best known figure on this trip, used according to herself as “piñata” to download the feelings of alienation and resentment of many virtual users. While she is just a scapegoat, the attempt to frame the space flight as an act of female empowerment He ended up crashing. The waste of the ultra rich is further and further caricaturesco every day. His exhibition, formerly Velada is total today, exposing a deep gap between the elite and the working class. The lesson is clear: In a world where disparity is increasingly evident, true empowerment must have its feet firmly planted on Earthaddressing the needs and struggles of the majority, instead of orbiting in the stratosphere of unattainable luxury.
