But other interpretations were more controversial, including her “I Kissed a Girl” video, in which she didn’t even kiss any girls.
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A few years ago, she caused controversy with costumes reflecting Chinese and Japanese cultures, respectively. She told GQ of the latter performance that it was a celebration of geishas. “Geishas are basically, like, the masters of loving unconditionally.”
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She appeared to take a stab at Jewish comedians in her “Birthday” video, which caused online outrage.
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“The Hunger Games” star Amandla Stenberg slammed Perry for wearing cornrows in her “This Is How We Do” video. “Cornrows are a really functional way of keeping black textured hair unknotted and neat but with style — so you can see why hair is such a big part of hip-hop and rap culture … In 2013, Miley Cyrus twerks and uses black women as props, and then in 2014, in one of her videos called ‘This Is How We Do,’ Katy Perry uses Ebonics and hand gestures and eats watermelons while wearing cornrows before cutting inexplicably to a picture of Aretha Franklin. So as you can see, cultural appropriation was rampant.”
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