Is “Woman’s World” really as bad as the internet is making it out to be? Yeah…

This article is part of The G Spot, a weekly segment where criticista Gordistotle gives insight into the pop culture happenings of now through opinions or anecdotes on his life living in Toronto.

Preface/Trigger Warning

The following article may be triggering to victims of sexual assault, I just want to take a second to preface that this article does dive into the details of the Kesha v Dr. Luke case. Although I don’t go into too much detail about the case, it is heavily mentioned.  

Woman’s World Release 

If you’ve been on any corner of the internet this past week, you’d have seen the non-stop lashings of Katy Perry and her recent comeback “Woman’s World”. It’s been really, really bad for her. And yes, I’ve been sharing some of the shady posts. 

“Woman’s World” is getting absolutely torn to shreds by many critics, most of their complaints revolve around the surface-level lyrics, a WeHo gay pandering beat, and most controversially, her continued collaboration with Dr. Luke. Here lies the real issue with “Woman’s World”; it's a song about feminism, yet its executive producer has infamous rape allegations. 

A Brief Recap of Katy’s Working Relationship with Dr. Luke and the Kesha v Luke Case 

Dr. Luke has been one of Katy’s main collaborators since her debut album ‘One of The Boys’. He’s produced every Katy album, including all of her hit singles, until 2016’s ‘Witness’. Luke was not featured on either of Katy’s past two albums, leading fans to think that Katy’s working relationship with Luke was over for good after his allegations came to light. 

However, the Dr. Luke of 2024 is not the same Dr. Luke of 2018, who was dropped by all his main during the height of Kesha’s lawsuits. Since the pandemic, things, for some reason, have changed. Maybe something was in the vaccine… 

Popular artists have welcomed back Dr. Luke, he’s even nabbed multiple number ones on the Hot 100 since his return. To name a few of the artists who have worked with the producer post-Kesha lawsuit: Doja Cat, Nicki Minaj, Latto, and most notoriously, Kim Petras, who was Luke’s doll during the worst of the lawsuit in 2018. It seems like he's regained his hit-maker status of the 2010s, and artists are desperate enough for a hit that they're putting their morals aside and collaborating with a known alleged rapist. 

Kesha’s working relationship with Dr. Luke has been non-existent since 2012’s ‘Warrior’. However, due to her record contract, she was still obliged to release music under Luke’s label, Kemosabe Records. The lawsuit stretched from 2014-2023, during which Kesha released 3 more albums, none featuring Luke, obviously. After settling privately outside of court, the case officially ended and Kesha was finally able to go independent this year, coming back with ‘Joyride’ earlier this month. 

Back to Katy

I’m a little shocked to see the reaction to the sound of “Woman’s World” itself, most of the controversy and anger is because of the #doctor production, but this is a typical Katy Perry song. Albeit, with a tired formula that’s been repeated one too many times. The song isn’t sonically interesting, nor are the lyrics creative, and even Perry’s vocal performance on the song is worse than her past singles. You had something cute with “When I’m Gone”, why couldn’t we have gotten something like that? 

Katy’s fresh off of her American Idol cash grab stint, and she’s hungry for a new rollout. Her past two albums ‘Witness’ and ‘Smile’ did not even remotely attain the same success as the projects during her 2008-2014 imperial reign. Not that that gives her the go-ahead to work with the rapist that made all her biggest hits for her big comeback, but hey. 

Led by the relatively successful “Chained To The Rhythm”, ‘Witness’ was Katy’s first real career misstep. The album’s shortcomings could be attributed to multiple factors, like her label not adjusting her release tactics to better fit today’s streaming era, a weird Big Brother themed rollout, and an image change that put off casual fans. The album was eclipsed by the bad press she received at the time, which was pure misogyny as there was no actual reason for criticism (unlike how it’s warranted today). 

‘Smile’ fared even worse than ‘Witness’, breaking Katy’s string of Number 1 albums on the Billboard 200 chart, which even ‘Witness’ managed to reach. There’s no exact reason why the era performed poorly, it just did, and that’s ok. In my opinion the album spawned some of Katy’s best singles, “Never Really Over” and “Harley’s in Hawaii”. To fans, this marked a shift in Katy’s career, she was raking in millions per season on American Idol, welcomed her first child with her man, that man being Orlando Bloom, and again, her man being Orlando Bloom. Katy was comfortable, and the music reflected that. 

Katy’s music post 2014’s ‘Prism’ seems to only ever get talked about in comparison to the success of her heyday, never the sound of the music. Which is quite honestly the same as it was, it’s always been generic pop, but now that’s not selling. Throughout the years Katy has matured, which means she no longer attracts children through bright candy visuals. In tandem with never growing a large dedicated fanbase like her peers, it only makes sense that her albums saw less success over time, which isn’t necessarily a bad thing. 

Katy has many diamond (sold 10 million copies) singles. Her run from 2008-2014 is heralded as pop perfection. ‘Teenage Dream’ ties Michael Jackson’s record for the most #1 singles on the Hot 100 for one album. “Roar” is the most viewed female video on YouTube. She was one of the biggest, if not the biggest, artists in the world in the early 2010s. Katy’s doing alright, if she wanted to, she could probably never work another day in her life. 

What’s Next For Katy Perry

In my honest opinion, I do find the reception to “Woman’s World” a little jarring. I fully understand condemning her for working with Luke, that’s completely unacceptable, but the song is your typical pop dribble? It’s not like, Justin Bieber “Yummy” level bad. It’s popular to dogpile Katy right now, and everyone’s trying to get a hit post off it, as always. 

“Woman’s World” was exactly what I expected from Katy. Every “read” I’ve seen has been extremely half-baked, picking at the fact that Katy’s older or that she’s an out of touch woman. Other reviews are going for millennial gays for some reason? No creativity just going right for the jugular. If you’re going to go after anything, go after the desperation that was having Trisha Paytas feature in the video to appeal to teenagers. I mean, that’s the only reason my younger sister watched it. 

Katy teased more songs from the upcoming ‘143’ and they… they sound really, really bad. One samples Gypsy Woman by Crystal Waters and it’s just… really uninspired. Katy Perry, please stop, begged Gordistotle... then he collapsed and died. 

The album so far has been sounding like throwaway Kim Petras (who’s featured on the album) tracks, really just more post-Dr. Luke revival slop. At least when he was trying to re-enter the mainstream with Doja Cat, he was really fighting for it. Now that he’s been accepted back again he thinks he can just phone it in? You’re a horrible fucking person, but can you at LEAST make the music interesting!?  

I’m curious to see how Katy navigates the rest of this album’s rollout, no one seems to be on her side save the few remaining fans she has. The entire album reeks of Dr. Luke, which is going to continue to alienate listeners. Even after a ”Remix” EP, “Woman’s World” is projected to not even hit the Top 40, making it Katy’s first lead single to miss the mark. I’m going to be honest, Katy has alienated a lot of her listeners by collaborating with Luke, this era is off to a horrible start and I don’t see the light at the end of the tunnel. 

Could you not afford the fees? You were bringing home $20 million each season of American Idol, don’t cheap out on the Swedes. Bonnie McKee’s pen was sorrowfully missed as well, “Woman’s World” lacked Katy’s usual tongue-n-cheeky lyrics. 

Alas as all controversies do, it’s blown over, for the most part. Something a little more important happened earlier this week that’s definitely taken the attention off Katy.