This is a full-blown, candy-cane flavoured lyrca, pop music scandal.
Katy Perry appears to have plagiarised every single costume she’s ever worn from a 1950s comic strip character called Katy Keene.
The bright blue hair, the ’50s black bob, the jungle costume, the naughty Santa outfit, the racially insensitive geisha get-up, the Cleopatra film clip… ALL OF IT. STOLEN. Stolen from an Archie comic’s character.
The evidence is compelling. Are you ready for this? Like, really ready to have your world rocked and your mind moderately blown?
Meet the comic character Katy Keene…
Look familiar? Yeah, that’s because she looks exactly like Katy Perry. Right down to the candy-cane font.
Here’s Katy Keene in a heart-shaped dress with bright blue hair…
And Katy Perry in exactly the same dress…
Katy Keene in a jungle outfit…
Katy Perry in her film clip for “Roar” the single…
Katy Keene dressed as Cleopatra…
And Katy Perry goes Cleopatra style…
Katy Keene is a deeply inappropriate Geisha costume that was potentially less offensive back in the day…
Katy Perry’s Geisha performance at the MTV awards…
Katy Keene as a human butterfly…
Katy Perry as a human butterfly…
Katy Keene in a peacock costume…
And Katy Perry dressed as a peacock…
WHOA, right? Full-scale, Katy Perry-themed costume scandal.
The evidence is compelling.
Katy Perry is Katy Keene. Has she ever thanked Katy Keene for the costume inspo? Has she ever acknowledged that she took all her outfits from a 1950s Archie comic?
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Top Comments
Just how insulting was the Geisha outfit? Did actual Japanese people come out and say that they were insulted by it? Because Japanese fashion takes from cultures all over the world and in terms of traditional dress, they are happy for Westerners to buy and wear kimonos, obis, etc. Modern youth fashion in Japan frequently takes aspects of Western culture and history and they have a lot of fun with it. There are styles that take from European Fairtytales, the Victorian Era, California Girls, Western religions, and so on and so forth. These are often exaggerated and distorted but they are not meant in an insulting way at all and they are not taken that way.
Cultural Appropriation can be a sensitive issue; but it isn't always. Katy wasn't making fun of or disparaging Japanese culture in this outfit and Japan is not a country that holds anger at being exploited by the west in the past. Fashion influenced by different cultures is not always insulting or bad - each case needs to be looked at separately.
Also, The Katy Keene character is not wearing Japanese dress. It says in the illustration that she is wearing a Chinese Costume.
She completely sexualised the entire thing. Not to mention her song had nothing to do with Japanese culture. It's always best to remember that it's pretty offensive for Americans to do things that, perhaps, wouldn't seem so bad coming from someone else.
Geisha's were sex workers. That's pretty sexual right there.
No, they weren't. Perhaps do a basic google search and get back to me.
I think the role of Geisha and courtesan/prostitute somewhat blurred at times. Not all Geisha were prostitutes and I don't think they started out that way but often I think it was implied. I would also say they were very sexualised.
Ha, what a fun comparison! Personally, I hope Katy Perry HAS modelled her entire life of an Archie comic character... It kind of makes me like her even more than I do already. I loved reading those as a kid.