‘I Kissed a Girl’: And you like it!

When a song sung by a woman called “I Kissed a Girl,” hit No. 1 on the Billboard Hot 100 this week, it should have been a victory for the gay community. But a closer listen to the lyrics of the Katy Perry hit reveals that the song is marketing to meat heads more than lesbians.

“I hope my boyfriend don’t mind it,” Perry sings in the chorus, almost stripping the song of its possibilities, by defining the narrator by her submissive hetero stance, which translates into, “I’m totally not gay, I just tried this once!” While the song isn’t shocking, it’s smart marketing, because it pretends to be shocking.

Where Jill Sobule sang a different song under the same title in 1995 that earned her a spot on the lesbian compilation, “Lesbian Favorites: Women Like Us” (yes, that is a real title), Perry is singing this one for the Spike TV set. And as the No. 1 slot proves, they’re buying!