Katy Perry Says She’s Basically the Last Non-Naked Pop Singer

By Doug Barry | October 28, 2013 | 3:10am

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A lot of people (ahem, Rashida Jones) have a lot of opinions about what lady pop singers are wearing these days, harumph! Whatever these doggone flappers are wearing, it’s not enough, at least not for the likes of Jones and the most tasteful and modest pop singer of them all, Katy Perry, who is starting more and more to see herself as an inspiration, or whatever.

Speaking to NPR’s Scott Simon over the weekend, Perry lamented the current trend of female pop singers wearing not very many clothes, but only after telling Simon that, because of the prevailing climate of nakedness, she’s started to see herself as something of an “inspiration or whatever” to the younglings by default. There just aren’t that many wholesome singers out there, you know?

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And a lot of people see me as a role model but I’d like to kind of turn that around and say I appreciate that but I’d like to be seen as an inspiration. Because a role model, I think, will fail you. I mean, I couldn’t tell kids when it’s time for them to try things or do things. I mean, that’s not my role. But, you know, it’s funny. I do see myself becoming this, whatever, inspiration out of default right now, ’cause it’s such a strange world. Like females in pop – everybody’s getting naked. I mean, I’ve been naked before but I don’t feel like I have to always get naked to be noticed.

Simon, sensing gossip paydirt, asked Perry if she was talking about someone in particular, but just before we had a true scandale on our hands, our interviewee pulled up short:

I’m not talking about anyone in particular. I’m talking about all of them. I mean, it’s like everybody’s so naked. It’s like put it away. We know you’ve got it. I got it too. I’ve taken it off for – I’ve taken it out here and there. And I’m not necessarily judging. I’m just saying sometimes it’s nice to play that card but also it’s nice to play other cards. And I know I have that sexy card in my deck but I don’t always have to use that card.

It’s actually pretty adroit of Perry to sidestep a potential feud in mid-stream like that, but she is passing judgment when she, you know, judges what another singer wears during a performance. Or on Instagram. Or wherever the fuck ever. Katy Perry just wore a leopard-print bikini and swung around from a fake tree for the “Roar” video, so it’s not like she also hasn’t also (and very recently) capitalized on the “sexy card.”

Katy Perry on the 180 That Saved Her Career [NPR]

Image via Getty, Christopher Polk