Katy Perry claims that her “Woman's World” music video was meant to be “very slapstick” and “satirical”.
The pop star released the song and music video last week, and the clip begins with her dressed as Rosie the Riveter before emerging in a white bikini.
When the video was released, it was panned by music critics for lacking a cohesive feminist message despite the song's theme, and on Saturday Katy posted behind-the-scenes footage to Instagram in which she seemed to anticipate some of the negative feedback.
“I'm just having fun being a little tongue-in-cheek. It's very slapstick and very explicit,” the 'Firework' hitmaker said of the opening scene. “On this set, I'm like, 'Oh, we're not talking about the male gaze, but we're really talking about the male gaze,' and it's very over the top and very explicit. Because I'm about to get drunk, so it's like a reset. It's a reset for me, a reset of what I think of femininity is. And then we go into a whole different world.”
In the video, Katy “resets” her character by getting “smashed” with an anvil.
“We wanted the video to look like a super high-gloss pop star video, and that's exactly what it turned out to be,” she continued.
Katy captioned the video: “Anything is possible! Even satire!”
“Woman's World” is the lead single from the singer's seventh studio album, “143.” The album is due to be released in September.
In a recent interview with Zane Lowe on Apple Music 1, Katy promised that '143' will be an upbeat, fun record.
“I love my listeners and I want to give them as much of the love that I've received as I can and help invite them into this frequency of love,” the 39-year-old said.