A quick disclaimer, before we begin: For legal reasons, all accusations of abusive and/or criminal behaviour by Dr Luke are unproven. This piece is based on public perception of his alleged actions, as well as my own personal opinion--based on the information available to me--that I think he did that shit. I'm not a legal expert! I've just got facts and opinions.
Also, content warnings: sexual assault, slut-shaming, general misogyny.

Folks, I do not like the new Katy Perry song. As a feminist anthem, Woman's World is a tasteless, objectifying mess. As a satire, it's bland and lacking in perspective. The sound is grating, the lyrics are uninspired, and the accompanying music video is a mockery of the women's rights movement disguised as a critique of liberal "girlboss" feminism. Which raises the question: who is this song for? The lyrics sing the praises of a strong, empowered woman while the music video mocks corporate co-opting of feminist aesthetics for profit. This both alienates Perry's audience on both sides of the political spectrum, while laying bare the contradiction at the core of the whole thing: the satire doesn't work because it is the very thing it tries to satirise. Perry is asking us to imagine the kind of unserious person who would sexualise the fight for women's equality for the male gaze and use it to sell products, but we don't have to imagine, because Perry is doing those things herself. It's like someone at her label watched the music video for The Man by Taylor Swift, wrote down "woman peeing standing up = empowering", and went from there.
But that isn't why people are talking about the song. People are talking about the song because it is produced by Lukasz Gottwald, known professionally as Dr Luke, who successfully sued Kesha a few years back for defamation after she accused him of two incidents of rape. If this was the only thing you knew about the case, you could be forgiven for thinking that this makes him a proven innocent person and Kesha a proven liar, but defamation law is--to use the industry term--pretty fucked. One reason that the judge ruled against Kesha was that the most recent incident of alleged rape had happened eight years prior to the lawsuit, and therefore fell out of the statute of limitations. Defamation is a matter for civil courts, where "innocent until proven guilty", in many cases, does not apply. At the same time, if you are truly stupid enough to believe that the courts are fair to victims of gender-based violence, how are you even able to read these words?
Another reason--perhaps more relevant to the current discourse--is that Kesha claimed in a private conversation with Lady Gaga that Perry was another of Dr Luke's victims. Perry has disputed this claim, though it should be noted that Kesha is not its originator. She was repeating a story she had heard, which she believed to be true, and never intended for the exchange to become a matter of public record. That it became part of the case at all is such obvious fuckery that it truly makes me insane.
Looking at this case as a layperson, I cannot see a just verdict. I can only see a man with a disgusting amount of power, using that power to punish a woman for speaking out against him--sound familiar? And I can see why it is so tempting to defend him. The idea that an attractive woman is secretly an evil manipulator is one of humanity's oldest myths. It shows up in Greek mythology, in folklore, in the Bible, in Shakespeare's plays and in Buzzfeed articles about Taylor Swift. I keep hearing that we're in a post-#MeToo era, but I think it's more accurate to say that we are in the era of backlash against #MeToo. That's why all of this is happening. That's why everyone is suddenly obsessed with weeding out liars and fake victims and evil, evil blonde women.
Because here's the thing: regardless of Perry's intentions, Dr Luke's involvement is the appeal of Woman's World. Unlike all of his other collaborations, where the art itself (or, you know, whatever Kim Petras is doing) is what gets people listening, this track is Dr Luke's victory lap. The true appeal of the song is that it is produced by the person who took down notorious slutty party girl Kesha, and by listening to it you too can participate in his cultural win. Some have said that Perry made a marketing error in working with him, but I think the opposite is true. I think she's appealing to the largest demographic of pop music listeners: nominal feminists who secretly or not-so-secretly want permission to destroy a woman without compromising their self-image. If you're wondering why Dr Luke himself has so many defenders, despite the fact that no-one likes him--that's the reason.
This more than anything is why the sexualisation in the music video is so troublesome to me: the international slut-shaming of Kesha is one of his greatest tricks of all time, and he's setting everything up do it again. His current most pop-culturally relevant export is Kim Petras, who openly says that she signed with him because no-one else wanted to work with her as a transgender woman at the beginning of her career. Dr Luke famously takes complete creative control over the projects that he works on, and he, an accused rapist who benefited greatly from public perception of his victim as trashy and promiscuous, continues to produce works featuring women with their tits out singing about how it's cool to be a slut. And while it is cool to be a slut, there is no question that these women are not in control of their sexual expression. They are being used to further a misogynistic agenda, which will in time be turned around on them too. That is also the appeal.
P.S. You may have noticed I changed this publication’s title to red planet! I like this name more because it’s like you’re taking a trip to my little world, which is red because I like red.