Dissolving the Other: Orientalism, Consumption, and Katy Perry’s Insatiable Dark Horse

Abstract

Pop star Katy Perry courts controversy with the performance choices she makes. She has been accused of peddling sex to young girls and of perpetuating racist stereotypes in her music videos and live shows. In early 2014, Perry stirred up controversy when she destroyed a necklace with the word Allah—Arabic for god—on it in her Dark Horse video. What received less attention was her destruction of Orientalized men of color in Dark Horse. Informed by postcolonial scholarship and research on music videos, this qualitative textual analysis examines how Orientalism manifests in Katy Perry’s video. It uncovers a framing of Egypt as a mute object designed for consumption as well as a narrative that portrays men of color as a threat to Perry’s liberated, Western, female pharaoh.