Dissolving the Other: Orientalism, Consumption and Katy Perry’s Insatiable Dark Horse. A critique of modernity using Orientalist theory.
This essay will be split into three key parts. Firstly, the essay will briefly explore Edward Said’s interpretation of Orientalism. The second part of the essay will analyse Rosemary Pennington’s article, Dissolving the Other: Orientalism, Consumption, and Katy Perry’s Insatiable Dark Horse (2016), and how it applies Said’s ideas surrounding Orientalism to a contemporary example of how Western culture projects a specific image of the Orient. The final part of the essay will argue how this article can serve as a critique of modernity.
Edward Said was a Palestinian literary critic and theorist and one of the founding figures of Postcolonial Studies. He spent his earlier years being raised by his parents in a middle-class family between Cairo and Talbiyah in West Jerusalem, until the Arab-Israeli War in 1948, when Talbiyah was incorporated into the State of Israel. Said attended boarding school in the U.S. from 1951 and later graduated from Princeton with both a BA and MA. He also received a PhD at Harvard for his work, Joseph Conrad and the Fiction of Autobiography (1966). A year before Said completed his PhD, he was offered a role in English and Comparative Literature at Columbia University and continued to work there for his entire career. Said published twenty-six books over the span of his career, his most notable publication being Orientalism (1978), which became universally recognisable and triggered the escalation of his career as one of the founding figures of Postcolonial Studies. Other popular publications include; Beginnings: Intention and Method (1978), Culture and Imperialism (1993) and Out of Place: A Memoir (1999). His work is heavily focused on Western attitudes and perceptions of the East and the Middle East, particularly Israel and Palestine, within politics, literature and media and is influenced by theorists such as Gramsci, Foucault and Adorno (Encyclopædia Britannica, 2020).
In order to understand what Orientalism is, it’s important to first understand how Said (1978 p.25) defines the Orient itself. Fundamentally, he defines it as “not only adjacent to Europe; it is also the place of Europe’s greatest and richest and oldest colonies, the source of its civilizations and languages, its cultural contestant and one of its deepest and most recurring images of the Other” . Ultimately, the Orient is a eurocentric image in which the West collectively perceive the East to be based on history and culture that they have produced themselves. Conversely, he refers to the Occident as the Western world which, ultimately, coexists with the Orient. Said uses Foucault’s (1969) concept of discursive fields to define three different types of Orientalism. He describes the first field as the most readily accepted understanding of the term ‘Orientalism’, which refers to the study of the Orient. This field applies to anyone who writes, studies, or teaches the Orient, regardless of its presence within an academic institution. Anyone who this label applies to, is by definition, an Orientalist (Said, 1978).
The second field Said describes is a broader definition of Orientalism, it applies to people and organisations who contribute towards producing representation of the Orient in the West. This field is a much wider definition as it can apply to anyone or anything that contributes towards the Western perception of the East and the Middle East, such as writers, books, artists and museums. Said (2003) was concerned with how cultural production in the West creates a distinction between the Orient and the Occident, and how the Orient only exists as a product of Western history, mainly related to colonialism and imperialism. Said (2003) was also concerned with how this field of Orientalism usually results in the portrayal of the Orient as Other by using examples of their culture to compare it against their own rather than producing impartial contributions to the perception of Oriental culture. The discourse produced by the Occident results in increasing disparity between the East and West as well as misconceptions about the Orient despite being seen as truth (Said, 1978). The third and final field used for defining Orientalism is related to the West’s interference into Eastern governance. Said (1978, p.28) says Orientalism in this sense “can be discussed and analyzed as the corporate institution for dealing with the Orient”. The Occident deals with the Orient by “making statements about it, authorizing views of it, describing it, teaching it, settling it, ruling over it” (Said, 1978, p.28). He is describing the power and domination that the Occident held over the Orient through the means of colonialism, such as military coercion and ideological control. It focuses on the political relationship between the Orient and the Occident and how there is an imbalance in power that favours the Occident. Consequently, whoever possesses the power can shape and control the culture too. For instance, this field of Orientalism can be applied to the colonisation of Egypt until 1952 by the British. The British used their power to employ military troops on Egyptian soil and took over their government’s foreign policy to obtain control over the country. Britain also used their power to defend the Suez Canal from attack in 1915 from the Ottoman Empire, so Egypt was somewhat indebted to them (Genell, 2013). The two countries formed the Anglo-Egyptian treaty of 1936 which resulted in Britain regaining control over the waterway, permitting all types of ships and was a valuable source of trade as it created more direct links between Europe and Asia and also connected the Mediteranean and the Red Sea (Mclaughlin, 2016).
Dissolving the Other: Orientalism, Consumption, and Katy Perry’s Insatiable Dark Horse (Pennington, 2016) applies Said’s ideas surrounding Orientalism to a contemporary media example. Pennington (2016) critically analyzes the themes and aesthetics which are used in Katy Perry’s Dark Horse (2014) music video. The general argument used by the author is that Katy Perry uses ancient Egyptian culture as a prop in an offensive and tone-deaf manner. The fact that Perry created the music video for the purpose of consumption inherently means that Egypt was used as an object with its primary purpose to entertain the West. Pennington (2016, p.112) explores how Perry’s role in the music video acts as a portrayal of a “Cleopatra-like character” with magical powers and how this role directly links to power. This is shown throughout the video, as Egyptian men are shown submissing to Perry while showering her with gifts such as food and jewels. Whenever any of her suitors slightly displease her, she displays how expendable they are to her by using magic powers to dispose of them. Furthermore, Perry uses these magical powers to appear more modern and more superior than the ancient Egyptian people who stand before her, which is argued by (Said, 1978) that it reinforces the narrative that the West is modern and the East is never-changing and ancient. This can be linked to Said’s (1978) notion of Orientalism as he repeatedly discusses the power imbalance between the East and West, Perry’s goddess-like complex displayed in Dark Horse legitimizes this suggestion as she presents herself as a superior figure, despite actually being the only non-native character in the story, she somehow appears more important than any of them. Pennington nods to Said (1978, pp.11–12) and Foucault (1969) when referring to how Perry was “repackaging a centuries old Orientalist discourse about East and West” in her music video, meaning due to Perry’s position as a Western female, she creates and controls the narrative by using Egyptian symbolism to reinforce colonial attitudes.
Said (1978) has discussed the demonization of Islam in popular culture, which Pennington has also explored in the article. She described a scene from the Dark Horse video in which Perry destroys one of her suitors along with the necklace he was wearing, that held an Arabic symbol translating to ‘Allah’. This specific part of the video has now been removed following online controversy, however, the fact alone that it was approved by several departments in a reputable American corporation in the music industry prior to its release reveals the lack of importance in handling Islam respectfully to Western audiences. The blasphemic action of destroying the Allah symbol implies that the West perceive Islam as unimportant solely due to the fact that Islam did not even exist during the ancient Egyptian period. This suggests that Perry and Mathew Cullen (the Dark Horse video director) typecast brown-skinned men for the music video and instantly assumed their character would be Muslim. Furthermore, the mere contradiction of Perry portraying herself as an ancient Egyptian god(dess) proves that she was already aware that ancient Egyptians had their own form of religion during this period, which leaves little explanation for why there is a brown-skinned Egyptian man wearing Muslim jewellery whilst also submitting to Perry’s portrayal of an Egyptian god. This also confirms Said’s (1978) notion of Orientalism as Western culture tends to merge stereotypical Oriental attributes such as Islam and Egyptology, because they view the Orient as a singular, uniform object.
The author also discusses Said’s ideas surrounding imaginary geography throughout the article. She wrote that “the imaginary geography of Orientalism produced a physical understanding of the Orient that Orientalist artists, scholars, and painters helped fashion; an understanding designed to highlight differences and to mask similarities or, even, on the ground realities all in the pursuit of the commodification of the Orient and its consumption” (Pennington, 2016, p.114), which can definitely be applied to the contents in Dark Horse. For example, the actors were hired to portray ancient Egyptians, or, the Other, yet they were all born and live in the United States. This highlights differences because despite all the actors in the music video being the same nationality, the dark-skinned actors are used to portray the Orient. Perry is already famous and the main focus of the video, so it is obvious to the audience that she is not actually Egyptian, yet the Egyptian characters are placed with the intention to look native purely because their skin colour is associated with the Orient.
Pennington’s article can be used as a critique of modernity through discussion of how the Dark Horse video is a prime example of consumerism. The commercial agenda of music videos are both showcases of the art of the artist but also commercial products with the end goal being sale and consumption. Features of music videos include product placement, celebrity cameos, and outrage at their content which are all focused on increasing revenues (Railton and Watson, 2005). Pennington’s article blames consumerism for Katy Perry’s depiction of the East, which is not only inaccurate but it is also reductive. The opening shot features the sun setting with palm trees and pyramids placed in the backdrop as Perry floats down the Nile river in a Skiff boat. An introduction fades onto the screen titled “Memphis, Egypt, a crazy long time ago…”, the comical tone shows that detail is not one of the video’s priorities and that Egyptology is only required for entertainment purposes. The author understands that these images “are meant to be consumed by Perry as well as by her audience” (Pennington, 2016, p.116) so there is no room for historical accuracy in pop culture when profit is the main priority, as all that is important is a glamorous spectacle of a performance. Pennington (2016, p.116) points out the placement of hieroglyphics throughout the video, which are “among the most recognized products of ancient Egypt”. Most Western viewers will have seen hieroglyphics at some point in their lives and are utilized to familiarize the audience with Perry’s depiction of Egypt. However, it is highly unlikely that the audience, and Perry herself, would be able to translate or understand the hieroglyphics, meaning that they don’t actually contribute anything towards the storyline. Therefore, the hieroglyphics are reduced to accessories as a tool to alleviate the viewer’s experience as they are transported to Katy Perry’s conceptualisation of Egypt “a crazy long time ago”. Perry’s choice of role is beneficial to her public image as she chose to loosely impersonate Cleopatra, a female and racially ambiguous Pharoah, by naming her character “Queen Katy Pätra” (IMDb, 2014). Cleopatra was believed to be of Greek descent and had no Egyptian blood in her (Kleiner, 2009, p.22), which is beneficial to Perry and her public image as she can not be accused of whitewashing her character. Pennington also explains that the concept of a white Cleopatra links back to Elizabeth Taylor’s portrayal of her in Cleopatra (1963), both portrayals can be considered as more easily consumable for Western audiences and also “makes any possible strangeness seem less potent” (Pennington, 2016, p.118). Perry is not Greek or of Greek descent and the rest of the Dark Horse video holds little historical accuracy, but by presenting herself as a Cleopatra-like figure she avoids being accused of whitewashing ancient Egyptian history which would result in accusations of blatant racial offense. Pennington expresses her distaste for how Katy Perry produces offensive and stereotypical content in this music video as a technique to accumulate sales and profit. This can be explained by how modernity and capitalism has resulted in technological advancements that have led to the digitalization of the music industry and the expansion of an artists’ content platform. This means that being an artist is no longer about being musically talented, but actually about becoming a brand that maximizes profit and sales for their record label by churning out as many forms of marketable media as possible (Wikström, 2013).
Another way Pennington’s (2016) article acts as a critique of modernity is through the analysis of how Perry projects Western feminism into the music video by presenting herself as a liberated, powerful woman. At face value, female empowerment seems like something that should be celebrated and not critiqued, but Pennington (2016) explains that Perry’s representation of feminism is actually just a product of commodity feminism (Goldman et al, 1991). Throughout the video, Perry is portrayed as the object of desire among a crowd of impressionable men and weaponizes her femininity by luring them in one by one as they shower her with gifts. This trope alone reinforces misconceptions featured in mainstream tabloid media about modernised Western feminism due to Perry’s materialistic attitude as she only ever believes her relationships with men are valuable when she is being given gifts, and even then they are disposable once she gets what she wants. The rise of matriarchy (Bachofen et al, 1861) and female supremacy, as shown in the video, is a common theme in Westernised pop culture, however, the difference is that with Dark Horse, all of Perry’s inferiors are submissive, colonized, Egyptian men. Pennington (2016) describes the racist undertones of how Perry’s character becomes more powerful each time she eliminates a man as they are reduced to dust before being transformed into a literal object for the Western woman to consume. Pennington (2016, p.113) summarised Lugones’ (2007) description of the imperialist attitudes based in Orientalism as “non-Whites were forever cast as the other who needed taming and from whom things could be taken” which is exactly what is taking place in the Dark Horse video. The video revolves around Perry taking food, jewels, transport and infrastructure from the Egyptian inhabitants whilst simultaneously punishing two men with death because her food was too spicy and they ran out of water to give her. Pennington’s article (2016) serves as a critique of modernity because Perry’s idea of self-empowerment stems from reigning over the Orient and oppressing those who come from it. Ultimately, the article acts as a critique of modernity as she points out that Katy Perry’s definition of feminism and empowerment is essentially just her objectifying herself as a symbol of desire and femininity. Perry conducts herself as a leader among a crowd of men, yet shows no signs of true leadership or intelligence and still has men queueing up for the chance to impress her or receive some sort of validation. Perry reduces herself to this object of lust and commodifies herself in exchange for material wealth and exorbitant power in the name of White feminism. This contrasts first-wave feminism, which derived from women protesting for their right for political and economic equality during a time of female oppression.
To conclude, Katy Perry’s depiction of ancient Egypt in the music video for Dark Horse is a perfect example of Orientalism. From start to finish, it features stereotypical imagery that the Occident commonly associated with Egypt, which is made to appear mystical, and is perhaps how Perry imagines Egypt to really be. It can be argued that the stereotyping is included for entertainment purposes and has no harmful intentions, but the overall story can inarguably be seen as insensitive and offensive. Ultimately, the entire plot of the Dark Horse music video is that Katy Perry is an irresistible object of beauty who becomes increasingly powerful each time she destroys an Egyptian man. Not only are the men willingly submissive, they are also desperate to be validated by the powerful Western woman. The men patiently queue up to wait for the chance to impress Perry with their numerous material gifts, which is an indistinguishable metaphor for how the Orient is seen from the Occident’s perspective. Furthermore, the music videos’ colonial and imperial nuances are unintentionally highlighted by segments such as the Westerner extracting material goods from the Other for their own consumption. Themes of power throughout the video directly link to cultural hegemony (Gramsci, 1937) as Perry embodies the role of the proud, powerful leader who dominates the land, whilst spending the duration of the music video sat on a throne whilst being served by her Egyptian subjects. The final scene of Dark Horse shows Perry transforming into what appears to be the Egyptian goddess, Isis, also known as “The Great Magic” (Mark, J. J., 2020), who was among the most important deities in ancient Egypt. This suggests Perry considers herself to be on a similar level of significance to one of the most important religious figures in Egyptian mythology. Perry’s Dark Horse video falls under Said’s second notion of Orientalism, in that it contributes to the Western perception of the East, more specifically Egypt. This can be explained as the video has accumulated over 2.9 billion views on YouTube meaning this music video may be a major contributing factor to Western projections of Oriental and Egyptian stereotypes or misconceptions. Pennington’s (2016) research critically analysed how Egyptological imagery was used by applying it to products of modernity such as commodification, feminism, colonialism, imperialism and pop culture.
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