There are some spectacles of US decadence and decline that almost seem too on the nose – the sort of orgies of vulgar provocation or fantastic lack of self-awareness that exceed the limits of parody, so that if they were in a novel, you’d think the writer was laying it on a little thick. Among these is the all-female flight by Blue Origin, the Jeff Bezos-owned rocket tourism company, which on Monday launched a phallically shaped pod full of women – including the pop star Katy Perry and Bezos’s partner, Lauren Sánchez – on a brief trip into space.
The flight, which was promoted for months in advance, was touted as a triumph of feminism, a win for science and an embrace of the kind of expansive, curious human spirit of striving and possibility that once animated both. Instead, the flight served as a kind of perverse funeral for the America that once enabled both scientific advancement and feminist progress – a spectacle that mocked these aspirations by appropriating them for such an indulgent and morally hollow purpose.
The thing that stands out most to me about this “all-female flight” is that it’s the only Blue Origin flight that used form fitting uniforms.
That really makes it clear as day what the goal was and how they view women.
In an interview with Elle, the crew members paid lip service to the importance of women, and particularly women of color, in Stem. (The Trump administration has forced Nasa to close some offices in order to comply with its ban on the diversity, equity and inclusion programs that would recruit such candidates.) But mostly, they seemed interested in talking about their makeup and hair. “Space is going to finally be glam,” Katy Perry said, bizarrely. “Let me tell you something. If I could take glam up with me, I would do that. We are going to put the ‘ass’ in astronaut.”
“Who would not get glam before the flight?!” asked Sánchez, who evidently can’t imagine that women might prioritize anything else. “We’re going to have lash extensions flying in the capsule.” Bowe, too, joined in, saying that she had gone to extreme lengths to make sure that she would be, of all things, well coiffed for the experience. “I skydived in Dubai with similar hair to make sure I would be good,” she said. “I took it for a dry run.”
Finally bringing glam to space. Oof.
Lauren Sanchez is in the running for the babe Ruth of whores
I’m honestly kind of surprised at the level of ire I’ve seen directed at this. Maybe because it never seemed that notable to me to begin with? But it just seems obvious that this is a big advertisement, nothing more.
If there’s one thing lemmites love bashing more than corporations. It’s bashing women.
Now they get to kill two birds with one stone.
Can’t be bashing rich people doing rich people things because it might be sexist
Tight, shiny, carefully tailored suits without easily accessible pockets! We demand to be taken seriously. Call us astronauts.
