Even if you don’t have kids who crawl into your bed every morning at 6:30, hand you the remote, and say, “Elmo?” you’ve probably heard about the Katy Perry Sesame Street controversy. In case you haven’t, the gist of it is this: Katy Perry did a segment on on Sesame Street in which she did a version of her song, “Hot n Cold” with Elmo. It was a pretty standard Sesame Street appearance. The song was cute, Elmo sang a little, everything was great– except for what she was wearing.
Here’s the thing: Katy Perry is kind of a ridiculous individual. As such, she wore a very cleavage-y bustier dress to her playdate with Elmo. As a result, the shit promptly hit the fan, with parents decrying Perry’s revealing dress. Sure, it’s kind of a dumb outfit to wear on a preschool show, but is it really all that bad?
I’m no fan of Katy Perry, but my 2 year old and I watched the video this morning, and he doesn’t seem too scarred. Nor has he become a crazy boob-fiend after being subjected to her cleavage. He heard a catchy tune and saw Elmo running around. To him, that’s a good morning.
Sesame Street has opted not to air the video, but I love the subtext of the statement they made regarding the uproar: it’s basically a bunch of, “Oh, for Christ’s sake, people. We’ve been doing this for 40 freakin’ years, but since you guys are going to be babies about it, we won’t air it. Jerks.”
All I know is that Perry is going to be the musical guest on SNL tonight, and if they don’t work this into a skit somehow, then that show is truly ridiculous.
If you haven’t seen it, I’ve included the whole video below. Yes, it was an ill-advised outfit, but is it really that big of a deal?
Clacked by Kona Gallagher 
on Sep 25, 2010 @ 14:47 EST5EDT
Yes! Katy’s boobs are bad for children. Cause then all the little girls will wait, thinking they’re gonna get a set of those groovy boobies, and they will most likely be sorely disappointed. Save the Children!!!
How has Britain managed to have boobs everywhere and not become….I don’t know. What the hell would we become if there were boobies everywhere? Less oppressed as women? Bring on the boobies!!
Carissa, as a straight man I have absolutely no objection to your rallying cry of, “Bring on the boobies!” Can’t think of a single objection. Nothing, not one…or even two.
While I think there could have been a better costume choice made, I don’t think it is anything to get upset about. It wasn’t like she was all boobs or anything. Her chest was covered, it wasn’t a strapless dress. And, kids who watch Sesame Street aren’t even going to notice it, unless an adult points it out.
I didn’t know she was on SNL tonight. I will have to check it out, because they should parody it somehow.
Poor kids that have parents that freak out over something this innocuous.
Exposing your breasts is not liberating, it’s degrading. Education is liberating. Finding your purpose is liberating. Serving others is liberating.
They were right to pull it. However, all that said, I do not think anything less of Katy Perry. I did really stoooooopid things in my youth.
There but by the grace of God go I.
She didn’t exactly expose her breasts. It was a skimpy outfit, but nothing “offensive” (i.e. nipple) was exposed. But I think the real question is why do Americans find breasts so offensive? And I think women who aren’t uptight about their bodies would find letting their breasts hang out pretty liberating, especially since it’s okay for men of all shapes and sizes to let theirs hang out even when they need to be kept under wraps! It’s okay for all kinds of murder and mayhem to be broadcast all over the airwaves at any time of day, but God forbid we see a breast or two or mention sex. Maybe if we didn’t think of sex as something dirty and actually talked to kids about the subject we wouldn’t have the issues we have today with pre-teen and teen mothers (who may use their breasts to feed their children – the horror!), “sexting,” STDs and the like. As a society, we’re kind of ridiculous on this matter. Let’s just make all women wear burqas and be done with it, right?
Chuck, my good man, your logic is flawed. :)
Also, there’s no way you can draw a line to burqas from what I wrote.
IMHO, the fruits of an immodest society are STD’s, sexting, teen pregnancy, etc. – and yet you advocate for more immodesty. For my part, I’ll advocate for more purity. Do I think I’m perfect? Not even close.
We find common ground in that I think most things go over childrens heads. (I saw Grease as a little person and did not catch the meaning of things said/sang.)
I believe innocence liked everything else is stripped by degrees. Peace, Chuck.
BSG: Hopefully, with you, I’ve finally found someone who can explain to me the other side of this argument.
Kona has made my point (one I’ve tried to make yesterday, and failed miserably) … Are Sesame Street age kids even going to know what their mothers (or some of their mothers) are so upset about?
Sesame Street signed off on her outfit enough to tape the segment, and circulate it. But then they let public opinion override their own?
And Deb has an even better point. I think the outfit choice was about looking ridiculous, and not sexy.
I don’t understand why this is a big deal, and a True Blood parody not?
My guess is that most will not know. As I mentioned up top, I saw Grease as a youngster and all the inappropriate stuff went over my head. However, as I mentioned, innocence is stripped by degrees. No girl is born a harlot. Her innocence is stripped by degrees. No boy is born a pimp. His innocence is stripped by degrees.
The outfit IS outlandish AND her privates were showing.
I can’t comment on the TB parody, as I did not know about it, but my feelings about vampires are well known. Vampires get turned off here.
I don’t think this is a huge deal either. As I stated above, I don’t think less of Katy Perry. She’s not a role model after all, she’s an entertainer.
People can and do turn off the tv’s when they are disgusted.
Did I answer you?
I can’t wait until you have kids. I’ll take the apology in the form of HARIBO Gummy Bears, thanks.
(HARIBO macht kinder froh is the extent of my German.)
And I will go a step further and say that I give Katy Perry credit for defending the Church against blasphemies.
Sure, Ricky Gervais’ man-boobs are ok but this is offensive.
I still wake up from my dreams every couple of days, all sweaty.
…
Nightmares? Where did I say I had nightmares?
Nothing a “session” with the honorable Rev. Ted Haggard won’t cure, trust me.
I thought you were saving yourself for Anne Hathoway? Or is that Ivey?
That’s Ivey.
My new-year’s resolution was to date more supermodels ;-)
I’m sure they will all be relieved to hear you still find them suitable. :D
Every year 1 is more than 0 ;-)
And of course I only want the real skinny ones, not someone looking as healthy as Katey Perry!
If a had children I would be much more concerned with exposing them to horrid, meaningless, overly-commercialized pop “music” than any outfit. I think the song was making Elmo run away.
I don’t know Bob, it seems like when I had kids, all the wiring in my brain changed.
My logic is “flawed” yet you give me no explanation as to how. But I was really posing a question that also wasn’t answered as to why Americans find breasts so offensive. And I certainly can draw a line from Katy Perry’s boobs to burqas because once it is decided that cleavage is offensive and must be covered up, it will only escalate especially if we end up with a majority of extreme, right-wing conservatives in control of things. Let’s think back to the Janet Jackson incident and how the networks were terrified of anything that had a whiff of controversy attached to it. I meant burqas as an exaggeration, by the way, but if some conservative group like the American Family Association or Focus on the Family gets their claws into this, it’s only a matter of time before sponsors are being boycotted or pulling their ads and the FCC will start fining networks again. The worst part is with Sesame Street being on PBS, then these groups will start sending this video out to their members screaming “Look at what YOUR TAX DOLLARS pays for!” I know this for a fact, because I signed up for the AFA newsletter just to keep tabs on them and I can’t believe the power they have in this country. And all because of some perfectly natural cleavage on a kids show that most kids probably wouldn’t notice unless an adult pointed it out to them. But it’ll still be okay to see characters murdered on your favorite shows (sometimes BY kids)! Yay!
Chuck, I don’t like to get into politics here, but I’m a fairly conservative individual with libertarian leanings. Please don’t confuse these protests from groups like the AFA with the feelings of the majority of conservatives. Groups like that live on the controversy they manufacture and I can almost guarantee you that if true conservatives were in control there wouldn’t be as much banning of things as you think. My family (me, wife, 2 daughters) saw the infamous wardrobe malfunction and it was a momentary surprise, then promptly forgotten about. I was breast fed as were my children because it’s healthy and that’s what they’re for after all.
I completely agree with you that we routinely expose our children to violence of all sorts without a second thought, but somehow some poor mother trying to breast feed her hungry baby in the corner booth of a restaurant is scandalous. That’s not to say I don’t think a lot of these performers go over the line with regards to exposure, but that’s more a cry for attention or a compensation for lack of talent than anything else, and as bsgfan2003 wisely noted you can turn off the TV at any time. And with 167,439,231 channels and counting you can always find something else to watch.
This right-winger raised his daughters with the philosophy that the human body was not a bad thing. Just about the time they were hitting puberty we “the talk” with our daughters. We let them know that no matter what questions they had or what they might do when out with a boyfriend, they could always talk to us about it without fear of reprimand or punishment of any kind. So far, it seems they’re pretty open with us, but I’m sure there’s plenty they’re not telling, but we do get a lot of questions and have a lot of discussions.
I remember the night the questions started because it came from so far out of left field that I nearly died. It was a Saturday night about 11 pm and everyone was asleep except my oldest daughter who was watching TV. She was probably 13 at the time, maybe 12. She quietly made her way into the living room where I was also watching TV, turned to me and asked, “Dad, have you ever masturbated?” Now I know what it feels like for all the blood to leave your brain! (BTW, I told her the truth as soon as my brain came back online.)
Tom, you are the exception and not the rule when it comes to talking openly with your kids and for that you should be applauded. I was never comfortable enough about the subject to talk to my parents about it and vice versa. I grew up in a very sheltered, Pentecostal Christian household and we were just not very open to discussion on this topic (at least we were allowed to have sex ed in school when I was a kid). The problem is there are a lot of parents who do not feel comfortable having those talks but they don’t want society to have those talks with their kids either, so when something like this comes up it gets all blown out of proportion and takes on much more importance than it needed to have. If the Sesame Street folks hadn’t posted this video online, it would have aired as planned, the only people who would have seen it would be the regular viewers of Sesame Street, it may or may not have gotten some parents upset, but then it would have gone away just like the Janet Jackson incident. I’d really like to know how many children watching that have been scarred for life. Show of hands?
*POST AUTHOR*
By the way Tom, I just wanted to tell you how impressive you are as a parent. I hope I’ll be as brave as you are when the time comes!
Chuck, first off I want to thank you for the compliment. I really apprechate it.
I grew up in a similar household to yours. My parents said if we ever had questions we could go to them about it, but I tried once and got my @$$ chewed for “talking dirty” about something. I decided somewhere down the line that I wasn’t going to let my kids grow up wondering about all the “intricate taboos” our society has put on something so natural and downright fun. Talking to your kids about sex is DIFFICULT because everybody feels uncomfortable at one point or another (except for my oldest who would just ask random questions at the most odd times), but just like safety and drugs I’d rather they learn from me than kids on the playground or in the classroom.
This Sesame Street thing is just way overblown.
Thanks Kona, but I wasn’t brave. I was so nervous I nearly wet myself! I’m glad that’s over because I wouldn’t want to do it again, it was difficult as hell.
I think if you are offended over your child seeing someone dressed like that you need to do more than get Katy Perry kicked off Sesame Street, you need to keep your child inside at all times. If you take them to the outside world you run too much of a risk of passing someone dressed with cleavage showing!
Am I the only one in America who noticed that Katy Perry has no cleavage? Seriously, if she’s wearing a 34A I’d be surprised! I’d like to hear if Brett even considers those boobs … he’s the CliqueClack boob expert, you know. ;-)
There is nothing sexy about that get-up, she just looks funky (and you can choose the meaning of funky that works best for you here).
After watching the Bronx Beat from last night’s SNL I’m going to have to disagree with you about your 1st point.
I do agree that the point of the outfit was to look funky. Thats probably what Sesame Street was going for putting her in that get up. They considered it something weird that little kids wear during dress up that unfortunately looks different on an adult female for obvious reasons.
I’m also guessing this controversy removes any chance of Christina Hendricks from ever appearing on Sesame Street…
I guess the Christian groups complaining never breast feed their children. That would explain a lot.
I don’t think the problem is with seeing her breasts, the problem is with kids thinking that this is a normal way to dress. Tv does help to shape kids’ ideas about “normal,” and Katy Perry’s outfit is idiotic.
Also, please stop exaggerating about burqas and cleavage bans – asking someone not to bare their boobs in certain contexts is reasonable. I think the people defending Perry are the ones who are blowing this out of proportion. Why are you making such a big deal about this? If you want to see her boobs, do you need to do it on Sesame Street? Give me a break.
Apparently school teachers also have to wear shirts while teaching. Oh NO! It must be those evil Christians making school teachers wear shirts in schools! The school teachers in Europe don’t have to wear shirts while teaching! Boo hoo.
Grow up.
When something like this gets so many people riled up that it had to be pulled from airing, it’s not much of an exaggeration to suggest that more “cleavage bans” could happen, just like after the Janet Jackson incident in which a breast actually was bared unlike in this situation. But it still doesn’t answer the question as to why Americans are afraid of breasts. I’m sure Katy had a choice of outfits, a stylist and some sensible adults who made the decision on what outfit to wear. I doubt she just showed up at the studio in that and said, “Here I am!” If anyone associated with Sesame Street thought the costume was that offensive, I’m sure they would have chosen something else. But now that this has been banned from television, how much longer will it be before Katy’s “California Girls” video is pulled from MTV. Isn’t there a chance kids could see that with the whipped cream squirting out of her breasts? I think there’s more to explain to little kids there than with anything in the Sesame Street piece! And what about Disney’s Little Mermaid? She’s exposing much more than Katy and no one has made a fuss. They’re both pretty much cartoon characters. And I stand by my belief that the AFA is evil.
You’re making the assumption that “sensible adults” were involved in the decision. Obviously that’s not the case, because sensible adults could have easily predicted this uproar, whether they agree with it or not.
Besides, Sesame Street probably didn’t want to offend HER, the great Katy Perry, who made the time to shoot this segment. If a huge celebrity deigns to appear on your program, you don’t tell them to change their outfit because it’s inappropriate. SS wouldn’t have the guts to do that.
And regarding bans on showing a lot of boob – the important thing to remember is CONTEXT. In certain contexts, it’s perfectly reasonable to expect that. For example, if I owned a business, I would be perfectly within my rights to expect all employees, male and female, to cover their chests. If you think this makes me evil, then call me evil. I’m not afraid of people labeling me.
BTW, I don’t mean to go after you personally, Chuck, although I do disagree with you.
Maybe it’s me being german but the abbreviation “SS” made me go “ugh”. A sensible adult wouldn’t have used it ;-)
You know, I actually thought about you when I used it, Sebastian. And I also thought the fact that I used Sesame Street in the same para would have been enough for it to be clear, but if not, I apologize.
You don’t have to. We both know I just wrote that to express how people tend to be overly sensitive.
I just read an article about Uwe Boll, that german director who makes all those horribly violent movies, like “Rampage”. Nobody in the US would even think about objecting to the snuff this guy produces but the second even the hint of a nipple would show up in one of those movies, he would get an NC-17 rating.
It’s basically a weird world we are living in.
I bet half the audience got hungry and all the moms out there got pissed because it wasn’t supper time, and, gosh, I have so much other stuff to do right now. This sucks! *stomps feet*
Well, Ruby, we can agree to disagree. I don’t think, although I don’t know for sure, that Katy Perry is such a diva that she would try to tell the good people at Sesame Street, who have been doing this for a couple of years now, what outfit she’s going to wear on their show. Knowing how these things work, I’m sure there was a collective decision on what she would wear. But any way you look at it, it still points out the fact that as Americans we are terrified of the human body…unless it’s being shot, stabbed or otherwise mutilated for our viewing pleasure (in context, of course).
Yes, in context. If there were people getting shot, stabbed, and mutilated on Sesame Street during one random episode, you would see the same uproar from the same set of people.
See, you’ve lost me (in your previous comment that I can’t reply to).
Katy Perry is popular now, no doubt, but don’t think for a second that Sesame Street isn’t a bigger property. If they thought the segment was inappropriate, they’d have asked her to change before filming. Or stopped the filming. Or scrapped it after filming. Or not released the video on the internet for public. They had several opportunities to figure out that this was inappropriate but it wasn’t until the moral police got involved.
And I second Chuck when he mentioned the Little Mermaid!
I agree with both of you regarding The Little Mermaid, although Ariel only wore her clamshells in the water, limiting their use to swimwear, whereas on land she wore a dress; if Katy were for some reason swimming in a pool on Sesame Street, it would make sense for her to show more skin. But in general, I agree with that comparison.
*POST AUTHOR*
I think it’s really interesting how some of you brought up breastfeeding, because that’s exactly what I was thinking about when this whole thing first started happening. It bothers me a great deal when people are bothered by women breastfeeding their children and act like it’s something obscene. Even the most natural thing in the world is seen by many as evil, just because it has to do with boobs. Boobs aren’t the enemy here, people!
With that said, I do agree that we shouldn’t be teaching our kids to dress like Katy Perry, but the fact that she was in “dress-up clothes” automatically says to a kid that this isn’t how people dress every day.
Ruby has the right of it with context. There is an expectation that Sesame Street can be 100% trusted to be wholesome. Someone made an error, I don’t know who, but they fixed it and I’m not going to cry over it.
And for the record, all my kids were breastfed too, there are you happy :)!
I do not. But I am a mature adult who knows right from wrong, and what kids need protection from. I would prefer children not be exposed to drug use, guns and killing on TV in any context as opposed to Katy Perry’s cleavage, because we hear more on the news about kids bringing guns to school than we do about them dressing provocatively (and yes, that does happen too which is why so many schools require uniforms now, but why is it society’s fault they buy these clothes and not the parents’?). But instead of “sensible” adults trying to police what all of us can see on television, parents should be more willing to talk to their kids about what they see on TV. If a parent is watching the video with their toddler and the kid says she (or he?) wants a dress like that, then it’s the parent’s job to decide if it is or isn’t inappropriate. I’m tired of people telling me, a 48-year-old man, what I can and can’t watch (I would have never seen the Sesame Street video if it hadn’t been brought to my attention in this forum). If I don’t like something, I turn it off. If someone else saw the same thing, I’ll have a discussion about it if they ask me but I’m not going to put myself in charge of being the morality police for every person watching TV, and that’s what this boils down to (although I will tell you what not to watch if it’s just plain crap).
And again, there are stars who are divas and their every demand is met. I still don’t think Katy Perry is like that and demanded that she wear that dress. Again, it was “dress up clothes” or a costume, not every day street wear! Trust me, I’m probably one of the most sensible and uptight adults you’ll ever know, but I still think there are bigger issues that concern kids than seeing Katy Perry’s cleavage! I think it’s more worrying that a group of “sensible” adults have taken a fairly innocent segment from a kids show and sexualized to such a degree that it’s become dirty. I don’t think any little kid watching it would have even noticed, or have had that image branded into their memories so that in 10 years or so it comes back and they feel the need to dress like Katy Perry circa 2010. I think what I’ll do now is quiz some of my friends with young girls what they think about the issue.
I claim mathematical proof by exhaustion :) – Sorry, it’s over now!
Kona, you hit it right on the head with breast feeding, but people are still going to think that and Katy Perry’s outfit is inappropriate and dirty, yet no one has still been able to say exactly why boobs are the enemy.
And another good point about the outfit being “dress up clothes.”
And bsgfan – the people at Sesame Street don’t actually believe they made an error in judgment. They were forced by this ridiculous outrage to pull the segment and issue a very calculated “apology.” That they were forced to make that decision by a bunch of adults who think anything having to do with the human body is dirty is worth crying about.
Do you have children Chuck?
That just shows that the Sesame Street producers are out of touch with their audience. They’re more concerned about kissing Katy’s ass, and now begging her to come back for a do-over. Good for them – I hope next time they aren’t afraid to give her better advice about what to wear.
I don’t claim to be an expert in these matters, but in my experience as a marketing director, when anyone remotely famous shows up, everyone starts bowing and scraping and kissing ass to make the VIP happy. As soon as the VIP is out the door, people come back to reality. My boss has told me, “No, we’re not going to do X.” Then the VIP says, “Let’s do X” and my boss comes back to me and says, “Yeah, that’s a good idea. Let’s do X” and I say, “But didn’t you think X was a bad idea just yesterday?”
I just think this whole thing is ridiculous because I regularly babysit twin three and a half year old girls and let me tell you, if I can get them to cover up their hoo-ha, I count it as a victorious day. Kids don’t care about what they’re revealing or not. Kids don’t understand that there are things they shouldn’t be revealing. The only way a kid is going to remember and be influenced to wear something like that is if an adult points out “hey, this is bad and don’t do it”, in which case the child will go “awesome!” and remember exactly how to piss off their parents at a later date.
*POST AUTHOR*
By the way, I just want to say how much I love our readers (and staff). 46 comments on this thing, and even though you guys disagree, the comments are all remarkably thoughtful and well-written. If I would have posted this over at TV Squad, this is not how it would have gone.
Kona, that is exactly why we’re here and not “over there” where things descend into the internet equivalent of a dogfight. Thoughtful discussion and civil disagreements are some of the hallmarks of CliqueClack. I hope it always remains above the rest in terms of the type of commenters here.
. . . . .
Addendum to Kona’s verbiage above:
“That is, until Michael showed up.”
Its is always refreshing to see people on the internet disagree in a civil manner. I used to like TV Squad, but after the update the place was taken over by crazies who probably would just call us libtards/teabaggers (depending on opinion) and not bother to explain their point of view beyond what you can assume from the initial insult. I enjoyed reading all the comments and seeing for once individual, well thought out (excluding mine) opinions that was more than infantile political mud-slinging that would you see in the comments on AOL or Yahoo.
Ruby: I hear what you’re saying, but I seriously doubt the producers of Sesame Street are that starstruck.
And, to everyone else:
Shucks, I guess if Perry’s figure skating costume was inappropriate, no more Olympics for the little ones…
https://www.windweaver.com/coi2002/images/michelle92021.jpg
Exactly, Ivey! The more I watched this video, and the more I looked at it, I realized it was just an ice skating outfit. It even has the netting!
. . . . .
Dear Brett:
If you ever find yourself in a pickle with not enough time to dole out boob expertise (’cause we all know there’s tons of work out there), I’ll be happy to be your #2 man. Just say the word.
Sincerely, Michael
. . . . .
Michael <—– echoes Julia's thoughts
…..
Ivey <– echo's Michael's ellipses