If you haven’t heard by now, Katy Perry went to space. Literally. On April 14th, the Blue Origin crew – consisting of Perry, Lauren Sánchez, Gayle King, Aisha Bowe, Amanda Nguyen, and Kerianne Flynn – embarked on a fifteen minute escapade to space, the first all-female crew to do so in over sixty years. It was advertised as a female-empowering mission, an event to inspire women everywhere. However, the internet did not respond kindly. 

Upon the announcement of their safe return home, people immediately took to social media to bash the crew. My favorite comments include: 

“Can I have healthcare please?” 

“At least we know botox holds up!” 

“Narcissism not feminism” 

“The whole thing was such an expensive joke” 

And, in response to Perry saying she “feel[s] so connected to love” upon landing: 

“Great Katy. I feel super connected to debt.” 

With the rise of social media has come the constant and unnecessary surge of unfactual opinions, hateful backlash, fearmongering, cancel culture, and overall negativity which has increased tensions between wealth classes in America. Perry herself said, “When the online world tries to make me a human Piñata, I take it with grace and send them love, cause I know so many people are hurting in so many ways and the internet is very much a dumping ground for unhinged and unhealed”. So, while these comments are objectively funny, let’s take a deep dive into what this space mission was really about and see if Perry’s claim warrants any merit. 

First, we must ask: Why did these celebrities go to space? Blue Origin is a company founded by Jeff Bezos – the richest man in the world with a net worth of 209.5 billion USD – intended for the sole purpose of space tourism. This is a commercial enterprise which is currently being pioneered by billionaires such as Bezos and Elon Musk, in which anyone (theoretically) can pay for a quick visit to space. However, the order process alone requires a deposit of 150,000 USD. Space tourism is in its infancy, but these billionaires plan to make these launches a daily occurrence – it seems St. Barts just wasn’t enough. 

While little is known about the environmental effects of space tourism, scientists suggest that it has a negative effect on climate change and the ozone layer: “Just three years of tourism flights at the frequency the companies predict, the authors estimate, could more than double the black soot emissions of the last decade of contemporary rocket launches.” The problem with these rockets is the amount of black soot they emit, which effectively tear away at the ozone layer and heat the planet. Blue Origin uses a different type of fuel which is comprised of liquid oxygen and hydrogen, thereby releasing only water vapor; however, water vapor impacts greenhouse gases.  

So, the purpose of the crew’s mission was to advertise a billionaire’s new company which destroys the earth and increases the class divide. So far, it sounds like the comments against the Blue Origin crew are extremely warranted. 

But do these six individual women really deserve our hate, or is it misdirected? Should we redirect our energy and attack Bezos and space tourism? Let’s take a look at the women on board. 

First, we have Katy Perry, an international superstar with a net worth of 350 million USD. Next is Gayle King, a TV personality worth 40 million USD. Then Lauren Sánchez with a net worth of 30 million USD, who is engaged to Bezos (lest we forget, 209.5 billion USD). Number four on the roster is Kerianne Flynn, a film producer worth 7 million USD. And finally, the last two women aboard – and perhaps the only two who deserve to be there – Aisha Bowe, a former NASA rocket scientists, and Amanda Nguyen, a bioastronautics research scientist. Their net worths are unknown.  

It is evident that four of these women are on the extremely wealthy side of the growing American class divide, which has unfortunately rendered them out of touch. Upon landing, “King said the opportunity was ‘such a reminder of how we have to do better, be better’ she added, echoing Sánchez’s sentiment that it was very quiet in space and invited reflection on how important it is to take care of one another on earth.” It is extremely ironic that both women – Sánchez especially, considering her fiancé – preach environmental justice and caring for humanity after participating in an enterprise which seeks to grow the class divide and harm the earth. 

The only thing any of these women said that somewhat resonated with me came from, unsurprisingly, Nguyen, the bioastronautics research scientist. She said, “I think it's so important for people to see us like that. This dichotomy of engineer and scientist, and then beauty and fashion [..] we contain multitudes. Women are multitudes. I'm going to be wearing lipstick.” As basic as this may sounds, I agree with the sentiment that young girls must grow up in a world where women are dynamic; we are simultaneously feminine, masculine, smart, caring, loud, funny, etc. Nguyen’s message is important, especially with the rise of incel culture and right-wing extremists.  

However, I do not believe that feminism trumps the problems which space tourism invites. Putting lipstick on a killer rocket in the name of feminism is a gross misrepresentation of what it means to be a feminist. Feminism is an intersectional term – if you are a feminist, you must be concerned with women in marginalized groups, including racial minorities, impoverished peoples, and those most effected by climate change (which unfortunately all intersect). Your desire for radical change cannot just be for wealthy women – if you want to uplift women, you must want to uplift women of all backgrounds. The Blue Origin Crew did not accomplish this task. 

So, I think it is very safe to say that the hate comments towards Perry and the other crew members were warranted – these celebrities can afford an ego-check, regardless of whether it hurts their feelings. However, my hope is that those who are enraged enough to comment online and brutally make fun of Perry will hold onto that passion, and direct it towards something that matters more than putting a celebrity in their place: fighting against the growing concern that is space tourism.