Emily Ratajkowski, or EmRata, has powerfully called out Jeff Bezos' Blue Origin rocket mission, which sent an all-female crew, including pop star Katy Perry and Bezos' fiancée Lauren Sánchez, to space yesterday (Monday, 14 April).
Blue Origin is a private space company founded in 2000 by Jeff Bezos, the entrepreneur who created Amazon. Katy and Lauren were joined by civil activist and Nobel Peace Prize nominee, Amanda Nguyễn, legendary TV presenter Gayle King, former NASA rocket scientist Aisha Bowe, and film producer Kerianne Flynn. The six women were launched into space from the West Texas launch site at 08:30 local time (14:30 BST) and landed safely around 11 minutes later.
Soon after, EmRata shared a brief TikTok with her thoughts on the topic. “That space mission this morning?” she began. "That’s end time sh*t. Like, this is beyond parody.”
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She continued, “That you care about Mother Earth and it’s about Mother Earth, and you’re going up in a spaceship that is built and paid for by a company that’s single-handedly destroying the planet?”
She is perhaps referencing Katy Perry's pre-launch interview with Variety, in which she clarified, "It won’t be about me, it will be about this beautiful Earth […] I think from up there, we will think ‘Oh my God, we have to protect our mother.’"
EmRata concluded, "Think about how many resources went into putting these women into space […] For what? What was the marketing there?”
Emily Ratajkowski has picked up some criticism from fans accusing her of tearing other women down. And yes, women supporting other women is great. But do you know what is better? Women holding other women accountable.
As ever, EmRata has a point. While plenty of celebs, including Oprah Winfrey, Khloë Kardashian, and Kris Jenner, have expressed their admiration for the mission, their voices have yet to eclipse the broader cultural backlash against it.
Over on social media, the trip has been described as “an advert for a business for the wealthiest people in the world”, a “stunt”, and a “vanity project.”
It's not hard to see why. The entire project has been dressed up as a giant leap for womankind when, in reality, it has benefited exactly six women (and Jeff Bezos).
This has primarily been achieved through the language of faux-empowerment. During their short time in space, Katy Perry & Co. joined hands and yelled, “Take up space!”
While obviously intended as a clever rallying cry for women to follow their dreams (or something else suitably vague), it made my skin crawl. The notion of women taking up space is rooted in feminist activism, ranging from the personal – such as the right to take up physical space, no matter the size or shape of our bodies – to the political, such as the right to access and enjoy public spaces free from harassment. Taking up space is also synonymous with the work of Black feminist thinkers, writers, and activists, who highlight how Black women, in addition to the above, are erased from and forced out of explicitly feminist spaces.
To see this ‘empowering’ rhetoric used in the context of a space tourism operation felt jarring – to say the least.
In the same vein, I felt unsettled by the glamour of the mission – off-brand for a GLAMOUR editor, I admit.
In an interview with Elle before the launch, Katy Perry said, “Space is going to finally be glam. Let me tell you something. If I could take glam up with me, I would do that.” Her words bear repeating: “Space is finally going to be glam.”
Less than a month ago, American astronaut Sunita Williams returned to Earth after being stuck in space for going on nine months with her colleague Butch Wilmore. On her return, Sunita was subject to a torrent of articles about how her appearance had ‘drastically’ changed while she was away, including supposed differences in body mass, hair colour, and even bone density.
By contrast, when the Blue Origin space crew blasted off into space (admittedly for a considerably shorter period), they returned full glam intact, ready for their close-ups. Makeup artist, Alexandra French, even shared the products (all L'Oreal) she used on Katy Perry's face before the trip, provoking an onslaught of articles about how to buy the products and replicate the look. In a press release, French said, “Knowing the emotion of the day, we double set the makeup … and it truly held, from lift-off to landing.”
Sunita was harangued for her appearance after returning from space, while Katy is celebrated for bringing home the glam – setting spray included. What does that tell young girls who dream of being astronauts? You can go to space, but only if you bring Earth's f*cked up beauty standards with you.
Of course, there are conflicting principles surrounding women's empowerment. If one woman does something that is individually empowering – say flying into space for a few minutes – is that action inherently empowering for the collective of womankind? No. And if you ask me, the entire project was a colossal waste of time. And space.
For more from Glamour UK's Lucy Morgan, follow her on Instagram @lucyalexxandra.
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