Emily Ratajkowski recently pointed out that Katy Perry's trip to space didn't seem to have any meaningful purpose.
The model has been outspoken about Jeff Bezos' space company, Blue Origin, which sent six women, including Katy Perry, into space. The flight aboard the New Shepard spacecraft lasted about 11 minutes in total and also included other notable names like journalist Gayle King and Bezos' fiancée, Lauren Sánchez.
“This morning space mission? It’s crazy. It’s beyond parody,” Ratajkowski said in a TikTok video posted Monday. “They say they care about Mother Earth, that this is being done for the Earth, while they climb into a spaceship built and funded by a company that is destroying the planet itself?”
She continued: "Look at the state of the world and think about how many resources have been spent to send these women into space. For what?"
"And then they try to sell it as something big..." the model said, before adding. "I'm disgusted. Honestly, disgusted."
Ratajkowski's point stands. The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) conducted a study in 2022, which found that the huge increase in space flights by tourist companies like Blue Origin could damage the ozone layer.
While it's not clear how much the entire venture cost, it was likely extremely expensive. It's also not clear why these six women were chosen to go into space. Blue Origin's marketing department seems to want to present it as a major victory for female empowerment, as it was the first time in over 60 years that women had traveled alone in space.
Ratajkowski wasn't the only one to take this stance. Her TikTok video received thousands of comments, and many people shared the same concerns. Many called the trip "out of touch with reality" and pointed out that Bezos' other company, Amazon, had canceled several programs on equality and inclusion, making this whole "feminist initiative" incredibly hypocritical.
“I’m laughing at the fact that Katy Perry thinks this was the height of feminism, like no one has done more for women than her riding that rocket,” one TikTok user said. “They took it off like it was a victory for women. The money that was used to put them in space could have been used to actually help women in so many ways,” another wrote.
"That money could have been spent on any other marginalized group! Single mothers, children, mental health services, people with chronic illnesses, etc.," someone else added on TikTok.
