Poor Katy Perry

In September of 2010, Katy Perry was supposed to appear in a music video of her hit song Hot N Cold with Elmo on Sesame Street. Unfortunately, the good people at Sesame Street felt that a little too much of Katy Perry appeared in the adapted music video, and only released it on YouTube. There was an enormous amount of backlash towards Katy herself, since she appeared in a shirt that was considered too risque for Sesame Street.

First and foremost, whose brilliant idea was it to have Katy Perry on Sesame Street to begin with? I don't have anything against Katy Perry in the least. I love her voice, I love her music, and, let's face it, she's hot. Did some producer's teenage boy have a crush on her and say, "Hey, dad? Can you get Katy Perry on Sesame Street so I can come meet her?" I don't think there is one member of Sesame Street's target audience that would know who she is, unless their parents watch MTV. Granted, Sesame Street has a lot of special guests, but these special guests always teach something. For example, Norah Jones sang Don't Know Why about the letter Y to Elmo. What was the point of Katy Perry's video, except to have her try to play with Elmo, who seems to not want to play with her at all?

Secondly, why in the world was Katy Perry blamed for her wardrobe choice? Where was the wardrobe staff? Why didn't they make a decision? I mean, Katy's cleavage was most definitely apparent, whether she had "flesh-colored fabric" over them or not. The costume and wardrobe department has at least 20 staffers, according to the Sesame Street page on the Internet Movie Database. Why didn't someone step up and say, "You know, maybe this isn't appropriate for Ms. Perry to wear for an audience of two to five year olds." If Katy insisted on wearing the outfit, why didn't Sesame Street pull the plug on her then? I have worked on many different movie and television show sets where people have thrown tantrums about what they have to wear, and they were subsequently kicked off set. It isn't as though Katy Perry is a key character on Sesame Street. You don't wear the clothes we want you to wear, you don't do the show. Period. Instead, Katy got the bum wrap of dressing promiscuously for a television show meant for children.

Third, what is the big deal about her plunging neckline and breasts??? Okay, so the outfit wasn't all that appropriate for Sesame Street. However, do you really think that toddlers are going to say, "Mommy, why do Miss Katy's boobies look like that?" or are they going to wonder why Elmo doesn't want to play tag with her? From the people I've seen at Wal*Mart, children have seen a LOT more skin that what Katy Perry showed in the video during their regular day. My kids have seen women in their bikinis at the beach, and they never stared at their bosoms. They don't know any better! They won't hit puberty for at least another 10 years. Why can't we just let kids be kids?

Finally, is there a double standard when it comes to the appearance of men and women on Sesame Street? I think so. There is one episode that has played several times where Elmo wants Abby to learn to ride her tricycle. Elmo tells Abby that Gordon should teach her, so Abby magically makes Gordon appear. Gordon is in a bathtub, reading a book, covered by bubbles. Ummm.... Doesn't that mean that Gordon is naked? He doesn't have a shirt on and his legs are hanging over the end of the bathtub. Naked. As adults, we all know that Roscoe Orman (the actor who plays Gordon) is really wearing swim trunks or something to that effect, but the suggestion that he is naked is there. Was there an uproar over that? Absolutely not! As a matter of fact, I've seen that same episode at least six times over the summer.

And what about the monsters? Elmo doesn't wear clothes! Neither does Baby Bear, Telly, Big Bird, Grover or any of the other monsters. And *gasp* Leela has a nose ring! What does that tell our children about piercings? She is a bad example! My two year old might try to pierce her nose!

Ridiculous? Yes. However, so is freaking out about a plunging neckline and forcing Sesame Street to remove a music video that kids would have enjoyed so much that they probably jumped up and started dancing in front of the television. Katy Perry deserves an apology-- From Sesame Street, from the wardrobe department and to all of the uptight parents that made such a big deal about the video. Come on, folks. Kids are just kids once. Let them have fun.