The all-female celebrity crew of the Blue Origin space joyride are back on god’s green earth. While they’ve returned with a new appreciation for the planet and its inhabitants (apparently), they’ve also returned to a barrage of criticism, memes and call-outs from other celebrities — and they’re not happy about it.
On Sunday, a group of six public figures — pop star Katy Perry, TV presenter Gayle King, journalist Lauren Sanchez, rocket scientist Aisha Bowe, bioastronautics scientist Amanda Nguyen and film producer Kerianne Flynn — were launched into space for 11 minutes. They experienced zero gravity in Jeff Bezos‘ New Shepard rocket for four minutes before coming back to Earth, gushing to reporters on the scene about their once-in-a-lifetime experience.
The Blue Origin NS-31 flight was the first all-female crew flight since 1963, and if you Jeff Bezos’ financé, Lauren Sanchez, it was supposed to be a statement to inspire and empower women all over the world that they could do anything they set their minds to, even space travel.
If you’re thinking that sending a bunch of public figures into space for 11 minutes is a very tokenistic, simplistic and expensive way to empower women, you’d be absolutely right.
So, following the highly publicised event, the passengers on the expedition were absolutely roasted — and rightly so. However, the gals on the flight did not take too kindly to the criticism.
Gayle King, 70, told PEOPLE that she thinks the people talking smack don’t “really understand what’s happening here”.
“We can all speak to the response we’re getting from young women from young girls about what this represents,” she said.
Sanchez also weighed in.
“I get really fired up,” she told the publication.
“I would love to have them come to Blue Origin and see the thousands of employees that don’t just work here, but they put their heart and soul into this vehicle. They love their work and they love the mission, and it’s a big deal for them. So when we hear comments like that, I just say, ‘Trust me. Come with me. I’ll show you what this is about, and it’s, it’s really eye-opening.”
Meanwhile, Aisha Bowe spoke about what the space flight represented for her personally.
“When I decided that I was going to pursue aerospace engineering, it was after my high school guidance counsellor told me that I should pursue cosmetology because she did not think that I would be suited for this field,” she said.
“I went from pre-algebra in community college to two degrees in aerospace engineering to working for NASA to being able to sit on the stage and say it is bigger than the criticism.”
Other celebrities like Olivia Munn, Emily Ratajowski and Olivia Wilde slammed the bonkers, emissions-spewing spectacle.
“You say 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,” Ratajowski said on TikTok.
“Look at the state of the world and think about how many resources went into putting these women into space. For what?”
On Instagram Stories, Wilde shared a meme of Katy Perry kissing the ground after the flight.
“Billion dollars bought some good memes I guess,” she captioned it.
Earlier this month, Munn told TODAY that she was not supportive of the space flight.
“I’m just saying this. I know this is probably not the cool thing to say, but there are so many other things that are so important in the world right now,” she explained.
“It’s so much money to go to space. There are a lot of people who can’t even afford eggs … I think it’s a bit gluttonous.”
Ultimately, no matter how you slice it, the space expedition is not feminism.
I’m sure some people felt inspired by a couple of the passengers on board. After all, seeing women of colour in scientific and political areas (women in stem!!!!) looks great on the surface. Plus, they’re all impressive women in their own right — especially bioastronautics scientist, author, civil rights activist and Time Magazine‘s 2022 Woman of The Year, Amanda Nguyen, who has now made history as the first Vietnamese and Southeast Asian woman to go to space.
But although they’re the face of the “mission”, this isn’t really about them. The Blue Origin flight was just a very expensive, shameless publicity stunt to bring attention to Bezos’ space tourism venture. In a time when the cost of living is rising exponentially, people are struggling to pay rent and put food on the table, the whole 11-minute space venture feels incredibly out of touch.
Also, I don’t find it surprising that Katy Perry, the musician behind the incredibly outdated “feminist” anthem “Women’s World”, would jump onto this venture, believing it truly was speaking to the yearning hearts of women around the world who are striving for equality.
Plus, she even used the moment for publicity by holding a butterfly-shaped piece of cardboard featuring the setlist for her upcoming tour up to the live broadcast.
It’s all very ‘we’re living in an oligarchy’, Hunger Games-core if you ask me.
