Katy Perry was invited to sing a kiddie version of "Hot 'n Cold" on Sesame Street. I decided to watch the video before I read the stories. I watched the video twice and didn't see an issue. She was very animated in her facial expressions. Her make up was bright. I noticed that they made it a point to make sure that her face was in the center of the screen or took up enough of the screen for it to be hard to notice. I thought the song and the video was very cute. However many parents did not like the fact that they could see the crack between her breasts. They thought the outfit was too racy for Sesame Street so Sesame Street nixed their plans to put the music video about opposites in their show, but decided to post it on Youtube for a short period of time (which is where I saw it). On Sept 25th, Katy Perry featured in a Saturday Night Live skit spoofing being booted off of Sesame Street. In the spoof she sported a tight Elmo shirt with an altered neckline which showed of her breasts.
I personally think that getting rid of Katy Perry's Sesame Street music video was no necessary. I doubt Sesame Street's target audience really cares about the fact that they can see her boob crack. In fact, if a 22 year old woman can watch the video three times and not notice the "boob problem" then a 3 year old certainly won't notice. I'm sure there were even guys who didn't notice at first. I think the wardrobe people for Sesame Street did a great job of downplaying her breasts.
I really don't think this is the first time Sesame Street has had women with their breast showing on one of their programs. When I was younger I could have sworn there was an Elmo movie that had a dance scene where there was a woman in a red dress with a red boa dancing in the street. I thought it was "Elmo in Grouchland" so I went searching for it. Instead I found Vanessa William's scene where she played "The Queen of Trash". Check it out:
Maybe the whole Katy Perry video wouldn't have been a big deal if it would have put it in an Elmo movie. I'm not condemning Vanessa Williams for this. I'm just saying that I'm sure parents could find something wrong with this video even though their kids wouldn't.
Someone tried to compare Miss Piggy's wardrobe for the past however many years to this one time shot with Katy Perry. While I get where they're going, Miss Piggy serves an older demographic.
In closing I don't think that Katy Perry's dress was inappropriate. I think that some parents may be overreacting to this whole thing. Luckly for the little Katy Perry fans this may not be the last time she gets to play around with Elmo. In fact, Elmo even wants her to come back and play with him some time.
