The Devil’s Advocate, serving you a cocktail of humour, wit and sarcasm
Space Girls isn’t a pop band like the Spice Girls; they’re a crew of six fearless and glamorous women who shattered the glass ceiling for exactly 11 minutes, on April 14, 2025, when they jumped aboard Blue Origin’s rocket, all expenses paid, for a sponsored ride to the edge of space. Their brief adventure into suborbital space was pitched as a groundbreaking moment for women, a symbolic leap into the cosmos. But the internet thinks otherwise.
Xena, a round-the-clock feminist firebrand, was ecstatic. She rang up her pragmatic friend Appu and declared, “That’s one short ride for woman, but one giant leap for womankind. Hear the girls roar!”
Appu, ever the realist, wasn’t so convinced. “Calm down, Xena. This joyride was bankrolled by patriarchy, in the form of Jeff Bezos, one of the richest men on Earth. It’s a flashy PR stunt for his space tourism biz. He got his girlfriend Lauren Sánchez to round up a posse of rich, famous women to tick the DEI and girl-power boxes, all while promoting a high-end holiday package.”
The passenger list consisted of Aisha Bowe, ex-NASA engineer; Amanda Nguyễn, civil rights activist; Gayle King, veteran journalist; Katy Perry, pop star; Kerianne Flynn, feminist film producer & Lauren Sánchez, Bezos’ girl friend.
Of the six, Katy Perry seemed the most moved by the experience. Upon landing, she dropped to the ground and kissed it, as if Earth had been lost to her for 11 long minutes. “I feel super connected to life, to love, to the feminine divine,” she said. Possibly the vibe for her next album? What the heck does “feminine divine” even mean?
Wondering how Sunita Williams, the real astronaut, who was stuck in space for nine months reacted when she was rescued and brought back to earth by another man, Elon Musk!
And yes, she managed to sing “What a Wonderful World” mid-flight and at the same time conducted space experiments just like true astronauts.
But Katy declared, “Space is going to finally be glam. We’re putting the ass in astronaut.” (Which, by the way, contains only one “s.”) Kim Kardashian may already be booking her own cosmic selfie session to confirm Katy’s “putting the ass in astronaut” comment. LOL!
Lauren Sánchez chimed in, “Who wouldn’t glam up for a space flight? Lash extensions in zero gravity—why not?” Aisha Bowe even “tested” her hairstyle before the space ride by skydiving in Dubai.
All six women wore custom-fitted, ultra-glam flight suits designed by luxury label Monse. Fashion? Impeccable. Science? Hmm!
But the backlash was immediate and fierce. Mainly from celebrity women and feminists, for a change. This is a rare phenomenon in which celebrities have turned on their own and feminists are furious with their sisterhood.
Actor Olivia Munn asked, “What’s the point? Is this historic because it’s a ride?” She called it “gluttonous.” Feminism, she argued, was about progress and exploration, not glorified space selfies.
Other critics included Emily Ratajkowski, Olivia Wilde, Amy Schumer, Martha Stewart, and even the fast-food chain Wendy’s, which quipped under a pic of Katy kissing the ground: “Can we send her back?”
Jessica Chastain shared a Guardian op-ed titled, “The Blue Origin flight showcased the utter defeat of American feminism.”
Ratajkowski called the whole spectacle “beyond parody,” noting that preaching about “Mother Earth” while blasting off in a rocket bankrolled by one of Earth’s top polluters is a bit rich—especially for Katy Perry, a UNICEF Goodwill Ambassador for climate-affected children.
Assuming that Greta Thunberg is furiously calculating this flight’s carbon footprint and preparing to protest at Perry’s next concerts.
What especially riled up social media was that Katy’s moments of weightlessness were spent not gazing at Earth but presenting a daisy for her daughter and holding up her upcoming tour’s setlist—written on a butterfly. Marketing trip?
One feminist commentator nailed the public mood:
“It is not misogynist to say that these women do not have their priorities in order. Rather, it is misogynist of them to so forcefully associate womanhood with cosmetics and looks, rather than with any of the more noble and human aspirations to which space travel might acquaint them—curiosity, inquiry, discovery, exploration, a sense of their own mortality, an apprehension of the divine. These women, who have placed themselves as representatives for all women with their promotion of the flight—positioning themselves as aspirational models of femininity—have presented a profoundly antifeminist vision of what womankind’s future is: dependent on men, confined to triviality, and deeply, deeply silly; one where the only way to achievement is through sexual desirability, the only way to status as an ornamental attachment on a man who really counts, the only subject on which we are qualified to speak is whether lash extensions will stay in place? White billionaire men using women to showcase their technological prowess, is completely cringe and a tick for the tokenism box”
So, did Jeff Bezos’ shiny phallic-style PR rocket backfired? Judging by the mocking responses, it’s safe to say that the Space Girls have been spectacularly spaced out and the exercise has been a waste of space.
Watch this space for more space junkets news!
Disclaimer: The views and opinions expressed in this article are those of the author.
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