EDITORIAL: 'Heteroflexible'?

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Katy Perry's worldwide hit "I Kissed a Girl" is a pop song that degrades and trivializes both heterosexual and homosexual relationships. It also signals a disturbing trend among young women willing to experiment with homosexuality merely to satisfy their curiosity. To be sure, this is another front in the ongoing culture war.

"I Kissed a Girl" is the first single, released in April, from Miss Perry's mainstream debut album, "One of the Boys" with Capitol Records. "I Kissed A Girl," which she co-wrote, has become a global sensation, topping the charts in America, Canada, the U.K., Australia and reaching No. 1 on the Worldwide Charts.

"I Kissed A Girl" is as catchy a song as it is pernicious. With a great beat and passionate lyrics, the singer tells the youth that lesbianism can simply be a form of entertainment. The song encourages experimenting with lesbianism a - even if a girl is heterosexual and has a boyfriend. "I Kissed A Girl" begins by describing a young woman who is currently in a relationship, with drink in hand. Once her inhibitions are overcome, she kisses a girl - a stranger. The song celebrates the beauty of women, especially their "soft skin" and "cherry ChapStick," - touting the pornographic premise that all girls secretly desire other girls. Miss Perry, 23, also says that she hopes her boyfriend "won't mind" and that after all this is "innocent."

There is nothing innocent or amusing about the values Miss Perry's song is transmitting. Miss Perry has said that the song is not intended to tell the youth to experiment with same-sex relationships. She simply related an incident in her life: "I did kiss a girl. That was my experience. The song is really about a curiosity." Nonetheless, the pop tune glamorizes casual encounters, painting them as amusing rather than fraught with danger and the prospect of disease. Worse, in the song, the female casually betrays her boyfriend - and then hopes he too will adopt her values. Thus, promiscuity and infidelity are being celebrated by these lyrics. Finally, the song also feeds into the stereotype that lesbians are promiscuous and whimsical- rather than that there is often much pain and struggle with the lesbian lifestyle and/or that it too can include love and commitment.

"I Kissed a Girl" is symptomatic of an overly sexualized culture in which the youth are being constantly bombarded by sexual messages - and told that all is permissible and acceptable. This has led to a new phenomenon of more and more young girls describing themselves as "bisexual until graduation," "heteroflexible" and "gayish." Youth counselors are noticing what appears to be increasing same-sex experimentation - or, at the least, more open same-sex adventurism. A report from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention released in 2005 revealed that more American women, especially teenagers and those in their 20s, are experimenting with bisexuality - or are increasingly willing to admit to doing so. Fourteen percent of women in their late teens and 20s stated that they have had at least one sexual experience with another woman; 11.5 percent of women, ages 18 to 44 admitted to at least one homosexual encounter. A decade earlier, only 4 percent of women, ages 18 to 59, said the same in a comparable survey.

"I Kissed A Girl" represents the new "lesbian chic." Parents must be proactive in educating their children that sexual frivolity is in reality fraught with peril for both body and soul.