Free Kim Petras
Breaking my silence in defense of the controverscial pop star
Oh Kimmy, Kim, Kim… where to begin.
I’ve privately been paying attention to Kim Petras from the sidelines since randomly catching wind of Heart to Break in 2018 and even then, Dr. Luke (who will henceforth be referred to as Dr. Puke) was unfortunately present in her work. This was made known in her comment sections from the jump, and rightfully so, because Dr. Puke is undeniably a Very Bad Guy. I’m not going to reiterate the widely discussed claims against him, but if you’re unaware (trigger warning SA): The Kesha V Dr. Luke case is truly disturbing. Unfortunately, I think it will be a watershed moment for the fall of the record label model, particularly highlighting the way the industry has protected him.
So how do I justify supporting a musician like Kim Petras for working with Dr. Puke? Well, to be honest, I didn’t strongly support Kim Petras. Or not super directly or openly. It was truly a conscious debate for me about even streaming any of her music when she hit the scene with Dr. Puke credits on all of her songs. Though I loved her incredible vocals, her bubblegum aesthetics and the fact that she was clearly a student of Pop, it didn’t change my knowledge of her collaborators. I relished when she worked with Charli as an opportunity to enjoy her work without the baggage (plus all the music they’ve made together was really cool!) I would privately listen to the music and talk about my conflicted feelings a bit with friends too but it always stuck in my mind, and the comment sections never let anyone forget. I stuck around illegally pirating all of her songs for her 2019 album Clarity, but it was always a tug-of-war inside of me to even post about her on my Instagram stories. I only recently played a Kim songs on my radio show for the first time, and it was because she has finally shed Dr. Puke as a collaborator. As a survivor myself, working with an abuser isn’t something I can ignore. And I legit don’t even really know how the case turned out because I just believe Kesha implicitly.
Artists like Doja Cat have some Dr. Puke credits too but says she won’t work with him again and questions the legitimacy of these credits in the first place. It’s important to remember that Doja Cat was also signed at the age of 16, too. Nick Minaj worked with him plenty, and with how things have gone with her recently, that only amplifies how disturbing it is to do so. And Katy, well… let’s just say justice has been brutally swift to Katy Perry.
If anything, seeing people’s reaction to Perry working with Dr. Puke in contrast to Petras has made me realize that I was not alone in having more patience for Kim than other pop stars. I think there are a number of reasons: one, Kim Petras is a pretty small artist overall and especially compared to Katy Perry and Nicki Minaj. She mainly appealed to more pop enthusiasts (especially when she was first coming up). And by extension of that, Kim being trans does give people the room to grant her a little more grace. It’s understandably harder for her to get respected in the industry no matter what avenue she takes. And niche pop enthusiasts are a particularly understanding fanbase: often turning blind eyes to all kinds of moral ambiguity over the years, whether it be Madonna’s littered history, or Azealia Banks’1.
But on the other side, is the amount of people gunning for Petras specifically because she is trans. I’m not going to go out of my way to find online examples of people being transphobic to Kim Petras because it’s easy enough to source, and I’ve seen truly heinous shit said about her. Beyond routine transphobia and misgendering, the implications that Petras endorses or supports Dr. Puke’s actions against Kesha always had a sting of transmisogyny to it. But even then, I never felt strongly about coming to her defense because, well, no one was working with Dr. Puke like Kim Petras was. I mean, you’re hard-pressed to find a song in her discography that didn’t have him involved. They even tried to give him a pseudonym “Made In China” to hide his involvement for a minute, but that blew over very quickly.
And the music started going downhill at this point too. Not that Petras wasn’t still getting attention and acclaim, but I have yet to even listen to Feed to Beast or Problematique (or however many other god damn debut albums she has!!) because the music started sounding very forced. And then even worse were the Slut Pop chronicles; The music was boring and tried to be shocking but really wasn’t. Like, if you’re going to do that hyper-sexual thing, there’s got to be some artistry to it. I’m all for sex positivity, and I know not giving into respectability politics is important, but I’m not sure this was really the best look for the only trans pop star of note to be brandishing, especially when tied to a notable predator.
But I think that’s precisely what’s missing from the people criticizing Petras. Dr. Puke is a music industry predator, like the industry that protects and supports him has repeatedly proven to be. And if you take a look at Petras story it’s easy to see she is unfortunately another victim of an all-too-common cycle. I think it’s easy to forget that Kim was first famous in Germany as a teenager for transitioning young (like 13). She became a day-time talk show sensation and something of a zoo animal, as she got branded the ‘youngest person to get a sex change’ for a post-Pauvich audience after receiving her gender affirming surgery at 16. There was a documentary made about it that Petras has since said was exploitive. Petras then moved to Los Angeles at 19, as an attempt to become a pop star and was mysteriously ‘sleeping in a producer’s garage’ before she eventually met Dr. Puke. I haven’t seen any further explanation about the producer’s garage bit, but I can’t be alone in getting alarm bells at a statement like that, right? Petras met Dr. Puke in October of 2014, a few months after the Kesha news had broke, but definitively after. And she signed knowing this was an ongoing legal dispute. Petras says she was getting refused by other labels for being trans, which I can believe too, and thought signing with Republic was her only chance. I understand many people’s hesitancy to give Petras the benefit of the doubt about not knowing, though. I think it’s somewhat fair to assume Kim didn’t believe the allegations at first.
In the last year Petras started openly shading Dr. Puke, and hasn’t released any music connected with him, instead working with an up-and-coming producer duo Frost Children. The music is better than ever, and Petras has talked about how freeing it is to work with other trans women. These were all notable changes in her disposition and public transparency on such subjects. So, I was not exactly surprised when yesterday I saw a thread of tweets from Petras detailing how her label, Republic Records, is hindering the release of her forthcoming album DETOUR and her desire to emancipate herself from them. Kesha replied to the thread.
I’m not saying Kim isn’t a pretty controversial figure in pop. I have always felt her decision to sign with Dr. Puke more or less screwed her trajectory from day 1, and it’s genuinely been a struggle to feel passionate supporting her music. But I’m starting to feel like this may not be the case going forward. Like if Kesha is wise enough to forgive and understand and look past it, can’t we all? I’m not sure everyone will be quite as easy to overlook Petras’ history, as we’re already seeing Shygirl shading her in her instagram story yesterday.
So Petras battle will always be uphill, but I’m certainly cheering for her to be free. Lets see how this all turns out for her, but assuming there’s a time when she can work with whomever she wants, I’ll look forward to possibly officially investing in a stan card.
Grimly, Banks actually directly addressed Petras’ unfortunate situation a year or so ago.