Member Since: 8/29/2011
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Dark Horse Video Praised by Historians
Quote:
The turquoise color seen in Perry’s make-up was used in Ancient Egypt; they often used colors inspired by nature, like the sky and water. Sealed tombs preserved the colors of their paintings, so historians can still tell what things would have looked like at the time.
Queens like Cleopatra really did have significant power — and, though it didn’t include the lightning-bolt-style magic that’s seen in the video, there was a belief in divine royalty.
The lyric about Aphrodite and Perry’s Greek-style dress have been called out by picky fans, but actually, they make perfect sense: Cleopatra wasn’t properly Egyptian; rather, she was descended from a Macedonian-Greek line, and her culture mixed Hellenic and Egyptian elements. In fact, Aphrodite is the analog to the Egyptian goddess Isis, who is represented by Perry’s winged ascent in the video.
The “walk like an Egyptian” pose does have a reference point in ancient paintings. The artists didn’t use foreshortening, so the iconic pose was a Cubist-like attempt to portray three-dimensional people by showing them from different angles. It was not, however, a dance.
The paintings on the wall behind Perry when she’s on the throne are clearly based on real tomb paintings.
The scene with Perry and the snakes suggests a reference to Cleopatra’s suicide via asps. At the time of her death, Cleopatra was dressed as Isis, which also loops back to Perry growing wings in the video.
The fan/monocle object Perry holds up shows the symbol of the Eye of Horus, a symbol of health and stability. (It has nothing to do with the Illuminati: “The many discussions of the Illuminati are nonsense,” says Ritner. Rather, the masonic imagery associated with the Illuminati is drawn from Egyptian imagery.)
The cat references and the scene with Boo the dog may reference Roman anti-Cleopatra propaganda, which implied that she made Marc Antony her lap dog.
Cullen and Perry even succeeded without trying: though Cullen says this wasn’t on purpose, Ritner sees a link between Perry getting a diamond grill to a myth that Cleopatra once dissolved a giant pearl in wine to demonstrate her wealth.
And even the parts that aren’t accurate at all — the Twinkies, for example — aren’t problematic. If Katy Perry fans do a little research about Ancient Egypt, they’ll follow a long line of people whose interest was sparked by Egypt-inspired pop-culture — from Boris Karloff’s mummy to Brendan Fraser’s, and from Betty Boop’s Cleopatra to Elizabeth Taylor’s.
“[Egypt has] always been a part of popular culture,” says Silverman. “It encourages people to think of these things, and some of those people actually begin to learn a lot.”
Read more: Katy Perry Dark Horse Music Video: Egypt Setting Gets OK from Experts | TIME.com http://entertainment.time.com/2014/0...#ixzz2u1f2PK1d
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http://entertainment.time.com/2014/0...k-horse-egypt/
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@ white people acting offended for minorities when they don't know what they are talking about.
