Reception
Why did Perry chose the military plot in the song?
Part of Me (Katy Perry song)
The video garnered positive reviews from critics, who praised its self-empowerment theme and its different approach in comparison to Perry's previous music videos. Bruno Nessif of E! Online compared the video to Demi Moore's role in G.I. Jane. Ray Rahman from "Entertainment Weekly" echoed the similarity of the G.I. Jane influence in the video, and called it an "intense ride". MTV's James Montgomery praised the video and Perry's role, saying:"Over the years, Perry has been a California Gurl, a nerdy teenager, an alien and just about everything in between, but up until now, she's never really been an actual person." He went on to praise the video stating: "Part of Me" is unlike any pop video in recent memory. Rihanna did military chic in her "Hard" video (she even straddled a tank), and just about every one of Perry's pop contemporaries have ventured down the same path. But they were never really in the military; they were just making it more fabulous. Perry takes the opposite tact: She cuts off her hair, she eschews makeup, she fights, crawls, suffers. It's a commendable level of commitment. Your move, everybody else. "Feminist author Naomi Wolf criticized the video as propaganda for the Marine Corps, stating "I really want to find out if she was paid by them for making it ... it is truly shameful. I would suggest a boycott of this singer whom I really liked if you are as offended at this glorification of violence as I am." Glenn Selig, founder of The Publicity Agency, responded to these claims on Fox News Live, stating, "In her efforts to boycott the video, Naomi Wolf has brought more attention to it, without her comments, most people would clearly have seen the military simply as a metaphor and not as an attempt by Katy Perry to glamorize the military or war." Perry told MTV that she chose the military plot because it represented the song, saying, "It's an affirmation of strength, so I wanted to go the strongest route I ever could."