Emily Ratajkowski, or EmRata, has powerfully called out Jeff Bezos’ Blue Origin rocket mission, which sent an all-female crew, including pop star Katy Perry and Bezos’ fiancée Lauren Sánchez, to space yesterday (Monday, 14 April).
Blue Origin is a private space company founded in 2000 by Jeff Bezos, the entrepreneur who created Amazon. Katy and Lauren were joined by civil activist and Nobel Peace Prize nominee, Amanda Nguyễn, legendary TV presenter Gayle King, former NASA rocket scientist Aisha Bowe, and film producer Kerianne Flynn. The six women were launched into space from the West Texas launch site at 08:30 local time (14:30 BST) and landed safely around 11 minutes later.
Soon after, EmRata shared a brief TikTok with her thoughts on the topic. “That space mission this morning?” she began. “That’s end time sh*t. Like, this is beyond parody.”
TikTok content
This content can also be viewed on the site it originates from.
She continued, “That you care about Mother Earth and it’s about Mother Earth, and you’re going up in a spaceship that is built and paid for by a company that’s single-handedly destroying the planet?”
She is perhaps referencing Katy Perry’s pre-launch interview with Variety, in which she clarified, “It won’t be about me, it will be about this beautiful Earth […] I think from up there, we will think ‘Oh my God, we have to protect our mother.’”
EmRata concluded, “Think about how many resources went into putting these women into space […] For what? What was the marketing there?”
Emily Ratajkowski has picked up some criticism from fans accusing her of tearing other women down. And yes, women supporting other women is great. But do you know what is better? Women holding other women accountable.
Blue Origin
As ever, EmRata has a point. While plenty of celebs, including Oprah Winfrey, Khloë Kardashian, and Kris Jenner, have expressed their admiration for the mission, their voices have yet to eclipse the broader cultural backlash against it.