Pop star Katy Perry has credited the 2016 U.S. presidential election with helping her resolve sexual issues stemming from her childhood. The I Kissed a Girl hitmaker grew up in a strict Christian household run by her Pentecostal preacher parents, and the singer discovered she resented her deeply religious dad’s old school view of women when Democratic candidate Hillary Clinton duked it out with Republican Donald Trump on the campaign trail last year (16). “The reality is that I was retriggered on the election,” she explains to The New York Times newspaper. “I was retriggered by a big male that didn’t see women as equal. And that had been, unfortunately, a common theme in my upbringing.”
Trump, who ultimately won the race for the White House, became caught up in a scandal during his run for presidency when audio footage leaked of him discussing how he liked to grab women he’s attracted to “by the p**sy”, sparking furore over the misogynistic statements. Katy was a loyal public supporter of Hillary as the election heated up, and after witnessing sexism on the campaign trail, the musician reveals she experienced a surprising “full sexual liberation”. “I feel very empowered, extremely liberated,” she says of the presidential race’s impact on her psyche, “liberated from the conditioning of the way I used to think, spiritually liberated, politically liberated, sexually liberated, liberated from things that don’t serve me.”
However, Katy Perry didn’t achieve her newfound personal freedom without hard work – she quit drinking alcohol in January (17) and she has also been attending family therapy sessions with her mum and dad in a bid to improve their relationship. “I went to that dark place that I had been avoiding, and I dug out the mold,” she shares. “It was not fun, but I did that – I’m still doing that.”