This week, Katy Perry and five other women, including broadcaster Gayle King, movie producer Kerianne Flynn and journalist Lauren Sánchez, were on the first all-woman space flight since 1963.

The flight has garnered a lot of criticism – not least because it only lasted 11 minutes – and for something that Katy hoped would be a moment for feminism, it falls flat in an era of rising misogyny and concerns of America becoming an oligarchy.

Katy herself said in an interview with Elle: “Space is going to finally be glam. Let me tell you something.

“If I could take glam up with me, I would do that. We are going to put the ‘ass’ in astronaut.”

While it is hard to think of anything more ‘glam’ than space – it is literally filled with stars – most of us don’t have the capacity to even worry about being glam or even this surface-level feminism in the face of our current climate.

The flight, which took place on a billionaire Jeff Bezos-owned Blue Origin rocket, is not cheap. While price of a ticket isn’t available as public knowledge a deposit for this flight comes in at around $150,000.

When contrasted with the cost of living for many women in America, this is a little unfathomable.

According to the US Government Accountability Office: “Women are more likely to be concentrated in low-wage jobs, be responsible for caregiving, and experience sexual harassment and assault.

“Additionally, the United States has the highest rates of maternal death of developed countries, with U.S. maternal mortality rates increasing when rates have decreased globally.”

Both the financial and emotional burden of being a woman in America is staggering.

While Katy and her billionaire besties don’t represent us, they are also patronising us when touting their space tourism as anything other than a vanity project.

Author Emily Ratajkowski criticised the flight, saying on TikTok: “This is beyond parody.

“Look at the state of the world and think about how many resources went into putting these women into space. For what? What was the marketing there? I’m disgusted.”

Activist Nina Turner posted on X saying: “If Jeff Bezos can send Katy Perry into space, he can pay a wealth tax so every American has debt-free healthcare.”

It appears that this flight hasn’t taken off with the average woman the way that Katy had hoped it would.

She said in an Instagram post: “I work hard to live my life that way still, and I am motivated more than ever to be an example for my daughter that women should take up space (pun intended).

“That’s why this opportunity is so incredible – so that I can show all of the youngest and most vulnerable among us to reach for the stars, literally and figuratively.”

However, the Women’s Legal Defense and Education Fund in America reports that 70% of the nation’s poorest are women and children.

So for now, reaching for the stars isn’t quite so possible.