Katy Perry criticized for working with rape-accused Dr. Luke

The backlash against Katy Perry continues.

The pop singer and former American Idol Judge was recently filmed getting into her car while being bombarded with questions about her work with controversial music producer Dr. Luke, a year after his decade-long legal battle with pop singer Kesha came to an end. Kesha accused Dr. Luke of drugging and raping her when she was 18 – but Perry recently started working with the producer again, and fans aren’t taking it lying down.

Dr. Luke has repeatedly denied her allegations, calling them “malicious falsehoods” and immediately filed a countersuit against the singer.

During the legal battle between Kesha and Dr. Luke, it was revealed that Kesha had sent text messages to Lady Gaga in 2016 claiming that the producer had also raped Katy Perry. Perry later testified that Kesha’s statement was untrue, and a judge ruled that the text messages were defamatory.

However, Dr. Luke’s defamation lawsuit against Kesha was not settled until last June. Following that settlement, Kesha said in a statement, “Only God knows what happened that night,” but “I look forward to closing this chapter of my life and starting a new one.”

Now, Perry has decided to collaborate with the producer again on a new single titled “Woman’s World,” which is set to be released on July 11. According to fans, the song is meant to signal “female empowerment,” but many see Perry’s collaboration as anything but that. When news broke that Perry had teamed up with Dr. Luke again for the project, Kesha tweeted simply “lol”, which many interpreted as a comment on the situation.

It’s unknown how many Dr. Luke references will be made on Perry’s upcoming album, but this one song has already sparked plenty of backlash. “Katy, is there a reason you’re collaborating with Dr. Luke?” someone asks her in the video. “Isn’t your album about female empowerment?”