Just a big tease? Her lips are sealed

You KNOW what bothers me about Katy Perry's "I Kissed a Girl" -- now officially the song of the summer, after spending five weeks at No. 1 on Billboard's Hot 100? Not the auto-erotic tease of the lyrics, which keeps Perry inside her head rather than beneath the waistband of some lovely's Victoria's Secret finery. Not her groaning vocal delivery, which is kind of sexy, built around a neo-burlesque bump of a track and the luscious word hook "cherry Chapstick."

I don't think she's a hypocrite, either, despite being a former Christian artist who's already semi-engaged at age 23 (to lead dude Travis McCoy of Gym Class Heroes, who gave her a "Happy Days"-style promise ring in June). There's lots of same-sex kissing in the Bible, and anyone who's attended an all-girl school knows what hanky-panky can transpire in such hothouse environments. A little frisson of guilt, which Perry adds in by worrying about her boyfriend's reaction to her Sapphic lip lock, is ever-potent in pop. (For proof, listen to Ray Parker Jr.'s immortal "Aw, shucks" in "The Other Woman." )

What bothers me about "I Kissed a Girl" is that, in the song's video, Perry never actually kisses a girl. She lounges around in some kind of noirish spa environment, showing off terrific gams in her trademark pinup-girl outfits. She raises her eyebrows and pouts as refugees from a George Michael video flounce and giggle, not kissing each other either but at least rubbing her leg. Her sensual experiments include petting a kitten and fingering some frosting on a pink cake. Then voila -- it's all a dream, and she wakes up next to her buddy DJ Skeet, playing her video boyfriend. (Perry's biracial relationship seems equally "transgressive," if not as useful for male viewers' fantasies, as her lesbian reveries.)

Now, Jill Sobule didn't kiss the girl either in the video for her 1995 song of the same title, which Perry and her top-notch songwriting team -- Dr. Luke, Max Martin and Cathy Dennis, massive hit-makers all, share credit with Perry -- cheerfully ripped off for this season's hit. (There's also a prominent pink cake in Sobule's video -- a sly tribute?) Sobule has said in a blog post that her record label wouldn't allow it. But the singer-songwriter's video self did hug her Jenny and let her touch the hem of her mini-dress, even though the last frames show her impregnated by Fabio.