Daily Times

American pop sensation Katy Perry has come under scrutiny on social media for tricking a teen contestant and kissing him on his mouth during American Idol audition where she’s appearing as one of the judges. The act aired on TV as ‘cute’ has left many wondering if this would be still cute if the genders were reversed and a 33 year old man did the same to a 19 year old girl contestant on the show.

It started when 19 years old contestant Benjamin Glaze entered the room for audition and in his introduction he said he works at a store because he gets to greet a lot of cute girls. He then says he has never kissed anyone because he has never had a relationship and he believed one isn’t supposed to kiss without being in a relationship.

To this, Katy Perry stood up and told Benjamin to come up to her. The startled contestant responds to this by saying ‘no way, hold on’. She insists ‘come here right now’ amid playful laughter of fellow judges Luke Bryan and Lionel Richie.

Katy then moves forward and tells him he could kiss her on the cheek. He does it. But Katy insisted he ‘didn’t even make the smush sound’. What follows is sheer awkwardness. The 19 years old contestant then says let’s start over and just when he moves forward to kiss her on the cheek, Katy landed a peck on Glaze’s mouth playfully.

A lot has been said about the incident and she is being slammed on social media where many viewed the incident as ‘sexual harassment’. After all, she being in the position of authority forced her peck – no matter how ‘playfully’ – on a 19-year-old’s mouth who being the auditioning contestant didn’t have it easy to say no. Katy definitely crossed the line to say the least.

Glaze in an interview to The New York Times admits ‘I was a tad bit uncomfortable’ adding that for him the first kiss was like a rite of passage and he was saving it for someone special.

“Would I have done it if she said, ‘Would you kiss me?’ No, I would have said no,” he said. “I know a lot of guys would be like, ‘Heck yeah!’ But for me, I was raised in a conservative family and I was uncomfortable immediately. I wanted my first kiss to be special.”

This added to the criticism against Katy to the point that Glaze once again had to clarify his stance. This time he took to social media and said through an Instagram post that he doesn’t believe he was harassed by Katy. This is what he said to be precise:

“Hi everyone, I would like to clear a few things up for anyone who is confused, concerned, or angry. I am not complaining about the kiss from Katy Perry at all, doing a few news reports and being interviewed by many different reporters has caused some major questions. The way certain articles are worded is not done by me, and my true intentions are not accurately represented in every article you read about the situation. I am not complaining about the kiss, I am very honored and thankful to have been apart of American Idol. The main purpose for the show is to find stars and new music artist. I do wish I would have performed better in the moment. I should have picked another song to sing and calmed myself down regardless of the kiss. I should have been able to perform under pressure. I do not think I was sexually harassed by Katy Perry and I am thankful for the judges comments and critiques. I was uncomfortable in a sense of how I have never been kissed before and was not expecting it. My main goal is to reach people through the universal love of music and not cause strife or anger against anyone or about any situation! Please take into consideration that I don’t believe my views have been appropriately communicated through the media! Thank you to everyone who has followed me in this journey and I hope I answered a few questions.”

Regardless, the incident threw him off and his audition didn’t get him the ‘golden ticket to Hollywood’. Now, how much the unexpected kiss from Katy Perry is to blame for this is debatable but it is safe to say that it is bound to have had some effect on Benjamin’s audition.

“Truthfully, there are just some people who are out-singing you right now,” Katy told him. “I don’t think it’d be fair to put you in that kind of competition.

“Next time, take a little bit more time. You were a little bit rushed. Maybe that’s because I sped up the BPM of your heartbeat.”

Katy hasn’t responded to the criticism so far. The show is currently being revived for its ‘reboot’ season 16 on ABC network in the US.

The writer is the Digital Editor, Daily Times and can be reached at me@farhanjanjua.com. He tweets and instagrams @FarhanJanjua