...ermission

https://www.nytimes.com/2018/03/14/style/katy-perry-kiss-american-idol.html

”I was a tad bit uncomfortable,” says 20-year-old Benjamin Glaze, who was 19 when he filmed his Idol audition last October. He tells The New York Times he wanted to save his first kiss "for my first relationship. I wanted it to be special.” Some Twitter users questioned Perry's decision to deliver an unwanted kiss, saying it would be seen differently it was a male judge and a female contestant. Glaze says of the kiss: “Would I have done it if she said, ‘Would you kiss me?’ No, I would have said no. 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.” Still, he said there is an upside to being kissed by Katy Perry. He received more screentime, which he points out has drawn more attention to his music.

I don't blame him. I wouldn't want her to kiss me, either.

Honestly, I don't think what she did was right. She crossed the line with this. I'm siding with the contestant on this one. I just found it very unprofessional, a judge should not be doing this. If the roles were reversed, people would call this out for sexual harassment. But we live in a double standard hyper-masculine and patriarchal society, so people just laugh it off.

Also, in the second episode, she literally told a contestant, "You're hot," and proceeded to eye him down right as his girlfriend was standing there in the room with her...WTF, Katy Perry? She knows no boundaries. It's really quite sad.

American Idol contestant clarifies: "I do not think I was sexually harassed by Katy Perry" (http://www.eonline.com/news/920827/american-idol-contestant-says-katy-perry-did-not-sexually-harass-him)
After The New York Times posted a story Wednesday about the "unwanted kiss" Benjamin Glaze received from Katy Perry, which marked the first kiss of his life, the contestant took to Instagram to clarify that the article made it appear he was more upset than he really was. Even though Glaze told The Times the kiss made him "a tad bit uncomfortable," he writes: "I am not complaining about the kiss, I am very honored and thankful to have been apart of American Idol...I was uncomfortable in a sense of how I have never been kissed before and was not expecting it."

Please... it's not like she tackled him down to the ground and stuck her tongue in his mouth. It was a little peck on the lips and HE told her that he always had a crush on her. Nobody forced him to go over to her. He could have avoided it at any time. He was no victim. Ridiculous. This guy is a whiny cry-baby panty waste.

Where did American Idol and Katy Perry go wrong in this week's first-kiss hubbub? (https://slate.com/culture/2018/03/katy-perrys-kiss-and-the-regressive-sexual-politics-of-american-idol.html)
"ABC’s decision to treat it as a playful, feel-good moment—and use it to advertise the show—is bafflingly obtuse," says Christina Cauterucci in writing about Idol's "regressive sexual politics" that was revealed by Benjamin Glaze's first-kiss controversy.