Katheryn Elizabeth Hudson, known as Katy Perry, born on October 25, 1984 in Santa Barbara, is an American singer-songwriter of pop and rock music. She’s the famous interpreter behind Last Friday night, Part of me or even the controversial I Kissed a girl. Katy Perry is best known for her shameless nude appearance laying on a pink gigantic cotton candy for the California Girls music video featuring Snoop ‘double comm’ communist Dogg.
Originally, the song was not supposed to appear in the album and only be released as a single to avoid a controversy; Katy finally convinced her producers to release it. Katy Perry was an avant-gardiste, she was already talking about bisexuality amongst girls back in 2010, when it was still taboo.
But the Roar singer apparently isn’t shy when it comes to kissing, as she was part of the Jury for the famous show American Idol, she didn’t hesitate to initiate the young candidate Benjamin Glaze. It was his first kiss.
Even if it’s tempting to think that Benjamin should be grateful for sharing such an intimate moment with the blue-eyed pop star, a controversy was quick to arrive: Katy Perry stole a kiss. The #MeToo era left its marks, indeed we are in the middle of the rise of consciousness regarding the concept of consent.
The #MeToo movement is a social movement that encourages women to speak up, to let people know that rape and sexual assault are more common than often assumed, and to allow victims to speak out on the subject.
Consent is permission for something to happen or an agreement. But how do we define it ? By how much the person enjoyed it, or by how comfortable the person seemed to be, or maybe by who did it ? Certainly not, the concept of consent is universal and doesn’t discriminate at all.
The 19 year old American Idol candidate Benjamin Glaze never once expressed a visible agreement to being kissed on the lips but it didn’t prevent the event from happening. And this is where the issue lies. Another problem is that the jury cheered at the event which influenced the candidate to laugh it off instead of expressing how he really felt about it. Indeed he never really enjoyed randomly kissing girls, in fact he told the NY Times: “I wanted to save (my first kiss) for my first relationship, I wanted it to be special.”
Do we measure the importance of consent differently for a man and for a woman?
Even if there was an outrage regarding the act of Katy Perry, the reactions would have been even stronger if an older man stole a kiss from a younger girl. This is a double standard. Indeed, because the Roar interpreter is a female, she taught that no man could feel violated by her lips touching theirs and she was trying to help Benjamin get out of his loneliness. She didn’t seem to be bothered by respecting the candidate’s standards stated earlier in the audition.
Is Katy Perry pushing sexuality on younger people?
Sex and dating are known to be the topic of most pop songs and Katy Perry doesn’t shy away
from it, indeed in her songs The one that got away, Part of me, Hot n Cold, or even the iconic
Teenage dream the popstar evokes relationships sad or happy, successful or failed.
As a young woman writing this, I couldn’t imagine having my first kiss stolen by an adult woman let alone a man. It would have been similar to having my boundaries violated. I would ask for Katy Perry to be removed from the show as she promotes non consensual acts. My first kiss was to a person that I loved and I’ve been preserving my body for this moment, I wouldn’t be flattered just because a pop star stole it.
What are your thoughts on this matter? is there a double standard with men and women when it comes to sexuality? Is sexuality different when it comes to men than women?