March 14, 2018
The first kiss of an aw-shucks teenager from Oklahoma, delivered by a superstar singer, might have made for a sweet pop-culture moment in a previous era. But as the nation re-examines sexual conduct and power dynamics in workplaces and in the media, the kiss didn't land well with all viewers.
When Benjamin Glaze, at the time a 19-year-old cashier from Enid, Okla., auditioned for "American Idol," he had hoped his big moment would come as he belted out "Stadium," a song he wrote himself. That or Nick Jonas's 2015 single "Levels."
Instead, it came when the popstar Katy Perry, a judge on the show, surprised him by kissing him smack on the lips, moments before his audition. He had never been kissed before.
"I was a tad bit uncomfortable," Mr. Glaze said by phone this week, after the incident aired on the season premiere. His first kiss was a rite of passage he had been putting off with consideration. "I wanted to save it for my first relationship," he said. "I wanted it to be 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."
"Have you kissed a girl and liked it?" asked Mr. Bryan, making a coy reference to Ms. Perry's first hit single, "I Kissed A Girl." Mr. Glaze said that he had not. "I have never been in a relationship and I can't kiss a girl without being in a relationship."
At that, Ms. Perry stood up. "Come here," she said to Mr. Glaze. "Come here right now."
Ms. Perry motioned for him to come over to the judges' table and stuck her face toward him. "One on the cheek?" he said and she smiled. He quickly touched his face to her cheek. She asked for another kiss, complaining that he hadn't even made the "smush sound." As he moved toward her cheek again, Ms. Perry swung her face toward him and kissed him quickly on the lips. "Katy!" he yelled, as he stumbled backward. "You didn't!" Ms. Perry raised her arms in victory.
"It was a forced sexual act," one viewer
posted in reply to American Idol's tweet: "Imagine if this was from a male judge. Has @katyperry not taken anything from the #metoo movement?"
