Photo: Instagram
If true, these allegations are explosive!
By Bernadette Giacomazzo — Written on Aug 13, 2019
As #MeToo activists have said for the longest time, it's not just women that can be sexually assaulted. Recently, an actor and model who appeared in Katy Perry's "Teenage Dream" video accused the singer of sexually assaulting him. Who is Josh Kloss, and is he telling the truth?
Let's look at what we know about this "he too" accuser.
1. He accused her of assaulting him at a party.
According to Pop Culture, the alleged abuse took place at a party. Kloss said that Perry pulled down his sweatpants and underwear, exposing his penis to everyone in attendance. Kloss also said that he was "grossed out" and "embarrassed" by what happened.
2. Josh Kloss strongly implied, but did not outright state, that he turned down Katy Perry's sexual advances.
According to TooFab, in his retelling of the story, he strongly implied but did not outright state that he suspects the assault happened because he turned down Katy Perry's sexual advances. Kloss said that he was invited to a "hotel party" by Perry, but he turned her down because he was concerned about his job and other things going on in his private life.
3. He released his story on the anniversary of "Teenage Dream."
According to NME, yesterday was the 9th anniversary of the release of "Teenage Dream" and the subsequent video featuring Josh Kloss as Katy Perry's love interest. Kloss also admitted that when he was hired to do the "Teenage Dream" video, that it was a "dream come true" for him because Katy Perry was a "crush" of his at the time.
4. Josh Kloss made $650 for his role in the video.
"I continued to watch her use clips of her music videos for her world tour and then her dvd, only highlighting one of her male co-stars, and it was me. I made around 650 in total off of teenage dream. I was lorded over by her reps, about not discussing a single thing about anything regarding Katy publicly. And a couple interviews they edited and answered for me,” he said, according to Page Six. The outlet also added that he felt it was one of the most "belittling" jobs he'd ever had.
5. He insists he isn't doing this for the fame or the money.
"You watch the face of children being uplifted by positive music she sang. And your mind is stuck trying to do your job and protect her bs image or be honest and help the global dialogue about power and abuse. And you hear over and over a million times that Males are the great evil on this planet. Meanwhile you know the truth POWER empowers what is corrupt in people, regardless of their gender," he said, according to Heavy.com.
6. Josh Kloss' Instagram is on the verge of being deleted.
This morning, Josh Kloss revealed that his Instagram is on the verge of being deleted because some of his previous posts — which included explicit nudity — violated the Instagram community guidelines. Needless to say, this led to a lot of rejoicing in his comments section, especially from fans of Katy Perry who insist that he's lying about his experience with the singer.
Still, there are some people who believe in Josh Kloss's story. Talent Recap, for example, wrote an entire story about how Katy Perry gives feminism a bad name because of his accusation against her.
"When you kissed Benjamin Glaze without asking him if you could kiss him, you violated his personal space and made us women look bad on national television. And you are again making us look bad because we all know, you probably did it. If not for exploitation then to satisfy your need to be quirky and ‘out there,' In a time when women all over the globe are fighting for their stories to be heard, stories like the one that came out yesterday about you, make our voices less important," they said.
Not sure if we'd go that far, but the question remains: whose story do you believe?
Bernadette Giacomazzo is an editor, writer, and photographer whose work has appeared in People, Teen Vogue, Us Weekly, The Source, XXL, HipHopDX, The Los Angeles Times, The New York Post, and more. She is also the author of The Uprising series. For more information about Bernadette Giacomazzo, click here.