LIKE A VIRGIN

Why is there a sudden need for tweens to sex it up in reel and real life?

- PRATIKSHA ACHARYA

If you have seen The Idol by now, then god bless your soul, and if you haven't, it's best not to. The Weeknd and Sam Levinson's magnum opus came under a lot of fire even before its debut and once it released, it was pretty much a dumpster fire. The crass nature of the show is captured in a nutshell in a scene where Jocelyn (Lily Rose Depp) performs for a room full of people while being sexually pleasured by Tedros (The Weeknd). Mind you, this is the same popstar who has sold out arenas upon arenas for her young and impressionable fans to come watch her perform live. Ironic, isn't it? But you can't put this past someone like Levinson, who even butchered the roles of female characters on HBO's acclaimed teen drama, Euphoria. From a sturdy plot line for Sydney Sweeney's Cassie in season one to ruining it by turning her into a manic pixie girl in the second season, to turning Barbie Ferreira's Kat into an empowered' cam girl who is just trying to get some kind of validation while she struggles with body dysmorphia and her sexual liberation, there is a common thread: This incessant need to hypersexualise and objectify teenage girls.

I'M NOT A GIRL, NOT YET A WOMAN