{"id":26822,"date":"2023-07-24T10:38:55","date_gmt":"2023-07-24T14:38:55","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/idolchatter\/?p=26822"},"modified":"2023-07-24T10:38:55","modified_gmt":"2023-07-24T14:38:55","slug":"parents-beware-of-hbos-the-idol-and-the-promotion-of-corrupt-sexuality","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/idolchatter\/2023\/07\/parents-beware-of-hbos-the-idol-and-the-promotion-of-corrupt-sexuality.html","title":{"rendered":"Parents, Beware of HBO&#8217;s &#8220;The Idol&#8221; and The Promotion of Corrupt Sexuality"},"content":{"rendered":"<figure id=\"attachment_26828\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-26828\" style=\"width: 768px\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\"><a href=\"https:\/\/wp-media.beliefnet.com\/sites\/87\/2023\/07\/shocked-parents-child-watching-tv-credit-lightfield-studios-shutterstock-scaled.jpg\"><img decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-26828\" src=\"https:\/\/wp-media.beliefnet.com\/sites\/87\/2023\/07\/shocked-parents-child-watching-tv-credit-lightfield-studios-shutterstock-scaled.jpg\" alt=\"shocked parents\" width=\"768\" height=\"576\" \/><\/a><figcaption id=\"caption-attachment-26828\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">LightField Studios\/Shutterstock.com<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>Children shouldn\u2019t have to carry the burden of adult sexuality being thrown at them by corporations like HBO. HBO\u2019s \u201cEuphoria,\u201d a damaging show for teenagers, is now being outdone by \u201cThe Idol.\u201d Sam Levinson created both programs and HBO tasked Levinson to make \u201cThe Idol\u201d like \u201cEuphoria\u201d on steroids.<\/p>\n<p>HBO boasts that \u201cThe Idol\u201d was created by \u201csick and twisted minds\u201d to tell the \u201csleaziest love story in all of Hollywood.\u201d TV critics blasted \u201cThe Idol,\u201d citing it as \u201cpornographic\u201d and a \u201csordid male fantasy.\u201d Predictably, \u201cThe Idol\u201d shares a distorted view of love, putting the lead character, pop singer Jocelyn, in abusive sexual situations, painting them as standard.<\/p>\n<p><em>Variety<\/em> described one scene from the second episode: \u201cMeanwhile, Jocelyn and Tedros are in the bedroom, where he is directing her to perform sexual acts on herself while he\u2019s sitting in a chair, narrating his fantasy experience.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>The description continues, \u201cThe scene is filled with explicit nudity, sexual dialogue and some X-rated foley work. Meanwhile, there\u2019s also an element of voyeurism when one of the cult followers, the mostly-nude pianist Chloe (Suzanna Son), gets stuck in the closet and watches Jocelyn and Tedros\u2019 activities.\u201d<\/p>\n<p><iframe title=\"YouTube video player\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/xVYUKxF0wMc\" width=\"560\" height=\"315\" frameborder=\"0\" allowfullscreen=\"allowfullscreen\"><\/iframe><\/p>\n<p>In the third episode, Jocelyn shares that her mother abused her by beating her with a hairbrush. Tedros, her boyfriend and musical producer, suggests she use that trauma for inspiration and starts hitting her with a hairbrush. Whatever you want to call it, this is the depraved and dark material being promoted to children and teens, who already suffer from mental health issues exponentially. <a href=\"https:\/\/www.gq-magazine.co.uk\/article\/the-idol-episode-3-hairbrush-scene\"><em>GQ <\/em>summed up<\/a> the point of the series so far, saying, \u201cIn \u2018The Idol,\u2019 the point <em>is <\/em>the pain.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>HBO is predictably marketing\u00a0\u201cThe Idol\u201d\u00a0to youth on social media. Videos tagged with #theidol on TikTok, one of the most popular social media sites with tweens and teens, have racked up more than 1.2 billion views. More than 120 variations on that hashtag add up to millions more views. Even if children aren\u2019t on social media, they can access \u201cThe Idol\u201d on the MAX streaming platform. The streaming app has wide gaps in parental controls that enable children to watch \u201cThe Idol\u201d and other explicit content.<\/p>\n<p>As a society, we must protect children, which is why parents and families should be aware of \u201cThe Idol,\u201d but also why the responsibility falls on entertainment companies like HBO to ensure children aren\u2019t exposed to this content. Tragically, society denies children the chance to have an imaginative childhood by this unnecessary weight.<\/p>\n<p>Some believe the premiere season of \u201cThe Idol\u201d was cut short due to the bad reviews it received, but executives say the show was meant to end after five episodes. At this point, there haven\u2019t been any confirmed season two plans.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Children shouldn\u2019t have to carry the burden of adult sexuality being thrown at them by corporations like HBO. HBO\u2019s \u201cEuphoria,\u201d a damaging show for teenagers, is now being outdone by \u201cThe Idol.\u201d Sam Levinson created both programs and HBO tasked Levinson to make \u201cThe Idol\u201d like \u201cEuphoria\u201d on steroids. HBO boasts that \u201cThe Idol\u201d was&hellip;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":657,"featured_media":26828,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"fbia_status":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-26822","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-television"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v23.9 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>Parents, Beware of HBO&#039;s &quot;The Idol&quot; and The Promotion of Corrupt Sexuality<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Children are constantly being exposed to explicit content and HBO&#039;s &quot;The Idol&quot; is the latest example of shows parents should look out for.\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" 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