"We Thirst, Therefore We Are"
"We Thirst, Therefore We Are"
𝓺𝓾𝓮𝓼𝓽𝓲𝓸𝓷 𝓯𝓸𝓻 𝓽𝓱𝓮 𝓬𝓾𝓵𝓽𝓾𝓻𝓮 💬
This year Peyton and I had the honor of guest editing Unbothered’s annual Thirst Week. On Monday the site published our editors’ letter about the “state of thirst.” Our thesis is that desire is something we don’t have to overthink. As Jojo Siwa reminded us on this week’s episode of “Lemme Say This,” you miss 100 percent of the shots you don’t take. In: the WNBA, Casa Amor, Global Entry. Out: Men in finance1, read receipts, wine bars.2
“Life is short. Live a little. Don’t overthink your thirst — this is a place for thrilling, dramatic desire. Only you can decide what moves you, we’re just making some suggestions. Everything else can be serious. Clutching your chest at the way A'ja Wilson handles that ball doesn’t require a think piece, but it is further proof of why everyone wants a basketball wife. So bark and awooga in the comments of Damson Idris’s IG,” we advised. “Wear the titty top. Go ten white polish pedicured toes down. Slide into DMs. Send the crazy text. If you’re going to heart the IG story, you better heart every single post. We thirst, therefore we are.”
It got me thinking about Teddy Pendergrass and a post from the Hung Up archives from 2021. I’d just watched the D’Angelo Verzuz and re-watched Richard Linklater’s Everybody Wants Some!! and was thinking about what it means for a man to submit himself to a woman’s gaze. “When was the last time I’d watched a performer so willingly let himself be consumed by — absorbed by! — the female gaze. When was the last time I’d watched an American movie about guys doing everything we pretend only women do: get dressed up, fuss over this outfit or that one, get hopeful, miss out. Not that flirty, teasy Drake stuff; not his weird projected love-savior-confusion. Not the misplaced thirst traps (“Vote Early…”) that make me laugh or the sensitive ignorance of a Lucas Hedges character. Not the Marvel ironic-everything, and not something earnest or big-hearted, either. So much entertainment with an eye towards desire or intimacy ends up flattening these experiences into something consumable or relatable. The double feature of Linklater’s hilariously overconfident baseball boys peacocking and D’Angelo and Teddy Pendergrass’s everything makes me think: Men generally — men conceptually — low key fell off.”
Those are ideas I still think about often. It’s hot and sticky outside, and it reminded me of the freaky energy of Jane Campion’s In The Cut. Meg Ryan and Mark Ruffalo have a suffocating chemistry, the torment of wanting.
Anyway: What’s a moment or a movie scene that you find sexy and think about often? And be specific! I don’t mean generally like “booty shorts in the NBA” or good drivers. I’m talking about the way Ray Allen wears overalls in He Got Game. I mean the way Heat opens with a sex scene with such texture you can hear the way Al Pacino’s little chains dangle. Anthony Hopkins’ thotty little headshot! Mike Faist leading every Challegers scene booty first. Adam Driver dancing to “Valentine,” Marcus and Luca cooking together in The Bear’s Copenhagen episode, the Calvin Klein ads with the Moonlight men, the way Beyoncé wears sunglasses, Charles Melton.
Share or drop links in the comments! And don’t forget to read the rest of Unbothered’s Thirst Week programming.
But Industry's Ken Leung marked safe!
There are too many. Sorry! Every time another wine bar opens I get a little closer to death.
Sam Rockwell dancing in Charlie's Angels https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_oyP0QHjty8
Cannot recommend Monkey Man enough for fellow people of taste who recognize dev patel as the most beautiful man in the world. There’s a scene where he punches a bag of rice until it bursts and the rice grains end up stuck to his chest and I cannot finish this sentence in a public Internet space. All that being said I also watched the talented mr ripely for the first time this year and Jude Law in that movie might be the hottest a man has ever been on screen.