Oooh, I said it. I’m not sure I mean it, but I’ve planted the seed. It was the moment that I spied Barry Keo-G-han in his tighty whities for Bumble that I realised the brands are just seeking to own our thirstiness now. They’re toying with our objectification of the male species. They’re monetising our reframing of the male gaze to a female point of view.
It’s taken us a long time to reach this point. We’ve had thousands of years of patriarchy. It’s taken five waves of feminism to establish that we don’t have to be ladettes swigging a beer in our bikini for Loaded magazine, we can just make the boys the centerfolds. So, I was hoping to enjoy the pendulum swing of objectification over to men at least until my own old age. But as with all TikTok #aesthetic trends, I feel the end may be nigh in less than 6 months.
