Now Wash Your Hands
It’s with an almost nascent nostalgia that I recall the coining of the Gen Z “sexual recession”: a patronising concern that our youngest generation would be rendered psychosexually stunted, unable or unwilling to fornicate due to over-exposure to smartphones, social media and porn.
Yes, it’s the Guardian, where almost nascent nostalgia is a thing that exists.
Ciara Gaffney, a resident of Los Angeles and a “brand strategist,” is very excited – all but rendered incoherent – by a “cybersexual revolution” that, during the pandemic, is apparently occurring.
Flinging the Gregorian calendar into irrelevance, humanity will be bisected into pre-Covid-19 and post-Covid-19, and although many will ruminate on how we have changed, one thing is indisputable: the rose-coloured epoch before the coronavirus bitterly shamed the sending of nudes.
There’s more of that, a lot, in fact. You’d better used to it.
They were perceived as gauche, even pathetic. In the lockdown era, however, thirst traps and nudes are not only making a glorious, unrepentant comeback, but are now a form of emboldened agency in Gen Z’s blossoming sexual liberation.
For affirmation, Ms Gaffney links to Buzzfeed, where we’re told of an unattached lady named Alicia who sent nude photos to a female friend because she “wanted some validation.” Said friend was expected to “say nice things” and, as Alicia puts it, “hype me up.” Neurotic neediness, it turns out, is the new empowerment. What’s more, the coronavirus lockdown is “galvanising” this new “sexual revolution,” in which seemingly unhappy people share photos of their genitals, often far and wide, in the hope of being validated. It’s all terribly exciting, and radical, and brings our narrator to a state of agitation:
The confines that spurred free love were morals, but the confines that mobilize the Gen Z sexual revolution are walls. Stratified by distance, Gen Z is similarly tasked with reinventing what sex looks like, in a quarantined world where physical sex is frequently impossible. As free love shattered the conventions of its time, Gen Z’s sexual renaissance is doing the same for organic sexual connection.
At which point, it sounds like Ms Gaffney is not so much talking to us as talking to herself, a kind of rhetorical self-pleasuring.
Are thirst traps posted to Instagram “close friends” lists modern courtship? Is mutual masturbation via Zoom sex? What separates the virtual from the real? Why is sexuality by video-screen considered lonely or isolating?
It’s all getting a little breathless. It may be over soon.
If anything, we are seeing humanity at its most tender, reaching earnestly through the virtual void to “actualize” contactless sex. Filled with unfiltered longing posted with abandon, Gen Z’s sexual revolution is one that has been reconfigured and reborn for the digital age.
Any minute now.
What else are we supposed to do with our days besides masturbate excessively and send a flurry of nudes? But it’s more than ennui or physical stratification. It’s a seizing of finiteness.
We need kitchen towel, stat.
Amid the spent wreckage and piles of inapt words, we find repeated assurances that all of this Instagram “thirst trapping” and habitual nude-sharing – whether with lovers, friends or countless random strangers – is “without repercussions.” There is, we’re told, an “absence of consequence.” Though it occurs to me that if you’re the kind of person who feels compelled to bore “close friends” with endless photos of yourself pouting and exaggerating your cleavage, fishing for compliments, or the kind of person who seeks validation from strangers, including strangers that you are in no way attracted to, by showing them your breasts, arse and genitals – then the consequences, as it were, may already have happened.
Update, via the comments:
For those too sheltered to know these things, and too shy to Google, a “thirst trap” is a gratuitously suggestive photo or social-media message intended to solicit attention, flattering comments or declarations of erotic fever – declarations that will not result in any actual sex, but merely make the person in question feel better about themselves, if only temporarily.
Readers are invited to ponder how much time they’d want to spend with the kind of person who craves repeated, even continual, validation regarding their attractiveness – from friends and strangers alike. From daily pouting on Instagram to sending nude selfies to friends. The kind of person who might imagine that such neurotic self-preoccupation is part of a “blossoming sexual liberation.”
If the words aggravating basket case come to mind, I quite understand.
humanity will be bisected into pre-Covid-19 and post-Covid-19
Yes, that seems entirely possible, probable even.
But the rest: sending nudie pictures of yourself to your loved one when you’re separated by the lockdown? Not sure it’s the best thing to do – these things sometimes get released into the wild, say after a particularly nasty breakup.
But sending a nudie picture to a friend, just because? That way madness lies. Aaaaand what a surprise: we’re back into the lock-groove insanity of The Grauniad and similar publications.
I’m not sure nascent can be modified by almost.
piles of inapt words
Ahem.
Sorry. That’s probably a highly colonialist view of language.
I’m not easily shocked, but if one of my friends were to send me unsolicited nudes, with clear expectations of enthusiastic affirmation, I think I’d find that a little… odd. And perhaps faintly disturbing.
Not sure what momentary madness led me to believe that “piles of inapt words” was from the article, not from our esteemed facilitator. Apologies.
So, the youngsters are a bunch of narcissistic wankers then?
What else are we supposed to do with our days besides masturbate excessively and send a flurry of nudes?
Don’t these people have jobs? I mean normal jobs, not ones which involve publicly dildoing oneself.
Perhaps Sir could get some younger, or more attractive, friends?
For some reason, the third item here came to mind.
Did you know that the Pandemic shines a harsh light on Trump’s failure to protect pangolins?
No it really does. Stop guffawing at the back. (H/T Watts Up With That)
The ones that do that as an actual job, tend to be paid fairly well.
Unlike, say, failed arts graduates writing for a newspaper. Or:
Sorry, I have no idea why the mental image of over-wrought indulgent teenagers frantically frotting on Instagram reminded me of the scaly anteater.
Really.
NO idea.
We need kitchen towel, stat.
LOL
LOL
Well, anything absorbent.
‘Thirst traps’..?
*fingers hover over Google*
What else are we supposed to do with our days besides masturbate excessively and send a flurry of nudes?
I don’t have an answer for that. I really don’t.
Have at it?
At your next “brand strategy” meeting, though, please keep your hands on the desk where we can see them.
*fingers hover over Google*
For those too sheltered to know these things, and too shy to Google, a “thirst trap” is a gratuitously or incongruously suggestive photo or social-media message intended to solicit attention, flattering comments or professions of erotic fever – declarations that will not result in any actual sex, but merely make the person in question feel better about themselves, if only temporarily.
See also damaged goods.
Hey, I read.
I happen to have an unread copy of the Grauniad handy…
“Set a scene, get the right angle, reveal a little thigh, and snap! A thirst trap is a sexy photo posted on social media to attract attention. It can also refer to a person considered sexy—a social-media crush.”
You’re welcome.
See also damaged goods.
See also ‘thot’.
So I take it Gen Z is basically claiming to have invented phone sex. A lot of 900 numbers would probably disagree, but OK.
*fingers hover over Google*
A different search engine, but you are not alone, however the second hit was an empowering “how to” manual.
…a brand strategist for Deutsch…
Is the dipthong pronounced “oy” or “oo” ? My German is rusty, no, seriously.
an empowering “how to” manual.
My browser history is really taking a beating today.
[ Pouts suggestively. ]
[ Pouts suggestively. ]
Chin up…
I’m not easily shocked, but if one of my friends were to send me unsolicited nudes, with clear expectations of enthusiastic affirmation, I think I’d find that a little… odd. And perhaps faintly disturbing.
Please tell me the rest of the degenerates here sent David unsolicited nudes.
(NB: I didn’t say nudes *of themselves*.)
Please tell me the rest of the degenerates here sent David unsolicited nudes.
[ Locks down inbox, unplugs laptop, hides behind sofa. ]
“where almost nascent nostalgia is a thing that exists.”
Sometimes you can at least figure out what pretentious idiots are getting at, but I’m struggling to figure out what she thinks she means by that.
“Flinging the Gregorian calendar into irrelevance, humanity will be bisected into pre-Covid-19 and post-Covid-19”
Yeah, just like we abandoned Pope Greg’s system after WWI and WWII. Where does the Groan dig these nutcases up?
“For affirmation, Ms Gaffney links to Buzzfeed”
*snort*
“What else are we supposed to do with our days besides masturbate excessively and send a flurry of nudes?”
You do what you like, love, but I’m looking after my old mum who can’t even have her friends round to visit right now. I’m not sure my aunt would accept a nude photo as a substitute for tea and shortbread.
“I’m not easily shocked, but if one of my friends were to send me unsolicited nudes, with clear expectations of enthusiastic affirmation, I think I’d find that a little… odd.”
Oh, I dunno. It depends on the friend, to be honest. But 99% of ’em, yeah… they wouldn’t remain friends for as long as it took me to delete the thing.
“Ciara Gaffney is a brand strategist for Deutsch [tagline: Not Germany or the bank.]”
She’s doing a bang-up job, then. Really… srategizing… the ol’… brand, there.
Heh – wait ’til he sees what I taped to the back of the sofa…
[Saunters out, chuckling nonchalantly.]
Quarantine not only encourages, but forces, the prosperity of sexual exploration
Er, wut?
Alternate title: Please God Let This Virus Give My Life Meaning, vol CDXIII
Also, doesn’t this make Anthony Weiner some kind digital flashing Moses for, ahem, “Gen Z”?
humanity will be bisected into pre-Covid-19 and post-Covid-19
Assuming the West comes to its senses in the next 8-12 months (which is far from assured) I give it 2 years – tops – before COVID is just one of those things certain people talk about from time to time, meme for a few years, then get bored of while everyone adjusts to whatever lasting impact the event had, and nearly completely forgotten in a generation.
Something like the 9/11 attacks mixed with Y2K hysteria.
Caveat: if Trump somehow loses his re-election COVID will be wood-chippered and flung into the memory hole on approximately November 9, 2020.
Ciara Gaffney, a resident of Los Angeles and a “brand strategist,”
Traditional campfire, or blow torch?
With the lockdown I’m now starting my new hobby as a validator. Anyone that is a woman that wants to can send any pics of your genitalia plus a face pic to me and I’ll provide foc feedback. As I don’t want to be accused of being sexist any males can get the same service from someone else so all are catered for.
See also ‘thot’.
Well, yes. I suppose it depends on how much time you’d want to spend with the kind of person who craves repeated, even continual, validation regarding their attractiveness from friends and strangers alike. From daily pouting on Instagram to sending nude selfies to friends. The kind of person who might imagine that such neurotic self-preoccupation is part of a “blossoming sexual liberation.”
I mean, as you know, I don’t wish to sound overly judgemental, but the words aggravating basket case spring to mind.
the words aggravating basket case spring to mind.
one wonders what such people are like when able to socialise without having to distance. Only briefly, though.
I’m not sure my aunt would accept a nude photo as a substitute for tea and shortbread.
It would have to be a really good nude. There’s not a lot that can beat tea and shortbread.
one wonders what such people are like when able to socialise without having to distance
Exactly the same. They spend more time on their various feeds than interacting with real people.
“The pleasure is momentary, the position ridiculous, and the expense damnable.”
No ‘reinvention’ will alter that.
They spend more time on their various feeds than interacting with real people.
I’d imagine many of us, if not most, have at some point encountered someone whose vanity had apparently inhibited the development of any personality or charm. It seems to me that betting everything on appearance is ultimately unwise, even if you’re young and pretty, and spending an inordinate amount of time behaving as though you were being photographed, observed, and therefore acutely self-conscious, is a recipe for chronic affectation and anxiety.
I suppose it depends on how much time you’d want to spend with the kind of person who craves repeated, even continual, validation regarding their attractiveness from friends and strangers alike.
…which reminds me of the grossly fat, plain-faced people I see wearing t-shirts that loudly proclaim “beautiful” or “sexy” in letters 3 to 6 inches high. Ouch.
Hal: “Traditional campfire, or blow torch?”
Wally learns brand awareness.
…t-shirts that loudly proclaim “beautiful” or “sexy” in letters 3 to 6 inches high.
I think that’s like being cool or popular or sophisticated. If you need to tell people you are, you’re not. (See also Tom “The Expert” Nichols.)
What else are we supposed to do with our days besides masturbate excessively…?

She could try reading Marcus Aurelius, who found something to do with HIS days, and he didn’t even have the Internet. Or maybe the Canterbury Tales, whose Internet-less characters found plenty to do even in the midst of a plague. (Admittedly, that crowd probably did work at least some masturbation into the schedule.)
Auto-correct wanted to change Canterbury Tales to “anger up a gerbil.”
What else are we supposed to do with our days besides masturbate excessively and send a flurry of nudes?
Read a book? Practice the violin? Work on putting? Make macaroons?
Either way, don’t use too much toilet paper.
Is the dipthong pronounced “oy” or “oo” ? My German is rusty, no, seriously.
It’s pronounced “oy,” Mr. Muldoon. (I hear the word quite a bit in my day job.)
Incoming!
Incoming!
[ Hands out combs, breath mints, condoms. ]
[ Hands out combs, breath mints, condoms. ]
[ Patrons stare at items on offer from behind their HAZMAT suits with a mix of confusion and condescension. ]
Um … didn’t Anthony Weiner go to jail for this kind of thing?
items on offer from behind their HAZMAT suits
Wait a minute…We have HAZMAT suits? Those aren’t the ones that arrived here from China last week, are they? I thought we refused shipment.
[…] wearing t-shirts that loudly proclaim “beautiful” or “sexy” in letters 3 to 6 inches high. Ouch.
I just assume they’re being ironic.
Hands out […] condoms.
Oh that’s what those are. You might want to check them out. Last week a group in the back used them as party balloons for a mate’s birthday.
which reminds me of the grossly fat, plain-faced people I see wearing t-shirts that loudly proclaim “beautiful” or “sexy” in letters 3 to 6 inches high.
You have the body of a god—Bacchus.