Romance

Monday

Octavia Sheepshanks

Romantasy, the hot new literary genre du jour

A friend recently found himself trapped on a plane next to a young woman reading a Kindle bedecked with stickers of dragons and pointy-eared, hunky men. The font size was so large it was impossible not to see the sexually explicit text. He observed, “I was reading The Lord of the Rings; her book was more along the lines of I’m the Lord of Your Ring. I’ve never felt so uncomfortable.” Welcome to the cultural phenomenon of romantasy — a newly mainstreamed trend fueled by TikTok, or rather BookTok. It’s a shame there isn’t room in the portmanteau name for “sex,” which is a crucial ingredient in the genre, made clearer in the alternative informal term “fairy porn.

romantasy

Tuesday

Paul du Quenoy

Are you looking for a man in finance?

“Did I just write the song of the summer?” twenty-seven-year-old Megan Boni, an aspiring New York-based singer-actress known on social media as “Girl on Couch,” asked her public a few weeks ago. Days before, she suggested that her TikTok followers set to music a thirteen-word satirical musing she had improvised about her undersexed Gen Z peeresses’ lofty romantic expectations. Known simply as “Man in Finance,” the song’s lyrics easily divide into four short verses that unfold like shallow ads in the “Personals” section of an old newspaper: “I’m looking for a man in finance/Trust fund/Six-five/Blue eyes.” Adaptations have gone viral on social media, gathering more than 80 million hits and earning Boni more than $300,000 in revenue.

Thursday

Cockburn

Is Taylor Swift an F1 girl?

Start your engines! Taylor Swift hasn’t wasted any time finding new material. Just a few weeks back news broke of Swift's split from actor Joe Alwyn. Now fans are convinced that the singer is secretly dating Formula 1 star Fernando Alonso.  After rumors surfaced last week, Alonso poured gasoline on the fire by posting a TikTok video earlier this week set to the tune of her hit song “Karma.” In the clip, he also scrolled on his phone before looking at the camera and winking.  https://www.tiktok.com/@fernandoalonso/video/7225564591818804506?lang=en The F1 driver also referenced Swift’s song “22” when he commented, “Feeling 33." Alonso captioned the video “Race week era😉,” referencing Swift’s ongoing Eras Tour.

taylor swift f1 girl

Friday

Zoe Strimpel

Joyce Carol Oates intellectualizes Yellowstone

A neo-Western drama set on a vast ranch in Montana run through with trashy romance plot lines and violent disputes about land and legacy — "who owns the West?" — has made Yellowstone the most-watched TV series in America. The season four finale drew over 11 million viewers. And yet, while millions of Americans are lapping up the epic sprawl of violence, lust, family and wilderness, many — particularly the coastal intelligentsia — don’t watch it. One vocal exception is Joyce Carol Oates, the Pulitzer-nominated author of fifty-nine novels and one of the great chroniclers of the last American century.

Thursday

Kara Kennedy

Why does every woman want to sleep with Pete Davidson?

Peroxide blonde hair, black sullen eyes and teeth like Pez candies. That hardly sounds like the face of a dream man. But Pete Davidson is not just any man; in the last ten years he has transformed from a nobody New York stand-up to every woman’s favorite plus-one. Davidson is a contested sex symbol. Women spend their Saturday nights salivating at Saturday Night Live, thinking about how they'd offer up their firstborn for one date with the comedian. Men, on the other hand, think we’re mental. They just don’t get Pete’s appeal. So, gents, I’d like to tell you what it is about Pete. I’ll start with the obvious: it has been well-reported that the comedian is well endowed. Ariana Grande once tweeted, then deleted, "ten inches," but she was probably just being nice.

pete davidson

Wednesday

Amber Duke

That TV kiss was the most human moment of coronavirus

It was like something out of an old Hollywood film. The mysterious leading man finally makes his move on the damsel, and the two embrace in a passionate kiss. The viral news smackaroo between an Irish lad, Jack Ring, and a young Canadian girl, Gillian McKeown, was distinctly modern but contained all of the elements of a classic romance. The scene unfolded as McKeown walked her dog through a park, not unlike Holly Golightly searching for her lost ‘cat’ in the rain. Ring approached McKeown as she was being interviewed by a local news outlet about coronavirus, clasped her head with both hands, and planted a wet one right on her mouth.

kiss

Thursday

Cockburn

Valentines for Democrats

Like all true romantics, Cockburn is not a Valentine’s Day enthusiast. He was, however, amused to find his progressive nieces messing around on his computer, giggling over Valentines memes they were making for their equally woke crushes. For those readers wondering how to woo a leftie, apparently these cards are all the rage on Twitter. Simply find out your beloved’s favorite politician, print one out, fill it in, hand it to your sweetheart, and remember – the best word to describe your political views is ‘moderate’. May Cupid’s arrow fly true.

aoc valentines