You may remember where you were the moment Jeremy Allen White’s Calvin Klein ad broke the internet. Maybe you, like me, viewed it … more than once, maybe even uttering an appreciative yes, chef. As if watching him as Carmi sweat in a hot kitchen and confront his inner demons on The Bear wasn’t enough, the famed underwear campaign brought things to a fever pitch, confirming our cultural shift toward the appreciation of unconventional forms of male hotness. Since then this trend is only picking up steam. Even Dunkin’ Donuts renamed their small sized coffee “the short king.”
“Short kings” and “hot rodent men” are subverting the long-held standard of male attractiveness. Recently the NY Times Styles team theorized that the celebration of non-stereotypical masculinity could be a backlash to A.I. face and years of snapchat filters, or maybe something even more nuanced is going on. Is there something about the rejection of the tall drink of water narrative that has dominated fairytales, …