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Evening Standard
Evening Standard
Lifestyle
Emily Phillips

Have we reached peak Babygirl?

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. 

Jeremy Allen White for Calvin Klein (Calvin Klein)

Because, while I’ve still got plenty of time for Barry in legwarmers, Paul Mescal running his hands through his artfully scruffy moulet in that slightly unsure manner (while giving us a flash of his pale Irish underarm), or Jeremy Allen White buying the largest bunch of hand-tied flowers at the farmers’ market, clearly unshowered and fresh from bed with Rosalia, I really do not want to then sign up for a dating app/hair product/letterbox florist off the back of it. 

The Valentine’s content was real. Masters of the Air has been well, on the air, for a couple of weeks now, but the crafty marketeers saw an opportunity to pull at our heart strings and get our eyes on the gogglebox, when they had the all-male cast (including the aforementioned Barry and professional Elvis/Nic Cage-impersonator Austin Butler read love letters from the Second World War in their dulcet selection of regional accents (personal favourite: Belfast boy Anthony Boyle who can read me a sleep story any time). I’m not going to lie, I nearly shared it on my Insta Stories, but checked myself when I realised I should be adding a #sponcon to my swoony critique. 

Similarly, after I sobbed my way through the One Day finale, heart-wrenched by Dexter’s devastation, I happened upon a ‘viral’ video for the show’s stars Leo Woodall and Ambika Mod. The silly quiz concept and click-to-view messaging completely burst the romantic bubble of the love story I’d just immersed myself in. It’s nobody’s fault of course - we've all got to make money somehow. But the transactionality of it all has left me feeling a bit like I’m watching Alan Partridge shouting ‘would you like me to lapdance for you?’ in his argyle sweater and Y-fronts. 

Love is not quite lost in One Day (Teddy Cavendish/Netflix)

It’s the Baftas this weekend, and the ‘he-vage’ will be out in force. It’s moved on a step from the deep-Vs of my youth. Now, the dress code may as well read ‘black tie, leave the shirt at home’. I’m happy that men are playing with fashion and I certainly don’t want to go back to our old, stale ways. But I sort of preferred it when there was just a sprinkling of lewks to really discern who was cool and who definitely isn’t. When we live in a world where even the 8ft Super Bowl Monster Travis Kelce is wearing a sparkly suit out to a party with girlfriend Taylor Swift, we know the world has eaten itself. You only have to look at Travis’ brother, dressed as a horror clown in a gimp mask and red and yellow dungarees to know that this is a stylist’s work and nothing to do with his own natural taste.  

Not every celebrity man needs to be a Babygirl. Not every half fanciable guy needs to sell us white pants. Not every actor needs to go on a fake date in front of the cameras to prove their worth. Let’s go back to refined discernment, and allow us to drool in peace. 

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