‘Pretty girls support Palestine’ and ‘Zionism is sexy’ — is sex appeal key to online war discourse?
Can being hot online really contribute to #freepalestine or #releasethehostages?
Hot girls for a cause. Courtesy of TikTok
By Mira Fox January 18, 2024
Which is sexiest: Zionism or a #freepalestine?
It might seem like an odd question, and I’m not here to compare Gigi Hadid to Gal Gadot. But online and in protests, sentiments like “pretty girls support Palestine” or “Zionism is sexy” are proliferating in the wake of the war.
But what does hotness have to do with — checks notes — war in the Middle East, shipping blockades, Palestinian liberation and Israeli military tactics?
Interpersonally, of course, politics are often part of attraction. After all, it’s pretty normal to want to date someone with views that align with yours; most dating apps allow people to indicate their political leanings, at least broadly — liberal, moderate, conservative — and people often make more niche beliefs clear in their bios with quips about, say, dismantling capitalism.
Plus, studies show that people find those who share their political beliefs and identity to be more attractive.
But it’s a leap to go from “I want to partner with someone who shares my values and beliefs” to “hot girls stand with Palestine & if u don’t ur ugly,” as one TikTok, posted by a woman with a few thousand followers and no other political content on her profile, said.
And yet. This week, a young Yemeni man with beachy waves and hazel eyes went viral for TikToks in which he gazed soulfully into the camera as his small boat approached a cargo ship. People assumed he was a Houthi pirate — it’s unclear if that’s true — and, since the Houthis have stated that their attacks on ships are in support of Gaza, feted him. Some fans gave him the nickname “Timhouthi Chalamet” after the attractive (and Jewish) actor. (The account has since been deleted.)
Timhouthi Chalamet https://t.co/HM55dage3W
— BO (@bo_austin_) January 15, 2024
Meanwhile, Stranger Things actor Noah Schnapp was pushed to clarify his stance on the war after receiving massive backlash in the fall for a video showing him with stickers saying “Zionism is sexy.” Defending him this week, his co-star Brett Gelman said, “Zionism is the belief that Israel should exist, and that’s sexy to me.”
It’s not an isolated sentiment. Israeli soldiers have been dancing and posing with their guns and tanks on TikTok, both on their personal accounts and the official accounts of the IDF, as well as other Zionist activist groups like Aish. (About half the comments on these generally say “free Palestine!” while the other half say some variation on “you are beautiful!!! you are super!!!”)
@kaufee free palestine from hamas #tubegirl #IDF ♬ greedy - Tate McRae
There’s some basic social media logic behind some of this. Most users on platforms like TikTok and Instagram believe that the sites’ algorithms prefer selfies and “thirst traps” — photos or videos designed to be sexually appealing — so they intersperse or combine their political activism on the platforms with appealing visuals. Think talking about the politics of the Middle East while doing a full face of makeup.
On the other end of things, #freepalestine sometimes appears on completely non-political videos just because it’s a trending hashtag; savvy wanna-be influencers will throw a huge block of random trending terms on all of their videos in the hopes of getting more views. Take, for example, this fan page for Kate Middleton, where a photo of the Princess of Wales holding a telephone is captioned “hola everybody” and accompanied by a block of hashtags including both #freepalestine and #viralreels.
But in many videos, sexiness is not adjacent to the political content; it is the politics. There’s no historical lecture or list of companies and celebrities to cancel. It’s just people pouting at the camera, preening and showing off their hair, accompanied by #freepalestine or #amisraelchai. The point is to combine sex appeal with an ideology.
That substance-free quality is a feature, not a bug; the politics of promoting an ideology’s sex appeal often feels disconnected from any actual, well, political beliefs. Being hot online will not #freepalestine or #releasethehostages. In fact, it seems distracting from the real issues at play, more about building your personal brand than working toward world peace.
But that doesn’t mean it’s not politically efficacious. Making your own ideology out to be sexy is, well, attractive. Everyone wants to be desirable; everyone wants to be part of the cool club. And, people are — perhaps subconsciously and perhaps not — drawn toward whatever they find attractive. Aesthetics are powerful. If you can convincingly make the case that your political movement is where the hot people are, maybe more people will want to join.
@zambyhoney hot girls say no to genocide!!! we dont make the rules
♬ IT GIRL (Sped up Version) - Aliyah's Interlude
And, besides — it’s fun. People love to post selfies anyway; this way, they can feel good about it. During the 2020 election, #HotGirlsForBernie trended not to convince everyone that hot people liked Bernie Sanders, but, according to the woman who started the trend, as a glib way to hype everyone up. The hotness was meant to be inclusive; anyone could be a hot girl, as long as they liked universal healthcare. It was a way of encouraging people and making them feel good about themselves and their beliefs.
In the current war, this plays out similarly. People do #ootd and #grwm videos — that stands for “outfit of the day” and “get ready with me” for those of you not terminally online — of them getting ready to go to protests. They do themed makeup in the colors of the Palestinian or Israeli flags. They present their political side as a feel-good endeavor. It’s not just an exhausting, endless slog of war and death; it’s flirting and trendy outfits and eyeshadow techniques.
Maybe it’s a tactic to dissuade people from moving onto the next trendy cause. Maybe, if politics is fun and sexy, they’ll stay engaged.
In the end though, it might not be that deep. According to the internet, hot girls do a lot of things. And most of all, hot girls have tummy issues.
A message from our CEO & publisher Rachel Fishman Feddersen
I hope you appreciated this article. Before you go, I’d like to ask you to please support the Forward’s award-winning, nonprofit journalism during this critical time.
At a time when other newsrooms are closing or cutting back, the Forward has removed its paywall and invested additional resources to report on the ground from Israel and around the U.S. on the impact of the war, rising antisemitism and polarized discourse.
Readers like you make it all possible. Support our work by becoming a Forward Member and connect with our journalism and your community.
— Rachel Fishman Feddersen, Publisher and CEO
