@ciearratati We get it, let’s wrap it up #hygieneolympics #hygiene ♬ original sound - Ciearra Tati (ONLY PAGE)

In reality, our ideas of cleanliness have long been tied to Western notions of purity and morality. This can be seen through the refrain ‘cleanliness is tied to godliness’ as well as the fact that ‘dirty’ is a term that has historically been levelled at both queer and non-white people. While many communities of colour now hold higher standards of personal hygiene as a result of this accusation, queer communities’ embrace of sweat-fuelled rave culture has largely led to a reclamation of this. The sweat-laden music video for Tove Lo’s recent single ‘Heat’ is a key example of how this, alongside Charli xcx and Troye Sivan’s upcoming ‘Sweat’ tour, is now being pushed into mainstream pop canon.

Similarly, queer love stories are central to Love Lies Bleeding and Challengers, and this goes a long way to explaining the subversiveness of sweat and messiness used in both. This messiness also has the effect of making the sex scenes come across as less heavily-vetted and perfunctory than we’re used to (the oiled navels of Magic Mike dancers feel about as authentic as a Michael Buble song in comparison). Kristen Stewart, who stars in Love Lies Bleeding called it “a really beautiful thing to deliver an experience that was, like, literal instead of faux”, and indeed, it’s exciting to see heartthrob characters expressing their desire, when so often sex symbols have existed solely as an object for the viewer to express desire onto. Even with this in mind, it’s a remarkable sign of how far we’ve come that ‘sexy’ is a prominent response to a film that opens on a shot of our heroine unclogging a toilet. 

Where Love Lies Bleeding becomes more subversive than Challengers is through its portrayal of cleanliness in its female leads. Here women are desirable in spite - or even because - of their greasy mullets and perspiring abs - a diversion of the male gaze presumably helped by having both a female writer and director at the fore. In contrast, Zendaya is notably absent from Challengers’ sweat-fuelled montages, even before her character Tashi’s career-ending injury removes her from the action sequences. The aggression of tennis does allow Tashi to be more dominant than we’re used to seeing from a leading lady, but in order to maintain Hollywood beauty standards, and in contrast to her main counterparts, the film chooses to keep Tashi consistently sweat-free and presentable.

Despite Challengers’ reticence in this department, its portrayal of masculine sexiness still stands out as a far cry from the hairless, plastic abs and photoshopped bulges we’ve seen in the previous decade of Marvel movies, as described in the viral essay Everyone Is Beautiful and No One is Horny. While of course we still a long way to go - all designated love interests here are slim, toned and conventionally attractive (or at least conventionally attractive in a rodent kind of way) - the new benchmark from these films proves mainstream ideas of sexiness have moved past Barbie bodies, and the swooning public response shows the appetite is there. So enjoy the summer, let's get sweaty.  

Article by Freya Robinson