Sex Education And The Soft Boy Epidemic

If the obscure title didn’t spark your interest, then this will: we’re going to talk about Netflix shows and yummy boys. Oh yeah. *wink*

Sex Education, a recent high-school comedy drama series from Netflix, is fresh. It’s been popping up on my Netflix #trending for a while now, and while mildly curious about the trailer, I never really paid much attention to it.

Anyway, I had just finished watching 11 seasons of Frasier, which was an emotional journey in itself and I was suffering from a sudden and stark emptiness in life (remember when Friends ended?) when my amazing cousin Mimi mentioned she’s watching Sex Education. And my obvious and naïve question was, “So does it…give you sex tips?” And she comes back with, “No, you doofus, it’s a comedy”. Curiosity piqued now, I flicked back to it and settled down with my favorite blanket to start watching.

So, does it give you sex tips? No, not really, but it does, in a roundabout way, tell you what not to do. And if you’re past the age of 18, it’ll take you back to your cringeworthy awkward high school years and you’ll definitely get a few laughs out of it.

Now normally, I love high school coming-of-age dramas. I’m all about Grease, 16 Candles, The Breakfast Club and all those classics. But recently, there’s been a surge of high school dramas that looks like the Victoria’s Secret Runway show was cast in Expendables 4, except no hair is ever out of place.

I’m talking about shows like, Pretty Little Liars, Riverdale, Sabrina. I watched Riverdale because I think Cole Sprouse is cute. But 16 year olds running around solving murders at the dead of the night while their parents remain oblivious? Give me a break. My mom would find out if I hid a Nancy Drew novel in my geography text book. She’s like Dr. Strange. Knows all, hears all, sees all, across time and dimension.  (Marvel, are you listening? Cast my mom in the next one!)

Superhero movies are way more realistic. Because once you accept the fact that Captain America exists (cinematic license, ok?), people behave like you’d expect them to. They gape at the existence of a super soldier, fan girl over him, take pictures like the paparazzi. But one episode of Riverdale and you’ll realise that everyone thinks they’re Jason Bourne. *eye-roll*.

And this is exactly why I liked Sex Education. The normalcy is attractive. Wrapped in some minor drama and a healthy dose of humor, the show focuses on teenagers (even the ones blessed in the genetics department) navigating school life, facing problems and pitfalls that media leads us to believe don’t exist, and it’s heartening to see something that has a modicum of realism. Relatable? I’d think so. And yeah, if you had questions about sex, you could maaaybe try watching it, for the fun of it? Although I really wouldn’t advise a television show as a source for reliable information.

Speaking of the utterly delectable protagonists of high school dramas, I want to bring up the topic of soft-boy, a term associated with men like Cole Sprouse, Asa Butterfield, Timothee Chalamet and so on.

I found this word on an article detailing Cole Sprouse’s hair routine (yes, I read strange stuff online) and ended up rabbit holing down the internet researching soft-boys. So if you put a picture of Chris Hemsworth and Cole Sprouse side-by-side, you’ll know what I’m talking about.

 

Apparently, the age of drooling over men with biceps like tree trunks is now long gone. The ability to bench press 500 pounds don’t impress us no more. Nope, these days we are all about the suave men who like poetry and art. They are intelligent, they ask us what we think of philosophy and impressionism, they are sensitive and respectful. They mix the charm of Elvis Presley with the niceness of Neville Longbottom. Oh, and to every guy thinking, ‘Hey, that’s me!’, sorry guys, you also have to look like a dream boat. Soft boys are NOT the quintessentially hapless ‘nice guys’.

Here’s what I have a beef with. If you search the internet for soft boys, you’ll find lots of descriptions similar to the one above. BUT, the ‘niceness’ is only superficial. In fact, the take away from my internet research was that soft boys are basically a more polished version of another breed commonly known in pop culture as f**kboys. The latter blatantly manipulates women while the former uses a façade of sensitivity and trustworthiness to charm women into believing they are nice, when in fact, they are not.

Well, why not?! Can’t there be any soft boys out there with decent intentions? If a soft boy is also a nice boy, do we call him a ‘soft nice boy’ or a ‘nice soft boy’? Where are the men who like art, poetry, philosophy? Shallow Kat wants that man. She also wants that man to be well built but not too well-built (lest she feels insecure). Shallow Kat would also require the man to look like a dreamboat.

Real Kat cringes in shame as she writes this while mentally sending out a heartfelt apology to all the men out there. Does anyone really care? Maybe we should stop coming up with ridiculous labels and focus on being better people. But then again, if that were true, what on earth would I ever write about?!

Well, that’s all I have about television shows and yummy boys for now. Let me know what you thought of Sex Education. Ladies, have you met a guy who you think is a soft boy? Guys, if you think you’re a soft-boy, tell me if I described you right. If you’re a nice boy, my apologies that shallow Kat doesn’t appreciate you enough, but know that you are appreciated. Truly. And if you belong to the elusive category of Soft-Nice-Boy, please, get in touch so that shallow Kat can ask you out.

Real Kat says bye.

Here are links to some of the stuff I mentioned: 

Netflix’s Sex Education

Seattle’s favorite psychiatrist, Frasier

Cool high school movies like Grease, 16 Candles, The Breakfast Club

Annoying high school shows like Riverdale, Pretty Little Liars, Sabrina

Cole Sprouse’s hair routine

What the internet says soft-boys are

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