THIRST TRAP INTERVIEWS
As some of you may remember, I spent the first half of 2020 quarantine recreating 100+ gay thirst traps. To refresh your memory, HERE is a PAPER Magazine article where I go into more detail about the project.
I’ve decided to continue exploring this world, interviewing some of the people I satirized.
In this special edition of the newsletter, I talk to Ty Mitchell.
Enjoy!
TRAP #74 - TY MITCHELL
In one sentence, how would you describe yourself and the work that you do?
I am a gay porn performer and queer culture writer.
How did you feel (honestly) when you first saw that you were tagged in my photo/ parodied?
Defensive, tickled.
Define a thirst trap in your own words.
A photo that shows off your body and sexuality in ways presumably designed to maximize social media engagement. An image that "traps" an audience into engaging (liking, commenting, following, sharing, etc) by appealing to their sexual thirst. Kind of a rape cultural concept, but maybe that's a reach.
What is your honest opinion about Instagay thirst traps? Do you feel there’s a power to them? A perversity? A danger?
I think they demonstrate how social media has always been premised on some kind of sexual exchange such that influencers and sex workers have more or less converged. I think out queer people are often more willing to publicize our sexualities because we're taught that we're already disqualified from the kinds of professional opportunities and family life that prevent straight people from posting their nudes. At least, those are the things that interest me about it.
What is your honest opinion about parody, satire, and queer reading/roasting? Do you feel there’s a power to it? A danger? Where’s the line?
I think queer people making fun of each other is an old subcultural tradition that I love and cherish, but that it historically takes place in very local settings like gay bars and street corners. I think the way it takes place digitally and publicly usually fails to really fit within that tradition. Online battles between queers often revolve around ejecting one or the other from some kind of queer-ethical collective. I think your project has an undertone that feels naturally lighthearted and fun. Perhaps it's that you sympathize with the pleasure of online validation.
Did you post your photo in hopes that a certain person or a couple of people would see it and react? To “intentionally trap” someone so to speak?
I posted my photo to promote a Brooklyn-based editorial clothing brand, Leak Your Sex Tape Underwear. It's a brand that consistently works with queer people of color, myself included. It was professionally styled and photographed. It was actually sort of surprising that you chose that one and not something I'd taken in my mirror or something where my asshole's nearly exposed.
Did you feel good after posting it/getting engagement?
Sure. I think it's a pretty photo, that the garments look cool, and that I posed well in them. Glad others agreed with at least one of those things.
Did you feel like you were creating a photo that was truly “yours” or (consciously or unconsciously) trying to match what you’ve seen circulating?
I felt like I was modeling a garment for a brand and doing my best to do so in a way that differed from routine gay porn poses and shots. The photographers who usually seek me out tend to either suck or hope I will. I was excited to be part of a project with really competent people involved who want to see brown queer people feeling themselves in stylish, original garments. So again, it's sort of surprising that that's the example from my page that you chose to parody.
What’s next? How will the thirst trap and Instagay economy evolve? Will it? Or are we forever stuck in this current iteration of trap-reality?
It's pretty saturated. It seems pretty unfulfilling for most of the guys who do it, so maybe most people will gradually get fatigued with it and move on. New technologies will probably beget new kinds of sexual media. But there's this idea that if you're feeling insecure, posting a photo of yourself looking good will remedy that, and that creating lowest-common-denominator content is a surefire way of scoring the validation you crave. But it doesn't seem to make anyone who posts them less insecure, even with all these new quantified metrics of desirability. It just creates content for Instagram, which in some rarely-elaborated way brings the company more money and more power. Maybe that's the real trap, Megan. (Capitalism.)
Favorite thirst trap platform (IG/Twitter/TikTok?/Etc.)?
Twitter lets you post hole, but on Instagram you can create some quality of enigma if you just shut the fuck up. So, Instagram.
Mitchell has a degree in Gender Studies and has written on various topics of queer and gay life for online publications. In 2020, he went viral for his criticism of the Oscars, which he pointed out nominated less female directors than the gay porn awards. He was also featured in this brilliant SNL sketch with Emma Stone. You can follow him on IG @tymitchellxo and on Twitter at @tymitchellxo. OnlyFans/more links here.
Thank you for reading!
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-Meg
Social- @megspope@mpopetweets
Venmo- @mpope-venmo-26
Website- meganpopework.com