Screenshot from First Kiss by Tatia Pllieva
Can we please talk about this for a minute? This week it felt like everywhere I looked online people were posting, tweeting and sharing a video of strangers kissing each other. The reactions to the video were almost universally positive. The word ‘beautiful’ was the word I saw thrown around the most. As I watched it I found myself more confused than excited. What is beautiful about two strangers making out with each other?
After the video blew up, we all found out that they were actors and models and the whole project was an ad for clothes. That means that one of the things these people do for their job is use body language to convincingly portray emotion.
I guess that might ruin it for some people since the scene wasn’t that authentic after all. It doesn’t make a huge difference to me. Frankly, I don’t understand why we were so surprised in the first place that people would enjoy making out with someone else, even a stranger. I have good news if you’re into that kind of thing, it’s happening regularly at a bar or club near you!
In reading through the comments sections I saw a lot of people commenting on the beauty, emotions and bond that the people were sharing. I’ll just go ahead and use this post to ask the questions I have after seeing all this and you can feel free to jump in and answer them for me.
1) Are we supposed to think that it’s beautiful because it shows how literally any two people can be asked to kiss and they’d enjoy it?
1a) If that’s true, doesn’t it follow that when all is said and done, enjoying kisses has nothing to do with who the other person is?
1b) And if 1a is true, then what is it about kissing that’s enjoyable?
1c) Does it matter if it’s a person at all or would we enjoy kissing anything that was soft and covered in saliva? (Ugh, try not to think too much about that.)
2) Are we supposed to think it’s beautiful because we believe there is an actual connection being formed between these two people through a kiss?
2a) Does that connection have anything to do with who they are as a person?
2b) What if after this video they got into a conversation and it turned out the other person spent their free time drowning puppies in their bathtub, would that change their desire to kiss them?
2c) Would they still look back on the connection they shared as beautiful or horrifying?
2d) What does it mean if you shared a connection with a puppy-drowner?
Ok, you all get it. The last point I’ll make is similar to one I made in another post, and that is this: would all of the people who thought this was a touching video also find it beautiful if their significant other met an attractive stranger with whom they shared a 3-minute make-out session and then never saw them again? Wouldn’t that be a painful betrayal, even though they only shared a connection in that 3-minute period? I feel like the ‘WHO’ of our kisses is important.
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