The Daily Beast: Comey Is The Sex-Symbol We Need Right Now

Um. OK….

by Hannah Mayer

In case you missed it, the following article serves as proof that we are living in very, very strange times.

According to an article in The Daily Beast former FBI Director James Comey, “Is The Sex Symbol America Needs Right Now.”

When James Comey appeared before the Senate Intelligence Committee to talk about President Trump, it wasn’t only his words being keenly observed, but also his seductive integrity.

Less than an hour into former FBI director James Comey’s testimony before the Senate Intelligence Committee on Thursday, there was a collective stirring-of-loins across America: Comey was…hot?

On social media, many Americans confessed to unexpected feelings of lust as they watched Comey declare in his opening remarks that the administration’s defamatory statements about the FBI were “lies”; that the organization is “honest” and “independent” of partisanship, and that it was the “honor of my life to be part of the FBI family.”

The author then goes for broke in a low-brow, millennial sort of way as she invokes profanity to describe her palpable desire for Comey:

And as he went on to answer questions from committee members–confidently and candidly, with intermittent flashes of humor–shy murmurings about his unlikely sex appeal on Twitter evolved into brazen chatter.  By the end of his public testimony, James Comey was not just hot; he was eminently f*ckable.

There was also something raw and appealing about his ability to be vulnerable without losing his composure.

“Maybe if I were stronger, I would have,” Comey replied when Senator Dianne Feinstein pressed him as to why someone as “big” and “strong” as him (he is 6’8”, after all) didn’t stand up to President Trump when he asked that he drop the Russia investigation.

Yes, the author “went there.” She also talked about Comey’s “sense of humor” and how it “was hard not to be charmed by his admission that he wished he hadn’t broken a date with his wife to have a dinner date with Trump.”

And so the 56-year-old, fired FBI director became a very unlikely sex symbol. Sure, he has a somewhat peaked complexion and under-eye bags that look like half-inflated tubular balloons. But he’s handsome, and as with all sex symbols–both the unlikely ones and the obvious ones–he embodies certain qualities in society that we all lust after: integrity, emotional complexity, and quiet but certain confidence.

That combined with his imposing physical stature gives him the same alluring masculinity as sex symbols like Mr. Darcy in Pride and Prejudice (particularly Colin Firth as Mr. Darcy in the BBC’s Pride and Prejudice).

It’s fine for political media to, at times, fuse with the popular culture and offer more light-hearted societal observations on people and events du jour, especially if not done gratuitously. This article seemed like just that: a gratuitous attempt to make a substantial and newsworthy item relevant to lower common denominators.