“Hot vax summer.” “The whoring 20s.” “The slutty summer of casual sex.” These are just a few nicknames the forthcoming summer has recently picked up, referring to a season widely predicted to be dominated by rampant post-COVID displays of horniness as supposedly sex-starved singles return to partying and hooking up in the post-vaccine era.
While eager predictions of a post-COVID “fuckfest” have been swirling since the beginning of the pandemic, the increasingly ubiquitous chatter of this summer’s impending horniness is starting to feel a bit overblown and perhaps even a touch insincere. Talk of “hot vax summer” on social media and in various outlets is starting to sound like one of those fake PR holidays — National Hot Dog Day, National Sibling Day, National Sex Day, etc. Sure you might get a discounted hot dog somewhere or see a bunch of people posting photos of their siblings on Instagram, but it’s probably not as big of a deal as whoever wants you to think it’s a big deal is making it out to be.
Moreover, there’s a certain pageantry to the whole post-pandemic “grand re-entrance to society” narrative, to which “hot vax summer” seems to be pretty central. Sorry, but we’re not Rip Van Winkle re-emerging into an entirely changed world after a century-long slumber. The vast majority of people have still been engaging with society to some extent over the past year, including dating and having sex. While the idea of a sex-crazed, post-COVID bacchanalia may sound glamorous and alluring, the simple fact is that horny people have been fucking pretty much this whole time anyway, and we damn well know it.
Seemingly aware of this, Hinge CEO Justin McLeod has recently proposed an alternative theory for summer 2021. According to the dating app exec, more people might actually be looking to settle down with a long-term partner in the coming months than rumors of hot vax summer’s impending promiscuity may suggest.
“We’ve found at least a third of our users are saying that they have more urgency around wanting to settle down and find and a partner, and more than half of our users are actively seeking that long-term relationship,” McLeod told Business Insider. “I do think for a lot of people who maybe have been dating for a while and then went through the pandemic and went through it alone, they’re feeling the need for, I think, a partner and companionship more than ever.”
McLeod’s theory reframes summer 2021 as kind of an anti-hot vax summer. Rather than a Summer of Love redux for the post-pandemic era, McLeod predicts a summer of monogamy, a kind of vernal cuffing season, if you will.
Of course, this prediction is on brand for the CEO of Hinge, “the dating app designed to be deleted,” which has long billed itself as an app designed for more relationship-minded daters. A summer of monogamy would be pretty convenient for a dating app selling the promise of long-term love.
Still, while I’m not usually one to champion monogamy, McLeod’s prediction has entered the summer 2021 discourse as a refreshing departure from the relentless pageantry of “hot vax summer,” though it’s probably no more accurate. The more likely, if dull, reality is that horny people will probably continue being horny this summer, serial monogamists will go on serially monogamy-ing, and the sun will continue to shine upon the horny and the unhorny alike.
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