Thirsting Over Hot Actors & Actresses

Admiring beauty on the Silver Screen.

Photo by Simone Pellegrini on Unsplash

One thing that really bothered me about my ex-girlfriend was how infatuated she was with certain actors.

He’s so hot!

Look at his abs!

Wow…what a hotty!

Not only did it put me in an awkward position to respond, I mean, what do I say, “Yeah, those are some nice abs…someone turn up the AC…talk about smoke-show!” When it came to a response, my options were limited. Not only that, but it wasn’t a confidence-boost when I realized I looked nothing like the specimen on screen.

What added to the awkwardness was the fact that I actually had to ask her to be a little more sensitive with those comments. I said something like:

Hey, sometimes I feel like you go a bit too far when you talk about certain actors. Would you mind being a little more sensitive with that?

What she must have heard was something like this:

Would you please go into more detail about how hot actors are? Be sure to highlight specific physical features and don’t take your eyes off of them when you do it. That would be a great help.

It was awkward because I was vulnerable enough to share something that made me uncomfortable and it was met with a renewed zeal to goad me in these situations (Did I mention that she’s my ex-girlfriend?).

The Beauty of God’s Creation

Let’s be honest, God has made some ridiculously good-looking people. What’s more, many of them end up on the screen because people like to look at them. To go farther, people will pay money to look at them. To go even farther, people will pay money to have a chance to potentially see them with a little less clothing than what’s appropriate in public.

If you were to read through the pages of the Bible, you will be introduced to beautiful people like David, Absalom, Rachel & Abigail. In reference to Rachel, in one translation the Bible literally says, “…Rachel had a beautiful shape and was lovely to look at.” (Gen. 29:17) Were it not in the Bible, I would say it was inappropriate. For Absalom, we are told, “Now in all Israel there was no one so much to be praised for his handsome appearance as Absalom. From the sole of his foot to the crown of his head there was no blemish in him.” (2 Samuel 14:25) Try as hard as you can, but you wouldn’t be able to find one imperfection in this guy’s appearance (I bet they called him ‘Abs’ for short).

My point is, even the Bible seems to praise the outer beauty for those who are easy-on-the-eyes. However, not only does the Bible tell us that [outer] beauty is fleeting, it also has another important section of Scripture for us to consider.

The Trap of Thirsting

Some of you may be familiar with the term ‘thirst-trap.’ Here’s an AI-generated definition from Google:

A "thirst trap" is a social media post, often a photo or video, designed to elicit sexual attention or appreciation of one's attractiveness, essentially "trapping" viewers into acknowledging their attraction.

In the sermon on the mount, Jesus says the following:

²⁷ “You have heard that it was said, ‘You shall not commit adultery.’ ²⁸ But I say to you that everyone who looks at a woman with lustful intent has already committed adultery with her in his heart. ²⁹ If your right eye causes you to sin, tear it out and throw it away. For it is better that you lose one of your members than that your whole body be thrown into hell. ³⁰ And if your right hand causes you to sin, cut it off and throw it away. For it is better that you lose one of your members than that your whole body go into hell.

Jesus seems to affirm the reality that there is a trap for those who find themselves “thirsting” over someone. Not only does Jesus warn us of the sin of lust and how it isn’t something to trifle with, he also condemns each of us in this passage.

There were those present who self-righteously thought they had obeyed the law and, therefore, had no need of Jesus. However, Jesus was telling everyone they were/are guilty of this sexual sin in some capacity. We can only be saved by the purity of his heart, because ours is filthy.

I’ve often cautioned my students whenever they go on-and-on about how hot someone is. I’ve heard them discussing pictures they see on social media, and the tenor of the conversation seems to be bumping up against the warning Christ gives us in the verses above.

Maybe I’m wrong, but Jesus’s words are pretty serious. His words condemn all of us and, if that’s true, then there are implications we don’t like to consider. It may make us uncomfortable, but those verses weren’t recorded to comfort us. Jesus said them to sober us.

Husbands, plenty of your wives are lusting after other men in the movies they watch and the social media platforms they scroll - even the novels they read. Wives, plenty of your husbands are doing the same, but they’re also doing it in the workplace and the restaurants they frequent. Think I’m wrong? Ask them about it.

How Do We Properly Admire Beauty?

When I was serving in youth ministry, I remember taking a group of older students to go see one of the Transformer movies. If I’m not mistaken, there was an actress in one of the films who was a Victoria Secret model. When we’re first introduced to her character in the movie, we see her walking in her panties with the camera focused on her backside.

I remember looking away; trying to get the attention of all the guys in order to distract them. I’m sure I embarrassed them in public, but I was embarrassed that I agreed to take them to this dumb movie.

Two points to highlight from this scene:

The movie introduced her by showing us her “parts” before we even saw her face or before she had any dialogue.

She wasn’t nude, but the scene was designed to make us lust.

To use an example of a man, take the scene from one of the Thor movies, where Thor is stripped of his clothes. It’s meant to be a humorous scene, but its difficult to imagine that being viewed without any lust whatsoever. I don’t know, I’m a male so I don’t know what females think when they see a muscular naked man.

What I do know is that Jesus gave one of his most graphically, violent lessons when he spoke on the topic of lust - plucking out eyes and chopping off hands. I believe he was being violent in order to shock his listeners into taking this seriously, which is some of what I’ve also tried to do in this post.

So much of the content we stream has been poisoned with lustful intent, and we’ve become so numb to it we don’t even recognize it. It’s hard not to despair when you think about the thousands of images young minds are scrolling past each and every day. They don’t have to be nude pics to feed the lusts of their hearts.

While I do believe that we can admire beautiful people, I’m also sobered by the words of Jesus. But at what point does our appreciation of beauty become lust? I don’t know. You tell me.