Crush Material

Crush Material

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Why Can't I Remember My Crush's Face?
I've always found it impossible to visualize my crush — and I'm not alone. The condition is weird and frustrating, and in several ways it captures the…
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Alexandra Molotkow
4
The Exquisite Meekness of Joe Pesci
Joe Pesci's long, winding life and career contains moments of incredible vulnerability, upending American mythologies around failure and success. And…
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Alexandra Molotkow
2
On Arthur Russell and "Virtuous Art"
In the throes of a crush, other people can appear very distorted, which tends to feel like a violation, even if nobody else even knows or cares. There…
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Alexandra Molotkow
1
Elliott Gould, Dream Lover
About a decade ago, I realized that the faceless, anonymous man in my fantasies about men was not faceless or anonymous at all: he was Elliott Gould.
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Alexandra Molotkow
1
Pete Davidson, Public Muse
In the years since his romance with Ariana Grande — a narrative as captivating for its hopelessness as anything else — Pete Davidson has expanded from…
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Alexandra Molotkow
For the Love of Mindless Chatter
Let's argue about aesthetics
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Alexandra Molotkow
Songs of Summer
Determining the song of summer is less an investigation than a ritual. Just as we need icons for nostalgia, we need ones for longing
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Alexandra Molotkow
2
Introducing: Crush Material
Introducing Crush Material, a series about crushes and how best to love people we don't really know.
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Alexandra Molotkow
On Being Charmed
Beauty is reactive — like celebrity, it alters human behavior
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Alexandra Molotkow
2
An Erotics of Hypochondria
Hypochondria and obsessive crushing are similar conditions: both are all-consuming, interpretive fevers, and both bear the stigma of being a lot about…
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Alexandra Molotkow
2
The Banal Intrigue of the "Unconventional Crush"
Whenever an "offbeat" hunk is named as such, people rush to dissect his appeal, though it's usually pretty obvious from the start. Nathan Fielder, who…
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Alexandra Molotkow
On the Noises of Neighbors
The relationships we form with neighbors we hear but can't see are crushlike. They also serve as a constant reminder that, even in isolation, one exists…
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Alexandra Molotkow
© 2025 Alexandra Molotkow
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