The Summer of Love Is Coming.
It’s been a tough start to the year… excitement for increased vaccine distribution is tempered by the stress of an ever-present pandemic. Valentine’s Day is coming up and while most couples would be getting ready for it, brands promoting it, and restaurants / hotels booking up, we see that the momentum for Valentine’s Day is already down significantly compared to last year.
Decoding the momentum for Valentine’s Day in its current state would be a snooze.
So… we are getting into our momentum mindset and looking to the future of relationships from the perspective of people that have been most affected by it. This Up & Down is a deep dive into love & relationships for those who are single, dating & looking for love (or just a good time).
As a special Valentine’s treat, we are turning this Up & Down over to our good friend & 2020–2021 Momentum Master of Relationships, Serena F*cking Kerrigan.
A little bit about SFK before she dives in…
We met Serena back in February 2020 on the day she announced leaving her role as producer at Refinery29 and founded SFK LFG. On that day, she went from digital content creator & conducting celebrity interviews to founder & CEO.
She is the creator, producer, and host of Let’s Fucking Date, the first reality show entirely on Instagram Live. She’s been featured by The Today Show, CNBC, Forbes, and the New York Post.
SFK is a Master of Momentum for love & relationships, helping thousands of young people navigate relationships throughout COVID.
And now in the midst of filming MTV’s Siesta Key from their bubble on Palm Island, we are lucky she had time to step away to share her perspective.
Serena F*cking Kerrigan on the momentum of relationships & where they are headed (spoiler alert, breaking up):
We’re not even halfway through February and I’m ready for warm weather so we can start dating for real again.
Winter’s stunted our dating lives. We young people lost valuable time of our 20’s and we won’t get them back. So we need to make up for lost fucking time. It’s going to be the Roaring Twenties. Fully. Once we get through to the other side of the pandemic… Sex, alcohol, and trips to Vegas.
The dating “pull” on profiles used to be “I have the antibodies.” Now with vaccines coming out, it’s going to be “I have the vaccine.” The pandemic is still rampant but there’s a light at the end of this tunnel. Spring is going to be next level in terms of dating. And then summer… it’s going to be the Summer of Love (… and fucking).
To be honest, if it were up to me this Valentine’s Day would be canceled. We can’t even go on dates at restaurants in NYC and quarantine couples are completely over date nights at home where they have to cook… again!
Mike tells me that last year at this time momentum for Valentine’s Day was at 69 (lol) and that this year it’s just 60.
But here’s the thing. Summer is going to be an all out sex fest.
ON THE UP: Momentum for Summer of Love
This spring everyone’s going to be kissing their “corona boyfriends and girlfriends” goodbye, breaking up with their dating apps, and getting hype for a summer of humping.
Here’s how it’s going down:
Relationships, our closets & make up cabinets are about to get a spring cleaning.
- Lockdown shined a light on what doesn’t work for us. Couples that rode out the quarantine together because they didn’t want to be alone are done. We’re done with staying stagnant and keeping to our pods. Expect mass breakups as people realize they want the summer of love.
- Sweats, slippers & skincare-only beauty routines are out with the spring cleaning too. We’re ready to break out the stilettos (ASAP & Amina Mauddi I’m looking at you), sexy summer dresses and some brand new fucking lipstick (Bobbi Brown x Veronica Beard… bless.) & perfume (Tom Ford… let’s fucking go).
TikTok is the new Cosmo.
- Leave it to TikTok (more specifically, Ask.Nelly & myself) to give us the dating tips we never knew we needed.
- There’s so much info on how to seduce someone or drive your date wild by just, like licking your lip or gently wiping his with your fingers. I wish I’d known this stuff when I was younger. It would have saved me so much time and effort.
- TikTokers serve up real relationship info in a way that’s relatable, not like some cringe-y Cosmo article with old ideas.
Once it is safe again… We are READY TO GO and travel & hospitality brands will take us there.
- Vaccine CHECK this spring (if all goes according to plan) and I’m talking summer trips to South Beach, Cabo, Vegas. What happens in Vegas will finally be worth talking about again (sorry mom & dad). The hospitality industry knows people are ready to get back out there and will cater to our wanderlust.
- Wynn Resorts CEO Matt Maddox is speaking my language: “I think it will be similar to the Roaring ’20s after the pandemic of 1918 and 1919. It was like, ‘Oh my God, we survived this. Let’s go have fun,’”. Yup. (…Maddox, hook me up. Airbnb, looking at you too).
Alcohol will be the official sponsor of summer.
- Once outdoor gatherings heat up, get set to pop bottles and take champagne showers. Booze brands will lean into the hedonism, fueling our liquid liberation.
- Veuve, we love a Yayoi Kusama Collab for the bar cart but don’t disappoint this summer. We’ve got lots of celebrating to make up for.
We’ll finally have shit to do together (besides eating out).
- The entertainment world will find cures for people’s boredom and bring us all back together, in real life. Concerts, festivals, movies, they’re all about to make a comeback. It’s about fucking time.
- Bieber, The Weeknd, Elton… thank you for already giving us something to plan for.
ON THE DOWN: Dating apps
I am so fucking over virtual dating. I love my show, but to be honest, the overload of choices is exhausting and I can’t tell the difference between Tom, Dick, and Harry.
Dating apps served their purpose throughout quarantine. They were literally the only way we could meet people. Now we’re all missing the spontaneity of real life, meet-cutes on the subway or at a bar or whatever.
Mike even tells me “momentum for dating apps is down significantly since this time last year.” Knew it.
Virtual dates can’t replace the intimacy of reaching out and touching someone in person. Sure, a quick facetime or phone call to vet before the first date makes sense. But Zoom dates are not the future. Just because technology lets us go on four dates back to back, doesn’t mean we actually like it.
We tried the future of dating and let me tell you… it’s just not as fun as wholesome (lol), good old fashioned flirting and fucking.
XX, SFK
