Unlocking the Fierce Obsession: Why That Camp Counselor Still Fuels Our Fire Years Later
When I rewatched Wet Hot American Summer last week, I realized that the summer camp counselor is the single most formative sexual relationship of a kid’s life. Freudians will say it’s the parents, and creepy virginity fetishists will say it’s the husbands. But no figure embodies that perfect erotic mix of authority, untouchability and awe-inspiring physical power better than the humble camp counselor.
In the 2001 spoof of 1980s summer camp comedies, the traits one expects from a camp counselor are intensified for the sake of the comedy. Our counselors met by “the lake” (always “the lake,” as if any camp’s lake was the only one in the world) to drink beer; Wet Hot American Summer’s counselors jaunted into town to do heroin and rob old ladies together. Our counselors taught us a few outdoor skills while the movie’s counselors saved their campers from apocalyptic peril in the form of a meteor. Even that title is extra-titillating. I already knew with a child’s confidence that my counselors were the sexiest people in the world. When Wet Hot American Summer came out, its title so horny that my parents wouldn’t say it out loud, I realized I wasn’t the only one who knew.
Post Comment