As a former Brooklyn nanny who spent my college summers caring for small children – or, to be honest, raiding their parents’ kitchen cabinets for organic snacks while the kids slept – I feel qualified to recognize different dad archetypes. There’s the kind Midwestern dad, the overly flirty still-married dad (bro, hitting on the 19-year-old hauling your kid to Gymboree makes you a scumbag), and then there’s the rarest breed: the sad, hot divorced dad. This archetype manages to combine handsomeness with a slightly downtrodden energy that makes you yearn to heal him. Ben Affleck, with the recent rumors surrounding the demise of his marriage to Jennifer Lopez, undeniably embodies the ‘sad’ part of that moniker. But am I crazy for finding him… somehow hotter now that he’s publicly ‘Going Through ItTM,’ sporting a faux hawk and a Red Hot Chili Peppers T-shirt? (I won’t even mention the motorcycle.) The faux hawk itself isn’t doing much for me, but the hair and the shirt have somehow conspired to create a vision of a guy whose pain is raw, evident, and – sorry to be a ghoul – strangely attractive. Before the faux hawk, Affleck was handsome, sure, but between the Seattle-goes-Silicon-Valley flannel and the close crop, his look was nothing special. However, Affleck with the faux hawk and band tee is clearly a man on a mission, and that mission is trouble. Am I deeply damaged for finding that a little bit enticing? I don’t want to trivialize the man’s pain, but if I can celebrate J Lo’s Hamptons girl summer (as, of course, I can; that’s all I want for anyone I love, and the star of *Maid in Manhattan* most definitely falls into that category), it feels borderline sexist not to acknowledge the deranged, slightly depressing sexiness of Affleck’s new look. King, let me know if you need someone to watch your kids while you go out for a cheer-up cup of Dunkin’ with the boys!
Ben Affleck’s Faux Hawk and the Allure of a Troubled Man
