There is so little authentic joy and hope right now in the world, that when a tale of two strangers igniting a possible romantic spark comes along, how could anyone not be cheered? Glad you asked! The answer is: when it's creepy and invasive.
Earlier this week, Texas actress and writer Rosey Blair scored an unlikely hit with her social media story of what happened when "on a flight home, my boyfriend and I asked a woman to switch seats with me so we could sit together." What ensued between New York and Texas was, first and foremost, a viral jackpot. And perhaps an actual connection. With a flair for storytelling and suspense, Blair proceeded to unspool the most attention getting-narrative since a woman called "Zola" shared her R-rated Florida odyssey three years ago. (And ka-ching! Zola's odyssey is currently being turned into a feature film.)
In her selfie-rich story, Blair revealed how she'd "made a joke that maybe her new seat partner would be the love of her life" and then gave a play-by-play as the woman, now in her new seat, struck up what appeared to be a flirtation with the gentleman beside her. "I hope they get to fall in love!!!!!" Blair enthused. She then detailed their conversation, while surreptitiously photographing the pair too. And though she obscured their faces, she was happy to document the proximity of their elbows, at one point posting a video shot from behind them and lamenting, "She keeps tapping his arm and I am trying to catch it. Agggggh!" It currently has nearly five million views.
As the story continued, Blair reported the duo got up to go to the bathroom "AT THE SAME TIME." (wink wink) They looked at pics on each others phones. He told her that "He's too dedicated to fitness to pursue relationships." But magically, they left for baggage claim together. Blair and her boyfriend then figured out the duo's identities via Instagram. "They're gonna fall in love and get married and have babies!" Blair enthused. Or, I don't know, he's too dedicated to fitness to pursue relationships.
The romantic souls of social media, however, latched on to the tale like lampreys on a lake trout. Blair's account of her flight has been retweeted hundreds of thousands of times, and "Plane Bae," as the male star of the story quickly became known, has garnered international attention.
As the story began to take off, former soccer player Euan Holden proudly revealed himself with a simple tweet, "Hilarious... Knew you were taking pictures." Since then, Holden has continued to leverage his newfound spotlight with cryptic Instagram posts, saying, "Waking up to those text [sic] that make you smile" and "Can't beat that feeling when you get to see her again." The internet breaker though, is the shirtless shot captioned "Sat here thinking about how different the day would of been if I missed my flight."
USA Today was soon reporting that "Millions are hoping 'Plane Bae' found love with a stranger on a flight to Dallas." The "Today" show, meanwhile, aired a segment on the fateful flight and called it "a fairytale for two passengers." Lonely Planet similarly referred to it as "a story of love in the air." Blair said on Twitter this week that "I have spoken to #planebae @EuanHolden and have heard that our mystery woman is still unsure about the spotlight but feels positively about all of this." Holden likewise told "Today" that "The conversation kind of took off. She's a very, very lovely girl, very attractive, beautiful. Had a lot to say, very intelligent." And he claimed they've spoken and plan to meet up again "soon." Holden and Blair also appeared on "Good Morning America," where the anchors referred to the story as a "hookup."
The woman in question, however, has opted to remain more enigmatic. Known only as "Helen," she has not done any public appearances, because Holden says she's "a very private person." The "GMA" segment ended with the anchors slyly musing that "Some could speculate, maybe she's got something else going on," while the "Today" segment ended with the anchors crowing, "We gotta get Helen!" Oh that Helen. What's she hiding?
But Helen seems already gotten, thanks. Internet sleuths swiftly came up with a likely match for her identity, and the woman now appears to have deleted her social media presence. That probably felt like a good idea after strangers trolled her Instagram to tell her "LOL you blew that guy in the bathroom skank." While Blair and Holden are cheerfully wringing out whatever publicity they can out of this allegedly cute, romantic story, a real adult woman with a career who did nothing more than strike up a friendly interaction with a stranger on a flight is now being hounded as either a fairytale princess or a "skank." Imagine what the rest of her week has been like. Imagine what she's dealing with at her job right now. It does't seem very cute or romantic, does it?
I get the temptation to advance a rom-com narrative when one seems to be unfolding in front of your eyes. I have watched every rom-com ever made, and I too am charmed by the idea that a simple seat switcheroo could lead to a match. I similarly get that we all have different boundaries around our privacy, and fortunately for Blair, Holden has certainly been more than amenable to the attention. And I, a person who never, ever looks around the bar before loudly bellowing gossip, also accept that the price of moving around a public sphere in which anyone can document your activities is that anyone can document your activities. Your innocuous travel banter can become someone else's ticket to getting on the "Today" show, and there's not a whole lot anyone can do about it. But what is permitted and what is okay aren't the same.
"It was like being in a movie, and we were the two best friends," Blair enthused "Good Morning America" this week. "We couldn't have picked two better leads." Awwwwwww. Yeah, but it's not a movie. There's a real woman here who didn't ask to have strangers speculating if she's a cheat or a slut. Believe it or not, not everybody wants to go viral; not everyone cares to have their conversations shared with the entire world. And doing something just because you can, because you enjoy the attention, without a thought for how the other involuntary cast members of your little show might be impacted, is selfish and creepy. If a man had been stealth recording his airplane neighbors and heavily implying they'd hooked up, would we be having this conversation? Or would more people would view this as gross and intrusive? Because it is. And this story isn't a rom-com. It's a horror flick.
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