Skinny white guys are having a moment and their evolution has been a fascinating one to observe. What was once considered an aesthetic reserved for band geeks or goth loners has now become an aspirational archetype.
Big Dick Energy (BDE for short) isn’t a new phenomenon, it just never had a catchy name before Pete Davidson came along. There are several definitions of BDE, but ultimately it’s an energy, a spirit, a glowing aura one possesses that radiates a silent, yet powerful, confidence and tells the world you are packing. Pete didn’t invent BDE swag but he has certainly secured his legacy in pop culture history as its current leader, even inspiring a sex toy company to design a line of tattooed dildos after him.
Davidson has been likened to former playboy Warren Beatty, as the two have dated some of the most successful and beautiful women in Hollywood. Beatty famously began dating Madonna in the early '90s when they connected while filming the movie Dick Tracy. Pete, too, found love on set with a pop star queen.
Beatty and Davidson have both been praised for their bedroom skills and BDs by the women in their lives. The fact that the praises have sometimes come after the breakup, is a vital piece of how BDEs are legitimized.
In a 2015 interview with Howard Stern, Madonna said that Beatty “was an incredible lover.” Grande piqued our interest in Pete’s anatomy both during and after her relationship with Davidson. In June 2018 a (now deleted) tweet by Ariana alluded to the size of Pete’s member. Then after their breakup, Ariana released the video for “Thank U, Next” and in a scene where she's thumbing through her Mean Girls style Burn Book of exes, Pete’s page includes the caption “HUUUUUGE” on it.
Davidson, in typical BDE fashion, responded in a self-deprecating manner. During a standup set in January after their breakup, Pete joked that his ex-fiance was a “sick genius” and asked, “Why would she tell everyone that I have a huge penis? So that every girl who sees my dick for the rest of my life is disappointed.”
Before Davidson, admitting you were attracted to the “unconventionally” attractive guy was the equivalent of a hot take. Admirers of quirky favorites often stayed silent; the idea of a lanky love interest used to be so outrageous, entire movies made it the plot.
Patrick Dempsey today is the definition of a classic heartthrob, but that wasn’t always the case. Before Grey’s Anatomy gave us Dr. Derek “McDreamy” Shepherd, Dempsey was regularly cast as the goofy, waif-like, nice guy. Dempsey once played a pizza delivery boy who becomes an accidental and unlikely gigolo in the movie Loverboy. (Actually, if they ever remade the film, Davidson would be perfect for the role). But it was Dempsey’s other '80s film, Can’t Buy Me Love, about self-described “social leper” Ronald Miller, that's the perfect example of how we viewed predecessors to Pete.
In the movie, Ronald blackmails the most popular girl at school, Cindy Mancini, into pretending to be his girlfriend so he can become popular. He changes his look, and eventually his personality and of course it’s only then that Cindy realizes she likes the old Ronald, and he can go back to being his regular, nerdy self and still win the girl.
We used to need a disclaimer and backstory on how we became attracted to guys like Ronald Miller. Pete changed that.
One thing from Can’t Buy Me Love that still holds true is the legitimacy a man receives when women the world views as highly desirable want to be with him. Yes, Tommy Lee was already a successful drummer in Mötley Crüe when he met Baywatch star and Playboy centerfold Pamela Anderson, but Anderson's celebrity as one of the hottest women in the world at that time undoubtedly anointed Lee as an iconic sex symbol.
Tommy's BDE went from mere idea to concrete fact when a videotape from his and Pam’s honeymoon was stolen and released, confirming his sizable asset. This kicked off a '90s version of the BDE era, with Billy Bob Thornton pulling Angelina Jolie and Quentin Tarantino suddenly becoming one of the hottest directors in Hollywood, rumored to have dated Ali Larter, Mira Sorvino, and Sofia Coppola.
Today, Travis Barker and Machine Gun Kelly (who actually played Tommy Lee in the Mötley Crüe comedy biopic The Dirt) have now joined Pete Davidson in this second arrival of the Golden Age of skinny white guys with BDE. Like the bevy of impossibly attractive women that Davidson has dated, Travis and MGK’s PDA packed romances with Kourtney Kardashian and Megan Fox, respectively, have earned them rankings high in the BDE army.
This badge of honor is not only limited to the heavily tattooed, rocker brand of men. Tom Hiddleston, Joseph Gordon-Levitt, and even Timothée Chalamet also give off a BDE vibe that has people swooning. This era of BDE, unlike the ones before it, now has the power of social media and the public’s infatuation with knowing and dissecting every detail of celebrity life to fuel its run. Which means, we're probably in for the long haul.
But these skinny white dudes with BDE should look at history for a lesson about the doctrine of eternal recurrence. For every Thornton, there's a Brad Pitt biding his time.
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