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The Intimacy Issue: Jack Gilinsky

This sort of vulnerability with the self is exactly what inspired our May digital cover—the Intimacy issue. In thinking about what being intimate—both with others and with yourself—means during such strange times, we of course wanted to explore dildos, orgasms, and Chaturbate culture. It is office, after all. 

 

But we also wanted to move beyond that. What do our current conditions mean in terms of being intimate in all facets of the word—being intimate with your thoughts? With abstraction? With objects or ideas? Do you cringe at your overgrown hair when looking in the mirror and the Snapchat camera? How has isolation played a part in your want or need to be intimate? Have you developed any new intimate relationships while in quarantine? 

 

We asked 13 subjects to explore these ideas in a series of remotely-shot portraits and videos. We also asked each subject to write a diary entry with this vulnerability in mind.

 

Meet Jack Gilinsky.

 

Jack Gilinsky is a small town boy who was made to be a star. In 2014, Gilinsky and his childhood best friend Jack Johnson blew up as a comedy duo on the 6-second video app Vine, ultimately amassing over 5 million followers by early 2015. It was the perfect pedestal for elongated success—after their success on the app, they maintained a successful music career as the duo Jack & Jack. The two were the perfect package—Gilinsky being physically sculpted like a Greek God yet maintaining a charming boy-next-door quality, while Johnson was the bombastic, energetic other half. They went on worldwide tours and played to thousands of adoring adolescent fangirls. They moved out of Omaha, Nebraska and went straight to LA. Gilinsky's success as a clean-cut sex icon and social media influencer was inevitable.

Now, Jack & Jack are on a hiatus and Gilinsky has gone solo, having just released his debut single, "My Love" featuring Don Toliver. Jack's face can sometimes be too handsome to look at, almost too perfect—reaching a level of hotness that is just unattainable unless you have access to some sort of boy band incubator machine that's on overdrive. It can be easy to turn a blind eye to just how sweet and down-to-earth he is. That's why we wanted him to be a part of our Intimacy issue.

 

People have said that the Coronavirus pandemic is the great equalizer. For Jack, this has meant moving back to Omaha and getting back to his small town roots. As he tells us, this includes finding at-home workouts on Instagram just like everyone else. Making protein shakes in the morning. Scrolling through his phone when he's not doing radio interviews on Instagram Live to promote his new single. We wanted Jack to get more vulnerable than ever before, to give us a glimpse into his stripped down routine, and to push the limits of what he'd typically be comfortable doing. The result is a sexy, FaceTime-framed look at what goes into being a hot boy influencer-turned-pop star. 

Watch this video, as well as all the other Intimacy videos, on .show, the new interactive video camera and shoppable video marketplace. 

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