Off Campus men have women utterly obsessed, and it’s not because they’re hot
Warning: This article contains discussion of sexual assault which some readers may find distressing
Warning: This article contains spoilers for Off Campus
Off Campus is the show seemingly everyone is obsessed with right now.
Whether you raced through all eight episodes in one sitting or can't escape the conveyor belt of horny fan edit videos cropping up on your FYP, practically forcing you to watch it, it's clear the Amazon Prime series is having a bit of a moment right now.
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Based on Elle Kennedy's bestselling book series, the first season of Off Campus follows the unlikely romance between hockey-hating music major Hannah 'Wellsy' Wells, played by Ella Bright, and Briar University's womanising star centre Garrett Graham, played by Belmont Cameli, as they strike a deal to help each other out.
Loosely following every fan-fic writer's beloved 'enemies to lovers' trope, we see the pair scheme and plot so they can succeed in their respective goals.
Garrett is keen to pass a class he's failing, so he enlists the help of brainy Hannah to tutor him up to speed. Hannah obliges, but only after Garrett proposes a plan for the pair to start 'fake dating' each other so they can get the attention of Hannah's long-time crush, Justin, played by Josh Heuston.
"But it sounds like just another corny, cheesy, unrealistic, American teen drama," you may say. "Why has it developed such an unexpected chokehold on young female audiences?"
Well, one thing I can tell you for starters is that it's not simply down to the cast being extremely attractive.
Yes, everyone's hot and cool and dresses well, but what got me going most about Off Campus was actually nothing to do with washboard abs, tousled-hair hockey players and tatted-up Aussie musicians.
It was because it felt surprisingly radical, despite its hyper-glossy packaging.
Off Campus perfectly hits every trope you'd expect in an old-school rom-com: themes of forced proximity, 'friends-to-lovers', 'opposites attract', and a deliciously unrealistic fake dating scheme which, shocker, ends up being extremely successful.
Episode by episode, we see Hannah and Garrett fall further into their feelings for one another before they eventually do away with their deal and, instead, decide to be together - for reals.
However, the intimacy they find isn't based on passionate sex or some all-consuming yet surface-level crushing; it's based on trust.
Hannah gets to a point where she feels she can trust Garrett enough to share with him that she is a survivor of sexual assault.
She articulates very clearly that she doesn't want 'pity' or 'therapy' from him, but that the trauma has impacted her sex life as she hasn't been able to orgasm with a man since.
She tells him this before asking him to 'give her an orgasm' to help her 'get ready' for eventually having sex with Justin.
Instead of having sex, after Garrett clearly notices Hannah isn't 100% comfortable, he suggests they sit across one another in his bedroom as they mutually masturbate until they both reach climax together as a way to help Hannah comfortably ease back into intimacy with others.
It's these moments of tender authenticity where all notions of rom-com cliché are dropped, making it abundantly clear why we're all so obsessed with the show.
We see the 'hot jocks' actively prioritising female pleasure, seen when Hannah accidentally walked in on Garrett, before they were an item, giving oral sex to a girl he had just met.
Even when Garrett asks one of his hockey pals 'how to make it good' for a woman in the sack, the friend explains that the fool-proof way of doing so isn't by trying out some specific technique or following some questionable advice from a chronic woman-hating 'dating coach', but by making the woman feel safe and comfortable.
Despite everyone having lots of sex with lots of different people, we never see any misogynistic locker room talk, as the male characters completely do away with all 'jock' stereotypes, unlike what went down in the real-life Team USA Olympic hockey sexism scandal.
Even between the female characters, there's zero slut-shaming despite the endless sex/love triangles and the fact that many of them are interested in the same guy, which is always refreshing.
Female self-pleasure, sexual fantasy, and just generally daring to feel desire and act on it are treated as being completely normal (and hot!) instead of something that we women need to 'hold back' or 'harness' because of some bullsh*t Victorian sexual double-standard.
Now, I'm aware of the issues that come with gushing over men literally doing the bare minimum of respecting boundaries, making you feel comfortable and prioristing your pleasure in sexual relationships, but in a modern dating climate that is growingly saturated with incels, the manosphere and headlines pertaining to the seemingly endless murder, abuse and assault of women, this series quite boldly centres female sexuality in a way that still feels rare onscreen - at least to me.
It's safe, exciting and treated with care and respect rather than fear or shame, and that's why this series matters so much culturally right now.
I hope the next generation watching this grows up to normalise conversations around consent, mutual pleasure, masturbation, sexual literacy, mental health, trauma, and, of course, closing the orgasm gap once and for all.
I'll be honest, I started Off Campus for some blissful brain-rot and vanilla easy-watching, but what I got was an epiphany that I never saw any of these conversations play out in the mainstream media I consumed as a teenager.
And that's why I am, like so many other women, so obsessed with the show. As sad as it may sound, it's pretty revolutionary for us.
If you have been affected by any of the issues in this article and wish to speak to someone in confidence, contact The Survivors Trust for free on 08088 010 818, available 10am-12.30pm, 1.30pm-3pm and 6pm-8pm Monday to Thursday, 10am-12.30pm and 1.30pm-3pm on Fridays, 10am-12.30pm on Saturdays and 6pm-8pm on Sundays.
Topics: TV And Film, Amazon Prime, Life, Sex and Relationships, Tyla Exclusive
Rhiannon Ingle