Harry Styles' music video for 'Watermelon Sugar' taps into our need for touch during quarantine
- Harry Styles released a music video for his song "Watermelon Sugar" on May 18.
- The new video is "dedicated to touching" and showcases the singer and a large group of young people salaciously caressing each other on the beach while enjoying juicy watermelon.
- While Styles tweeted a disclaimer to fans to "not try this at home" and instead "practice social distancing," the imagery taps into our collective desire for physical touch during the pandemic.
- Without positive physical touch, people can become touch-starved, which increases stress, anxiety, and depression.
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Harry Styles' new music video for "Watermelon Sugar" is our collective end-of-quarantine dream come to life.
Released May 18, the video showcases the 26-year-old and a large group of swimsuit-clad young people frolicking on a picturesque beach, caressing one other, sharing laughs, and enjoying juicy watermelon.
While Styles shared the video with a disclaimer to "not try this at home" and instead "practice social distancing" on his Twitter, "Watermelon Sugar's" imagery taps into our collective desire for physical touch during the pandemic.
While plenty of people are sticking to video sex, Zoom dates, and casual in-person strolls from six-feet apart, stories of people falling in love, dating, and sneaking around to be intimate are popping up all over the internet.
According to a recent survey by IllicitEncounters.com, the UK's largest dating website for married people, many people are breaking quarantine to have sex.
Our desire for touch begins the moment we're born
According to the Texas Medical Center (TMC), our physical need for touch starts when we enter the world at birth.
This is because touch helps regulate vital functions like digestion and sleep. It can also improve our immunity.
Dr. Asim Shah, professor and executive vice chair of the Menninger Department of Psychiatry at Baylor College of Medicine, told TMC that if a baby is born premature and needs to go to the neonatal intensive care unit, the birth-giver is oftentimes still asked to nurse the child and hold the baby in order to expose it to physical touch.
"We know that this bonding, this human-to-human touch, is important for the growth of that child," Shah told TMC.
A 2014 study from researchers at Carnegie Mellon University found that touch and hugging can even help us fight off infections more effectively.
Positive human touch is a necessary part of human interaction
Our need for physical touch goes well beyond sex. It's a necessary part of human social interaction.
According to TMC, a lack of positive physical touch can lead to "touch starvation" which can cause increased levels of stress, anxiety, and depression, among other negative health consequences.
"When someone is [touch] starved, it's like someone who is starved for food," Shah told TMC. "They want to eat, but they can't. Their psyche and their body want to touch someone, but they can't do it because of the fear associated with, in this case, the pandemic."
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