Crushed

[ladysprite]

So I was talking with a friend a little while ago, and the conversation came around, through a particularly indirect but interesting path, to first crushes, and celebrity crushes. It was amusing and entertaining at the time, but it left me thinking - in particular, thinking about the fact that I couldn't remember my first celebrity crush.

Oh, there are plenty of movie stars and public figures that I've been sweet on over time, but I honestly can't remember being in junior high or early high school and swooning over any particular star.

Partly this is because I didn't start crushing and falling in love until.... disturbingly, well after I started dating. I had my first boyfriend when I was 14, but that was mostly because I thought he was an okay guy, and when he asked me on a date I figured that saying yes was the right thing to do. We were teenagers, we were supposed to go on dates and make out and stuff, right? And after that, most of the guys I dated in high school I just went out with because I was afraid if I didn't they wouldn't be my friends anymore. It wasn't until just before college that I started actually being romantically interested in the people I got involved with.

More than that, though, I realized that I *had* had crushes, at least once I started actually noticing the opposite sex as anything other than a source of car, pizza, movie tickets, and a weekly AD&D game that all might go away if I didn't let them kiss me. They were just all on fictional characters. Not movie stars or musicians or anything like that; not even TV characters - most of my daydreaming was directed at figures from my favorite novels (though I have to admit that, while he wasn't a book character, Nightcrawler *did* feature pretty high on the list). Even today, I'm more likely to swoon over a particular character than the actor playing them.

I have no idea whether this Means Anything, about my weirdness versus mainstream-ness, or my media focus being more on the written word versus visual entertainment, or, well, anything. But it's kind of amusing and interesting to think about on a quiet day at work, if nothing else. And it does make me curious about my friends.

So, fess up - first crush? Classmate, celebrity, fictional figure, other?

Comments

[etherial.livejournal.com]

Elijah Wood. We were twelve.

[gyzki.livejournal.com]

8th grade English teacher. Mrs. C was hot.
(Hey, I was a 13-year-old male. Don't judge me.)

[dagibbs.livejournal.com]

I've never crushed on celebrity figures. And, I've never understood doing so.

That you would have crushed (and still do) on characters in books... that entirely doesn't surprise me.

I have no idea who I first crushed on, but it would have been someone I knew. Might have been another fan, might have been a class mate, might have been someone in the neighbourhood. It was someone real. But, it was too long ago to recall which was first.

[jducoeur]

First crush was a fellow camper named Ariel -- I was either 12 or 13. I didn't know her all that well, and in retrospect I suspect that I would consider her *so* not my type today. But she smelled remarkable: when I first heard of the concept of pheromones, I understood it immediately and viscerally.

First fictional crush was probably Supergirl, some years later. (And my original favorite comic book character was the Flash. Crisis on Infinite Earths was hard on me.)

[bardling.livejournal.com]

A voice. His name was Sean, he was a pretty good looking musician, but that was utterly irrelevant. My first crush was a gorgeous voice.

[starcat-jewel.livejournal.com]

My memories aren't very clear that far back, but I'm guessing that my first crush was probably some character on a kiddie TV show before I was even school-age. The first one I actively remember was one of my kindergarten classmates, a boy named Mark. I always had at least one active crush on a classmate all the way thru college, and generally one on a TV character as well. Characters out of stories, comics, and other literature... well, that went without saying, and I used to do a LOT of self-insertion fantasy about my favorite books, not all of which was romantic but some was.

Hell, I still have crushes even now. I think I'm just wired that way.

[joannahurley.livejournal.com]

Possibly a character from a novel, but I can't remember who. I pretty heavily focused on female leads in fiction, so I can't think of any. I did badly, and somewhat pathetically, chase a guy in 7th or 8th grade. Notes in the locker and everything. Heh - I just realized he looked a lot like my husband probably looked like. Well, my tastes have been pretty steady over the years, at least! :)

[denimskater.livejournal.com]

First nonsexual crush was a classmate who had an adorable lisp and cute nose. First sexual crush was on an entirely imaginary person from a serial dream I had, who was not particularly like anyone I'd ever seen or met, as far as I can remember.

No real celebrity crushes, they don't make sense to me, though I did at one point have a sort of fantasy crush on the evil supergirl from Superman II. (I don't find the actress at all attractive, however.) So I guess I totally get having a crush on the character but not the actor/actress.

[metaphysick.livejournal.com]

As you already know: Cyndi Lauper. I believe I was six years old or so.

I also never experienced any such thing as the "girls are yucky" phase and had one of those ridiculous "kindergarten girlfriends," who was promptly "dumped" for a prettier girl in first grade.

[pujaemuss.livejournal.com]

Did you ever play the Civilisation II computer game? Back in the days when full motion video was hot stuff in computers, this game gave you the option of having five advisors to your kingdom, if you possessed the 16Mb of RAM that was enough to watch the videos.

The foreign advisor was hot. Exceptionally hot. Not just for her looks, but more for the sultry fashion in which she delivered her lines.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FlTIk80uBPg From 4.47 onwards and tell me you don't agree.

PJW

[divalion.livejournal.com]

I was about three or four, and it was a three-way tie (shades of future poly):

1) My dad
2) The little boy who was my best friend, but who freaked and ran away when I informed him that we were going to get married one day
3) Mighty Mouse

[hungrytiger]

I would have been about 12 or 13 when I developed my first crushes (on both a classmate and a fictional figure) at roughly the same time. The classmate was a cute cheerleader my age named Isis (seriously) and, as you'd expect, she barely knew I existed. The fictional crush, like so many other geek boys my age, was on Kitty Pryde (cute, Jewish superhero who was my age, what's not to love).

The first celebrity crush is trickier. I had crushes about that time on Lynda Carter, Yvonne Craig, and Erin Gray, but those were really on the fictional characters that those beautiful women played. The first celebrity I can recall having a crush on that wasn't mixed in with a fictional character was probably Susanna Hoffs (who's still damn hot). But The Bangles didn't hit the scene until after the other ones I've mentioned, so it wouldn't count as a "first crush."

[jducoeur]

The fictional crush, like so many other geek boys my age, was on Kitty Pryde (cute, Jewish superhero who was my age, what's not to love).

Hmm -- age difference in action. I'm *just* enough older than you that I didn't really crush on Kitty at the time: she was a bit too young. (Although she is and always has been my absolute favorite X-Man.) But I suspect that I'd have had the same reaction if I'd been the same age.

Oh -- and Lynda Carter reminds me: while I didn't really crush on Wonder Woman, I think I imprinted for life on Emma Peel's catsuit...

[vettecat.livejournal.com]

Lot of overlap here. I also wasn't really interested in boys until college, but used to daydream about literary characters. Can't remember one in specific, though.

[flaviarassen.livejournal.com]

Speed Racer, Robert Conrad (Wild Wild West) & the 6 foot son of our cantor - in that order. That covers me until I was 12.

I consider that one kid in kindergarten who wanted me to kiss him not so much a crush of mine, but my first opportunistic creep: he was collecting girls. I think I took it out on another kid - he was really cute, & all the girls wanted to kiss him. I ended up "winning", but mostly because I wanted to prove I could. I think I still owe him an apology - if I could find him.

[rosinavs.livejournal.com]

My first crush was when I was 13 and was on a cartoon character - Jayce from Jayce and the Wheeled Warriors. You know, I can barely remember what that show was about? I only crushed on one guy my own age in high school, and that was not very serious a crush because he was always dating one or another of my friends. He was just the only male geek I knew at the time.

[aries-walker.livejournal.com]

Olivia Newton-John, circa Xanadu.

[kitsunesan.livejournal.com]

I've always been in love with Schmendrick the Magician. <_< For the most part, I'm also way more likely to swoon over fictional characters.

[herooftheage.livejournal.com]

Diana Rigg. May even still be. :)

[calygrey.livejournal.com]

Roland somebody, the boy who sat behind me in 7th grade homeroom. (He was blond.)

[braider.livejournal.com]

Started celeb crushing early - I think the first I can remember is Bo Duke, followed by Michael Praed's Robin Hood - but I didn't start dating until 15 or 16, and then only because my friend said she thought this guy and I would make a good couple.

[braider.livejournal.com]

Oh! Forgot about the RL crush. Dan Cooley, sweetest guy in my class. In retrospect, very likely gay.

[sdorn.livejournal.com]

Celebrity? I was 12 when Star Wars came out in 1977. Three guesses, and the first two don't count. (Hint: I had absolutely no idea that my first celebrity crush had serious alcohol problems. And it wasn't the hairstyle, either.)

IRL: M., a cellist who was thoughtful, quiet, and had (and presumably still has) a mental spine of steel. I've generally been attracted to women with character.