Blythe’s comment sections, in comparison, are tame — although he does get some seriously horny private messages. “I get very strange emails, where it’s like, ‘Could you massage my socked feet?’ or something like that,’” Blythe recounted. “I don’t know if they thought the socked part made the outrageous request more normal, but something about that makes me laugh.”
Still, as 60% of Blythe’s viewers are women, he feels he has it easier than most of his female peers. “I think if you’re a woman on the app that does pottery, you could probably get a lot of creepy messages,” he said. Monaco — who gets comments like “Nobody is looking at the pottery” and “We all know why we watch” — said she doesn’t “think it’s too bad.” She added, “Most of them are pretty funny.”
Unfamous said that influencers may be reluctant to admit they’re purposefully thirst-trapping. “If you are leaning into it, there’s a negative judgment that comes with that,” she said. “There’s also a cringe factor that plays into it: It’s cooler to pretend that you’re aloof, and pretend that you’re above it, than admitting you’re doing it.”
Unfamous also told BuzzFeed News that, while she could appreciate the sex appeal of pottery TikTok, thirsty viewers should be following the lead of influencers when it comes to the comments they make. “There is a boundary. There are some people that are cool with [being sexualized], and there are others that are not,” she said. “Viewers need to take that seriously in terms of consent.”
For ceramicists like Pottery Boy, however, horny comments are a small price to pay for success. While he did not admit to intentionally thirst-trapping his followers, he does welcome the attention that those kinds of viewers bring. After all, they helped him to sell all of his $53 mugs in 40 seconds last year. His IRL business is thriving, too: He operates three pottery studios that attract 350 students a week and has plans to open two more this year. “Business is going really, really well,” Pottery Boy said. “But I don’t think my TikTok can take full credit for that.”
“To be honest, I’m not too phased about how I’m perceived,” PotterBoy said. “I want to create content that people love to watch, and that brings more people to the sport of pottery. I think my videos are doing that, and that’s the most important thing. If you come for the pottery or if you come for the sex appeal, I welcome everyone.”