Why People Are Horny for Dune 2 ’s Most Freaky-Looking Character

Dune: Part Two, Denis Villeneuve’s second installment in his adaptation of Frank Herbert’s beloved sci-fi epic, has titillated all sorts since its wide release last week: The film bros are in euphoria, the critics are pleased, and the fans of the cast (which doubles as a rota of young Hollywood’s finest) are smitten. However, there is one more demographic that is deriving immense pleasure from what is surely to be the biggest film of the year: the fangirls in search of their next internet boyfriend. In Dune: Part Two, this slice of the population has been offered a new specimen to ogle and adore—but it’s not whom you might think it is. There has been plenty of praise for Timothée Chalamet’s stirring performance as Paul Atreides, but these sentiments are no match for the public yearning currently on display when it comes to Austin Butler’s portrayal of the hairless, pale, murderous psychopath Feyd-Rautha Harkonnen, who goes toe-to-toe against Paul for control of Arrakis. Across social media, you will find people referring to Butler’s Feyd as “specifically tailored” for people “with unconventional tastes.” Much-viewed reaction videos and fan edits of Butler in his Harkonnen garb abound, finding their audience with suggestive music and captions that oscillate between self-deprecation and ecstasy.

Admittedly, Butler’s widely admired washboard abs—the actor claims to have put on approximately 25–35 pounds of muscle for the role—aren’t really so unconventional, but there are other attributes that might make fans lightly embarrassed to admit their attraction to the na-Baron. For one, as previously mentioned, Butler’s Feyd has no hair to speak of. He’s not just bald but, as my Slate colleague Dan Kois put it, “thoroughly hairless.” He sort of resembles a naked mole rat, rendered gloriously in the grayscale of House Harkonnen’s home planet Giedi Prime. Not only that, but this freak has blackened teeth that make him look as if he gargles with tar instead of mouthwash. And we can’t forget about his other qualities, beyond looks: Feyd derives pleasure from both inflicting and receiving pain, and he seems to have a predilection for killing others at the drop of a hat.

Despite all of the above (or maybe because of it), this iteration of Feyd is pulling all the ladies. Here I must confess that I include myself, Slate’s dedicated Butler correspondent, in this group. The unenlightened among you may ask, with a hint of trepidation in your voice: Why are so many people horny for this sadistic human naked mole rat? I’m afraid to find out, but it is my professional duty to examine this burgeoning phenomenon.

To uncover the darkness that lies deep within our psyches, I turned to my fellows in thirst. One of my favorite public outcries on the matter comes from the user @sammyvoodoo, who tweeted on X: “I am concerned [with] how horny I am for na-Baron Feyd Rautha. I didn’t find Austin Butler hot until he was shaved, had his teeth blackened, and showed insatiable bloodlust. Fuck me up, I can fix him I swear.” When I asked her to kindly elaborate, she proposed that Feyd struck a chord with so many because “the internet has latched onto people who have unconventional beauty” and because Butler’s hairlessness accentuates his bone structure and the nuances in the physicality of his performance. (It is here that @sammyvoodoo sends me a picture of her two hairless Sphynx cats, admits that her head is also shaved, and notes that she might be a little bit biased toward the hairless movement.) “There is beauty in tragedy and, truly, what is more tragic than a villain?” she said.

But Feyd isn’t merely a tragic villain. He’s also, according to thirst tweeter Ava (aka @SPLENDOR1999), a “competent bad boy.” (At the end of the day, aren’t we all victims of loving a bad boy?) “A bad bitch is a bad bitch,” Ava offered as explanation. And let’s not discount the danger factor. “Any man who looks at me like he maybe wants to eat me—and COULD actually—is kind of hot,” she told me.

Plus, Ava and fellow Feyd admirer @thedrkling agree, Butler’s scene-stealing performance is key. “One of the main reasons we’re so captivated … despite his baldness, lack of eyebrows, and being a straight psychopath, is solely due to Austin Butler’s one-of-a-kind performance,” said @thedrkling, who specializes in making fan edits. Ava succinctly made the same point about Butler’s talent and dedication to the part: “Hard work is hot!”

Still, I had to make sure that it wasn’t just my fellow internet-addled oddballs who were having this reaction to Butler’s Feyd. What would arguably more normal people—whom I actually know offline—say about this smooth-skinned sadist who kills indiscriminately to harvest organs for his pet trio of cannibalistic female slaves?

Slate senior editor Rebecca Onion posited that “sometimes a handsome guy can look even MORE psycho.” While I’m all too familiar with the American Psycho theoretics of conventional attractiveness as proportional to batshit insanity, I had to push back a bit—Feyd-Rautha Harkonnen, handsome? My colleague stood firm: “No matter what [Butler] does to his hair, he can’t escape the shape of his mouth.” OK, fair—and, might I add, hear, hear.

Even my friend Shane, who is a straight male, thought that Butler was “titillating” in Dune: Part Two. He hypothesized that Butler’s allure in the blockbuster might have something to do with “Feyd being a masculine, primal beast who loves pain but also loves kisses.” (There is a moment in the film where Feyd receives a kiss of praise on the lips from his uncle, only to go back for seconds and return it with more vigor—a move Butler apparently improvised.) Shane clarified, “There’s something titillating about a man who is so confident in his power and abilities but also just wants an extra smooch from the homies,” adding, “I think every straight man should be triggered by that because most straight men don’t bring that to the table.” I felt comforted by my choice of friends, even if I was still not comforted by my attraction to a fictional character who would surely impale me just to watch my blood run.

At the end of the day, I don’t think we can ascertain what exactly makes us, as humans, attracted to things that might kill us. Maybe it’s our understanding of attraction that changes, as we confuse excitement and charisma for lust. Maybe it’s that Denis Villeneuve tricked us by introducing Feyd with a shot of Butler’s abs. Or maybe we’re all just a little screwed up. Whatever it is, I find solace in the knowledge that I’m not alone.