Much like God, or Ariana Grande’s relationships, online clout works in mysterious ways. Sometimes getting hyped by a major influencer and having a rush of new followers can be exactly the boost your brand needs. Other times, it’s too much — particularly if you’re happily married, and said followers are women begging you to spit directly in their mouths.
This is what professional hockey player Alex Wennberg and his wife, Felicia, found out this week after becoming the eye of a horny cyclone on TikTok.
It all started with BookTok, the name for the hugely popular community on TikTok that’s devoted to discussing books. On BookTok, hockey-themed romances are particularly popular, and Seattle Kraken center Alex Wennberg has become well-known within the subculture for his chiseled Nordic good looks. For months, BookTokers have been posting thirsty fan edits about Wennberg and other Kraken players.
One of the most popular creators on BookTok is Kierra Lewis, who has about 1.1 million followers and has made a few videos proclaiming her affections for Wennberg. In general, Lewis’ content is high-energy and effusive, and in a now-deleted video about Wennberg, she is equally enthusiastic, to say the least. “Oh, Alex Wennberg,” she says, over a photo of the athlete on Google Images. “Baby, I might not got five holes, but I got three. And since you’re so good at assisting, why don’t you assist your teammates in scoring in all three of my holes? HELLO.” She then proceeds to declare she wakes up every day praying to Jesus to turn into ice, “’cause what I wouldn’t do to have this man glide on me” and urging him to “crack [her] back.”
The video was horny and tongue-in-cheek in equal parts, pretty much part and parcel with Lewis’ content (or for that matter, any number of other thirsty videos on TikTok). Lewis also hasn’t singled Wennberg out for her ardor, making similarly thirsty videos about his teammate Vince Dunn. “At this point I’m just thinking Seattle out here hiring models who don’t know what to do with their sticks. HELLO,” she says in one video while watching a game. “‘Cause why he fine too? Fuck.”
Lewis’ Kraken-themed videos gained a following, popularizing the catchphrase “krack my back.” The Seattle Kraken also seemed to find her content amusing, following Lewis and commenting on her page. She also showed up at a game, appearing on the JumboTron while carrying a sign that said, “BookTok sent me #KrackMyBack,” and was later gifted a jersey by the team. The official page for the Seattle Kraken also posted a slew of horny fan edits of its own, seemingly to capitalize off BookTok’s popularity, including a video of Wennberg walking slow-motion in a suit with the caption “when you accidentally become a BookTok account.”
That goodwill soured, however, late last week, when Wennberg’s wife, Felicia Weeren, called out Lewis and other BookTok creators for objectifying her husband. “While I’m all for female empowerment and especially around sex, there have been videos and comments made that have crossed the line of what it means to fancy someone and when it actually sounds pretty predatory and [exploitative],” Weeren wrote in her Instagram stories. “What doesn’t sit with me is when your desires come with sexual harassment, inappropriate comments, and the fact that with the internet, we can normalize behavior that would never be ok if we flipped the genders around.” She compared BookTok’s treatment of Wennberg and other NHL players to sexist catcalling, including horny comments about her husband in Lewis’ comment section to underscore her point.
Wennberg himself also chimed in, posting on his Instagram stories on Sunday, “As someone who’s been media trained my whole career, I’ve been taught to bite my tongue and to leave it instead of making a statement. But it has gone too far for me to stay quiet when people post vile comments on my wife’s instagram and on photos of our child.” He concluded his post decrying “sexual harassment” on TikTok, writing, “I’m all for the BookTok community to write books and fiction about hockey, but the aggressive language about real-life players is too much.” And in a seeming show of solidarity with Wennberg and his wife, the Kraken unfollowed Lewis, according to a video she posted on Saturday, deleting its previous videos shouting out BookTok.
The uproar over Lewis’ content has been met with mixed reactions on social media. Many on BookTok sided with Wennberg and Weeren, claiming Lewis’ videos were essentially tantamount to sexual harassment. “Did Kierra Lewis forget that it’s okay to take back consent at any point?” one fan wrote on Twitter. “Also just because other people laughed doesn’t mean everyone was comfortable.” Others, including Lewis, turned their ire on the Seattle Kraken, arguing that they had used her for their own convenience to profit off BookTok and gain more engagement, only to dump her by the wayside.
“I’ve noticed with musicians and sports teams, they like to use BookTok to get clout, get clout, get clout, and then they’ll skirt to the side of them and move on to the next thing,” Lewis said in a video she posted on Sunday. “And I’m not fucking rocking with that. I’m pissed the fuck off.”
For her part, Lewis has stood steadfast in her claim that her videos about Wennberg were just intended as a joke, claiming that his wife had blown them out of proportion. TikTok, she said in one video, “is the one place where we can just have fun and not really take life seriously. So to see my name being dragged with all these false accusations is fucking blowing my mind.” In another video, she notes that she sent an apology to Wennberg’s wife on Instagram, offering to delete any videos featuring her husband. But she says she did not respond to her message.
The controversy over this particular segment of BookTok has prompted a parallel discussion about not just the sexualization of male athletes, but also the dynamics of brand relationships with various TikTok communities. With TikTok becoming a favorite of social media managers, and accounts for DuoLingo and Ryanair becoming TikTok celebrities in themselves, brands have a lot to gain from engaging with communities like BookTok, the hashtag for which has more than 162 billion views.
With Lewis having more than twice the following of accounts for teams like the Kraken (which has about 300,000 followers), brands have a lot to gain from courting the support of influencers like her and communities like BookTok. And in her videos about the controversy, Lewis takes issue with the Kraken seemingly only building a relationship with her when it benefited them, only to revoke it when she started getting backlash.
“The reason why BookTok even was aware of the Kraken or hell half these hockey teams is when they started doing these slo-mos and ‘hey BookTok, look at us, look at us,’” she said in a video on Saturday. (Neither the Kraken nor Lewis responded to a request for comment.)
Does Lewis’ content go too far? Should brands engage with excessively libidinous fans? And is it tantamount to sexual harassment to fantasize about being a piece of ice so a Swedish hockey player will glide on you? All legitimate questions — but perhaps none more so than the eternal one of whether terminally horny people should be allowed to have internet access.