Benny Blanco Is the Internet Boyfriend We Need in 2025

Benny Blanco is out here throwing proms for Selena Gomez while other men are treating marriage like a four-year sports contract.

Listen, many Gomez fans were skeptical when the singer confirmed her relationship with the prolific music producer back in December 2023. While some showed genuine concern for Gomez, believing he took a dig at the Rare Beauty mogul while hyping up Justin Bieber in October 2020, others shared mean-spirited criticisms about Blanco’s looks or got the ick when he went toes out during their first public outing as a couple.

About a year and a half later, however, Blanco has largely won the die-hard Selenators—and earned his own spot on the proverbial lists of famous Internet Boyfriends in the process. Don’t argue with me; he was literally named one of People’s Sexiest Men Alive for his elite approach to romance.

While most Internet Boyfriends have secured their positions by stacking aura points or playing beloved characters onscreen, Blanco has clawed his way up through bold acts of romance in real life. Case in point: throwing his now-fiancée a prom because she never got to go to a real one, as he shared in a recent Instagram video.

“Benny’s out here single-handedly resetting the bar for relationships,” one fan replied to the video, while another asked all men watching the clip to “take notes.”

And while it’s true that Blanco is not plagued by pesky things like budget constraints, gestures like this one don’t have to come with limos and styling teams. In fact, my older brother pulled this same exact move for a girl in 2007, and all he had to work with was a basement, some streamers, and the little sister he forced to blow up hundreds of balloons in a single afternoon (you’re welcome, Dan).

As Blanco told People in November 2024, “I [still] go all out for every date. It doesn’t mean spending your entire bank account. It means being attentive and listening.”

With toxic masculinity trending in 2025, dating has only become more of a slog for single women in America. The Financial Times declared a “relationship recession” at the start of the year, while the Wall Street Journal claims “American women have never been this resigned to staying single,” citing “huge and growing gender gaps in economic and educational attainment, political affiliation, and beliefs about what a family should look like.”

Without getting in too deep with the numbers, I’ll share a quote from Daniel Cox, the director of the survey center at a conservative think tank called American Enterprise Institute (AEI): “[Women] would rather be alone than with a man who holds them back.”

You’re goddamned right about that—and Blanco seems to understand that, considering he’s done nothing but publicly hype up and collaborate with Gomez since they got together around June 2023. I’m certain he’s not perfect, but this is about how he treats Gomez in a time when men consider “simping” an egregious act.

“I respect Benny because he’s done nothing but respect me,” Gomez said during their On Purpose with Jay Shetty podcast appearance in March. “I can tell him anything, even if it’s about something that’s uncomfortable.”

Benny Blanco may not be the Internet Boyfriend fans thought they wanted in 2023, but he’s the one we need right now.