Jeremiah Brent Hates This Ultra-Common Home Feature (I Couldn’t Disagree More!)

Growing up in North Texas made cool, circulating air a commodity that couldn’t be beat. Almost every room in my parent’s ranch-style home had a ceiling fan in it, and on monthlong stretches of summer days when the heat would never dip below 100 degrees, every fan in our house would beat ceaselessly overhead while we kept our air conditioning at a sensible 72 degrees. Every house I ever went to growing up had a fan in the living room, dining room, bedrooms. 

It’s funny — ever since moving to New York, where I have now lived for 13 years, I have never once lived in an apartment with a ceiling fan. But I think about them all the time. Especially when I’m suffering a sweltering NYC summer day with no central air, thinking of how much cooler my apartment would be if I had a ceiling fan adding to the power of my collection of dinky window AC units. They’re always on my apartment hunt wish list, but I’ve never been lucky enough to live in an apartment with one here. (Yet.)

That’s why I was so surprised when Queer Eye star Jeremiah Brent, being interviewed by DREAM BABY PRESS for their LOVE/HATE List, said his number two biggest hate (after heights!) was ceiling fans. 

Ceiling fans!?!?! I gasped to myself in horror. How could he!? He did not explain why the cool-air superhero is number two on his hate list (just ranking above “Logging onto a Zoom with my camera on when everyone else’s is off,”) but I have to imagine that the interior designer dislikes them largely for aesthetic reasons, although I do know some people who hate the feeling of having a fan blowing on them, so it could be about sensation, too, or about how admittedly annoying it is to clean them.

While ceiling fans may not directly lower the temperature of a room, they keep all that air circulating, making the most of whatever temperature you can afford to set your thermostat to. In fact, according to the U.S. Department of Energy, the ceiling fan is the best type of fan you can have, and they can help you to keep your thermostat up to 4 degrees warmer than you would without a fan. In other words, their practicality cannot be denied. (And in moderate climates, they can replace air conditioning altogether.)

Plus, for white noise-heads like me, they’re the most wonderful sound to fall asleep to. (Does Hatch have a ceiling fan white noise sound? Asking for a friend…)

Still, I respect his commitment to having a hot take, and I love everything he does. Instagram commenters on the DREAM BABY PRESS profile were not as aghast as me, though — mostly commenting on other aspects of his lists (everyone loves “summers in Portugal,” a crucial part of his LOVE list, after all.)

So, maybe I’m alone in my crusade. Even if they are eyesores, (though there are some that are quite beautiful — I love fans with palm-leaf style blades, for example) they are useful ones that I‘ll always keep on my apartment wish list. I will die on this hill!