Twink is
gay slang for a man who is usually (but not always) in his late teens to twenties whose traits may include a slim to average physique, a youthful appearance, little or no
body hair, and
flamboyancy.[5][6][7]Twink is used both as a neutral descriptor, which can be compared with bear,[8] and as a
pejorative.[5][9]
Etymology
The exact origins of the term twink are disputed. Some trace its first appearance to 1963, although it may be derived from an older British
gay slang term twank, which means: "The quarry of a homosexual
prostitute (male); a man willing and ready to become any
dominant man's 'partner'".[10]Oxford Dictionaries claims twink has origins in the 1970s.[11][12]
Another possible origin of the term may be a derivation from the American snack cake
Twinkie, commonly regarded as the quintessential
junk food. The food is described as "little
nutritional value, sweet to the taste, and creme-filled";[13][14][15] by comparison, the young men are described as "short, and blond, and full of creme",[14] with creme being a
euphemism for
semen.[14][16]
A
backronym has been constructed for twink, according to which it stands for "'teenaged,
white, into no
kink", although these specified traits are not universally accepted as either necessary or sufficient to classify an individual as a "twink".[17][18]
Usage
Popular culture
In his book Never Enough (2007), about a murder
committed in 2003 in Hong Kong, described by the New York Times Book Review as hard-boiled clichés with a cartoonish first impression,[19]Joe McGinniss describes a court case in which twink was defined as "a gay slang term used to denote an attractive, boyish-looking gay man between the ages of 18 and 23, slender
ectomorph and with little or no
body hair, often blond, often but not necessarily Caucasian."[20]
It has also been used to describe
straight male celebrities who are skinny and have a youthful appearance, like
Timothée Chalamet,[21][4][22] although some object it to being used to refer to non-gay men.[23]
Gay subculture
The term also serves to identify a
subculture within
gay culture for which members of the community may self-identify, but their stable assurance mostly comes from acceptance by other members. The subculture, as examined now, serves as a purely physical marker for attributes any one person may hold and/or acquire, highly dependent on normative society's take on
beauty standards as a whole and what the community puts forth and prescribes to.[24]
Grindr, a popular
dating app for gay men, lists the term as one of many "tribes" for users to "identify themselves with a niche group and filter their search to help find their type of guy."[25]
Essayist Zeb J. Tortorici notes that gay twink porn thrives on the production and performance of "consumable and visually/anally receptive masculinity."[28] A twink is "memorable for his outer packaging", not his "inner depth".[14] Twink can be seen as a popular
subgenre in gay porn widely consumed across the globe.[29]
Analysis
Susan Driver characterized the word twink as relying on "
ageist and
racisttropes of youth and white desirability".[29][10] In regards to the concept, Driver describes it as "a young, white, and performed
masculinity that can be
fetishized, consumed, ... clearly coded in terms of race and age",[29] thus establishing the intersection for which race and age come together to create a hyper-sexualized denomination, often associated with sexual acts and the
pornographic industry.[29]
Jones, Ciardha, and Elliott observed that the use of twink pornography—depicting men in their late teens or early 20s who are typically of slim build—was mentioned by some users that are "exclusively attracted to children" as a legal outlet for sexual release.[30]