LThe new man has arrived. Top hat and garnet velvet jacket, Franco-American actor (and fan of the Saint-Etienne football club) Timothée Chalamet has played, since December 13, 2023, in Wonkathe idealistic and fanciful young hero inspired by the famous novel by Roald Dahl Charlie and the chocolate factory. Since his role as a teenager in love with an older man in Call Me by Your Name (2018), the sex symbol of Generation Z, who shakes up the codes of virility, has also been crowned “patron saint of twinks” – or “prince of twinks” – by the gay community. His imitation of another famous twink figure, the young singer Troy Sivanduring a sketch at Saturday Night Liveon November 11, shows that the actor, in a relationship with Kylie Jenner (at least at the time of writing these lines), perfectly assumes this image of an androgynous ephebe.
The term “twink” today defines a young homosexual man, white, with an androgynous, hairless, thin body, without developed muscles. However, the origin of this term is unclear. Basically, we find a diversion of the acronym of “Teenage, White, Into No Kink”: white teenager with conventional sexuality. With his childish features and his candid, young air, the twink is probably the greatest object of gay fantasy, very popular with older men, called “daddy”. In English, “twinkle” also designates brilliance, the fact of sparkling. For some, twink would be linked to “twank”, an English slang term from the 1920s, which designated the client of a male prostitute. Others associate it with “twinkies”, these fine sponge cakes filled with cream, in reference to effeminate gay men who adopt the role of “bottom” (passive). The recent single Bloom by Troye Sivan has also been perceived as a hymn to bottoming.
In the 1990s, the figure of the twink flourished in fashion as well as on gay porn sites, and even in the new cultural industries. In online video games, the notion of “twinker” appeared when players were looking to over-equip a secondary character in order to facilitate their access to higher levels. The term was later popularized thanks to the phenomenal success of World of Warcraft (2004). It is then used to qualify a newly created character, of low level, devoid of experience (or “XP”, for those in the know).
Watch out for the first fine lines
In real life, this big fan of Lana Del Rey watches the singer’s music videos over and over again, in which she plays a Lolita madly in love with a man much older than her, as in that of West Coast. But, as with the figure of the Lolita, why wouldn’t the question of age also arise here? One of my gay friends, who has been dating mature men since he was 16, told me with a laugh that he owed this attraction to his “daddy issues” (daddy issues), female version of the Oedipus complex.
You have 30% of this article left to read. The rest is reserved for subscribers.