To Twink Or Not To Twink… Is “Twink” Now An Offensive Slur?
While doom-scrolling through our feeds, we discovered an interesting conversation happening around the term “twink”. Some in the community have taken to considering it offensive and an opinion piece written for Queerty from 2022 makes a lot of interesting points.
What’s in a name?
For the uninitiated, twink is a term used to refer to hairless, feminine gays who are (usually) white, thin and around the age of 18 to 25. At this point, it’s almost impossible to track the etymology of the word and how the LGBTQIA+ community adopted it, but is being called a twink always a good thing?
Arguments can be made that the term is derogatory. A way to ostracise feminine gay men and belittle their existence. The Queerty article includes arguments from Vice writer Mitchell Sunderland who mentions that some gay men have turned against femininity (I’m sure we’re all familiar with masc4masc culture), and in calling someone a twink, you’re shaming their feminine qualities.
It’s a tricky platform to navigate considering some who fit the attributes of a twink feel emboldened and proud of the term. This issue has popped up on our radars because of a YouTuber named Jack Manifold who recently posted a tweet praising his “twink work malewife”. The post has garnered quite the response.
For context, Jack is heterosexual. We aren’t going to get in the weeds of this specific tweet, but the response certainly got our attention as an intriguing case study. Many LGBTQIA+ users are claiming that twink is not a slur and that straight people should be free to use it for their friends. Does this imply that perhaps “twink” is a polyseme of sorts? A slur when used negatively and a term of endearment when used by friends and allies?
As with anything that reaches Twitter/X, there are many loud opinions and we will leave it to our readers to come up with their own conclusions.
