Questioning heteronormativity, queerbaiting and binary patriarchy. The twink issue opens a discussion on true inclusiveness within the gay community. Troye Sivan and a video by Timothée Chalamet
What does twink mean? Origin and meaning of the word twink as a tribe in gay community
Twink means young, feminine and puny. The twink is one of the most die-hard stereotypes of tribes in gay culture and community. The origin of the term twink is linked to American culture and to the cream-filled sponge cake snacks called Twinkies – the direct reference to a feminine boy filled with cream doesn’t need further explanations. The assimilation of the concept of twink into the common language is thus recent, but the social relations to which it refers are much older than America itself.
The twink tribe in Ancient Greece and Roman empire – a matter of human diversity
It all originated in Ancient Greece, when the didactic and sexual relationship between adult men and teenagers had greater social standing than even the reproductive union between man and woman. In Athens, pederasty was formally recognized and celebrated artistically, but it was also regulated. Men could only fuck the boys between the thighs, without anal penetration. Receiving anal sex was a stigmatized practice, thought to inhibit manhood. The teenager engaged in intercourse was called eromenos, and he is probably the earliest historical record of twink. Even today, it is not uncommon to see in museums and art history books frescoes and vases dating back to Ancient Greece depicting scenes of homosexual intercourse.
In the classical conception, the male world was divided into penetrative men and penetrating men. There was no distinction between homosexuals and heterosexuals. The difference lay in sexual practices, and the categories did not exist. Sex was allowed between people of the same sex and not.
The twink archetype is rooted in classicism
The twink has an archetype rooted in classicism. It is embodied in the guise of Antinous, the lover of the Roman emperor Hadrian who, consumed with love, transforms him into a semi-divine after his death. The emperor’s lover is drowned in the waters of the Nile, ushering in a period of torment in Hadrian’s life. A poignant story reinvented by French writer Marguerite Yourcenar in Memoirs of Hadrian.
Hadrian, Antinous and the prototype of the modern twink
Their relationship was not a secret. The whole Roman empire knew about their relationship. Antinous over time became a historical figure that spanned the centuries, becoming a universal symbol of beauty and homosexuality. His image had a lasting influence in gay culture. His ability to portray a love story impossible for many other human beings inspired generations and cultures.
Antinous has been the absolute ideal of Greek beauty since the eighteenth century. Johann Joachim Winckelmann observed him in the relief of Cardinal Albani’s collection, elevating him to a symbol of male beauty. His effigy has been immortalized in portraits and sculptures.
Twink power. Antinous influencing centuries
His name became eternal when Hadrian decided to dedicate the city of Antinoöpolis (modern Egypt) to his lover. Writers such as Oscar Wilde, Flaubert, Boccaccio, Shelley, Balzac, Proust, Barthes, D’Annunzio, Mann, Pavese, Pasolini, Rilke, Kavafis, and Pessoa have referred to Antinous in their works, celebrating his beauty and the relationship between him and Hadrian.
Antinous’ face has been an inspiration for modern art as well. Such as Antinous by Mapplethorpe. His beauty, his deification, and his role as a gay icon are testaments to a history that continues to influence modern society. Proving that beauty and same-sex love can transcend the boundaries of time and space.
Twink vs. Daddy. Contemporary homosexual tribes
The Greek man vs. boy dichotomy evolved. Just like the historical artefacts dating back to that period, the stigma surrounding it is still well established in the contemporary world. It reaches into 2018, where it can be easily spotted on Grindr. «Are you a twink or are you a daddy?», Grindr asked. The fact that the world’s best-known online gay dating app wants you to choose between two precise alternatives says a lot about the society in which we live. Even today, such strict categorization about the possible ways of being gay strongly influences the lives of gay men.
Straight Twinks tribe. Timothée Chalamet and the queerbaiting outside the gay community
The ideal of twink beauty not only crosses time but also transcends sexual orientation. The power of capitalism has managed to absorb even this through a process defined as cultural appropriation. Modernity has appropriated those beauty codes – typical of the gay twink tribe – and replicated it.
This is the case of Timothée Chalamet. In the movie Call Me By Your Name, Chalamet sublimated the clean aesthetic of the beardless boy and projected it into a universe of references to the homoerotic twink stereotype. The story of the novel and the movie somewhat retraces the relationship between Emperor Hadrian and Antinous.
In the gay community, this phenomenon has opened the discussion of queerbaiting.
What is queerbaiting and what does it mean? A definition of queerbaiting – gay community in media representation
Queerbaiting is a marketing asset to promote fiction and entertainment: as per strategy, creators hint at same-sex romance or other LGBTQ+ representation and human diversity. The purpose of this method is to attract queer or straight allied audiences with the suggestion or possibility of relationships or characters that appeal to them. This without alienating homophobic audience members or censors by actually portraying gay relationships.
Queerbaiting has been observed in popular culture and fiction such as movies, television series, books, music, advertising, various forms of media, but also in celebrities who convey an ambiguous sexual identity through their works and statements.
The term has its origin through discussions in Internet fandom since the early 2010s. It derives from a broader history of gay community in media representation dating back to the 1970s, from marketing toward LGBTQ+ people through advertisements and books.
Troye Sivan and poppers in gay community. Reinforcing the idea of a homosexual drug
Yet there are other twinks who have become icons of their tribe by the fact that they embody the archetypal ephebic boy. Troye Sivan – singer, actor and recently also a dancer. Troye Sivan’s song Rush explores the theme of intense desire and the addictive nature of physical attraction. The lyrics convey a sense of urgency and excitement that comes from being attracted to someone. Just like the feeling that poppers give: a drug in a bottle that when sniffed induces horniness and promotes penetration.
Troye Sivan’s album is full of references to the gay aesthetic and gay community. The twink is charged with arousal by revealing his feminine side, which is embodied by Sivan in a drag queen performance. Again, the ephebic side tickles minds, deconstructing on the one hand a certain heteronormative view of masculinity, and on the other hand reinforcing a dualism of it that somehow adheres to the masculine-feminine dichotomy of the heterosexual relationship.
Being twink is also a condition related to the transience of life. A celebration of youth, seductive power, and a languid look at a homosexual taboo related to age difference. After all, Troye Sivan himself with the release of his latest record writes under one of his instagram posts, «I’m ready to accept my twink death whenever it comes».
Archetypes of heteronormativity and patriarchy binarism
The need to conform to archetypes affects all gay men as much as heterosexuals. Why, thousands of years after the fall of Ancient Greece, do we succumb to the heteronormative ideal of male dom tops and power bottoms? It is an imitation of the biological determinism that held sway in academia in the past. Now refuted by the new queer theories about human diversity.
Toxic machismo and a patriarchal worldview. The stereotype of the power bottoms is part of misogyny and patriarchy
Its presence is still cumbersome, difficult to ignore. Sex roles should not be linked to physiognomy. Why should we assume that a young, puny guy wants to take a dick? To assume that someone likes a certain thing in bed just because his body has certain features is part of a categorisation born of toxic machismo and a patriarchal worldview. The view of the effeminate passive is part and parcel of the misogyny inherent in patriarchy.
Patriarchy typically relies on models, roles and conventions that draw on an established tradition. Models that draw precisely on a past of norms that served to make a society orderly but also subservient. A free society is by definition a society that is also dangerously unpredictable, and therefore elusive. A characteristic that is hostile to power.
The above models refer to an assumed objectivity that in turn refers to the binary system to which the computer age has accustomed us. Everything articulated, that is not black and white, is difficult to understand and therefore potentially threatening.
Human diversity – Grindr tribes: the twink. The binary thinking and the twinkdeath
We must not think in a binary way. The daddy vs. twink dichotomy is not unidirectional in the way it oppresses, either, because even those who find themselves enmeshed in the space of active masculinity sometimes suffer from this categorisation. The same oppression he thinks about the role of man within patriarchy. The man who must not cry, who must shoulder the responsibility, who must always be lusty. These are all heteronormative models that are replicated in this dualism of roles.
The twink remains even today a tribe in gay community. A Grindr category that reinforces stereotypes, which is why it is often harmful. Yet, as the New York Times wrote in 2018, we are in «the age of the twink». And today we can say that we are totally in it. We need only flick through the fashion magazines and catwalk shows, populated by skinny, degenderized models.
The contemporary idolisation of the twink category is more divisive than ever. Because it confronts us with ageism, fatphobia and threatens human diversity. A celebration of a perfect model that ends up being threatened by its own trap: that of time. We are indeed in the age of the twink. Yet the age of twink will also have its death. Like everything.
Twink Death or Twinkdeath
Twink Death, also spelled Twinkdeath, is a slang term used to describe the point in time when a person who used to be a twink (a gay tribe recognized in the gay community) can no longer be considered one due to aging or becoming masculine. Used in discussions on 4chan since the mid-2010s and analogous to the similar term gay death, the slang expression achieved mainstream recognition in December 2022 as it spread on Twitter.
