Twinks and other young queer men don’t necessarily have it easier than the rest of us-far from it. It’s difficult to pinpoint when someone might lose their twink credentials-is it turning 26? Gaining weight? Growing a beard? And if he continues to date younger men as he gets older, he might become defined by another, less flattering label: “chickenhawk”-essentially the gay male version of a “cougar.” Open any gay hookup app and you’ll find guys looking for, or calling themselves, a “twink,” decades-old queer shorthand for a young cis man who’s probably white, probably slim, and probably has little or no body hair. It would be unfair to suggest that gay male culture is completely focused on recapturing youth, but there’s definitely a subset of the LGBTQ community that equates being young with being sexually desirable.
When you’ve spent a portion of your formative years in the closet, it’s difficult to escape the feeling that you need to make up for lost time.ĭoing that’s not easy. We’ve all seen the viral tweet: “Gay culture is being a teenager when you're 30 because your teenage years were not yours to live.” It’s a heartbreakingly relatable sentiment, and a wryly funny one, because it’s rooted in truth.
