wtf is a hot rodent boyfriend
short king rodent boyfriend with golden retriever energy slay the boots house down charli xcx
Welcome to Flop Era, a digital platform where I muse on pop culture, cultural trends, and all things Gen Z. Today, I’m looking for a hot rodent boyfriend.
Recently, the movie Challengers took the internet and gays by storm (one particular Twitter personality @/ jimmysoldout has seen the movie a whooping 22 times at the time of writing this post). The online stratosphere gushed over the movie’s leading men, Josh O’Connor and Mike Faist. Then I came upon a Dazed article proclaiming that hot rodent boyfriends (such as O'Connor and Faist) are the newest obsessions. Sure, they may not be conventionally attractive, but rodents?? what??
According to Dazed, to be “rodent handsome” means to have a slender, angular face, but most importantly it’s based on vibes. To be rodent handsome is to be “antithesis of toxic masculinity. Rodent men are the types to buy their girlfriends ridiculously huge bunches of flowers.”
Whatever that means. I know this is supposed to be all in fun (even though it lowkey borders eugenics talking points), but it’s interesting how Gen Z loves to categorize to every phenomenon, manner, and aesthetic. There’s short king spring. You can dress like an office siren or indie sleaze. You can get a golden retriever boyfriend, and now, a hot rodent boyfriend.
Why do we love to make and name every trend? Terry Nguyen explains for Vox that “TikTok has only accelerated the use of cutesy aesthetic nomenclature. Anything that’s vaguely popular online must be defined or decoded — and ultimately, reduced to a bundle of marketable vibes with a kitschy label.”
As I mentioned, for the most part, it’s all harmless fun, but at the root of this categorizing sensation is capitalism. The urge to create and classify a certain aesthetic is to make it marketable. We’re churning out different trends, aesthetics, and ideal images to be sold to the average consumer. We’re declaring “this is the hip look right now, everyone should strive to achieve this aesthetic by buying certain clothes, makeup, and accessories right now” until the next trend comes along.
It is then co-opt by corporations and brands without us even blinking an eye (while some companies can hop on trends in a corny way, brands like Marc Jacobs and SSENSE, in my opinion, are brilliantly incorporating trends into their social media strategy).
Striving to attain an aesthetic isn’t inherently wrong at all. It’s okay to buy into the hype and want to look current. Sometimes, though, it’s okay to take a step back and realize not every aesthetic needs to be defined. So go ahead and get you a hot rodent boyfriend — maybe just not call him that though.
media of the month
Shows, movies, and books I’ve recently enjoyed and recommend:
📺 Pretty Little Liars: Summer School
🎥 Challengers, Tangerine
📖 Poverty, By America by Matthew Desmond, Rainbow Black by Maggie Thrash, The Future Was Color by Patrick Nathan, The Refugees by Viet Thanh Nguyen
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