Twink Death is a way some people refer to the effects of aging when speaking about young men becoming older men, usually in the LGBTQ+ community. And no, it’s not a compliment.
Of course, to experience Twink Death, one must have been at some point a twink. Twinks are usually gay men who look very young and boyish, perhaps even more feminine or androgynous, and generally very skinny.
But there are definitely fellas out there who do not identify as gay and yet are often identified by others as twinks—like Leonardo DiCaprio, for example. When he began his career, he was a hauntingly beautiful boy and now he is a thicc 50-year-old man who is still considered classicly handsome.
And yet he dates women, as long as they don’t experience middle age themselves!
The term started being used around the 2010s, originating on 4Chan and eventually moved on to Reddit and Twitter. The term's popularity indicates that people understand and recognize the phenomenon in the world around them, so you could say it’s “real.”
However, when we examine the term, it does just seem like regular old ageism with a funnier name. Most people who live long enough will show signs of aging, including the effects of testosterone.
That means broader features, wider shoulders, and a fond goodbye to that childlike lankiness. And while that can be a dramatic and perhaps life-altering change, it is not death. Just a new demographic to look hot in.
In 2023, Twink Death was solidified as a meme with its own full sentence. Twitter users started posting side-by-side pics of people pre-and-post Twink Death, writing, “Twink Death Is A Terrifying Thing.”
It grew from there, becoming a joke about different versions of characters, products, and included many side-by-sides of usually famous people who look kind of alike, but one looks worse. Or at least like they’ve really been through it.
Based on this meme, Twink Death truly is a terrifying thing for most people who fear aging.
A femboy and a twink are not the same type, per se, but it seems like more people are using “femboy death” to mean the same thing as twink death.
It is also a term that pretty much disparages someone aging out of or changing a certain look.
Femboys are generally cisgender men who enjoy dressing extremely femininely or behaving in a more feminine manner, often involving their clothes and cosplay costumes. Whereas a twink is more of a body type than a style. So a femboy could be a twink, but not all twinks are femboys. Got it?
The good news is that there’s nothing to say that gender expression and being a femboy can’t last until you’re in your nineties. The twink may die, but the femboy lives on.
However, based on comments on Reddit from femboys struggling with aging, there is a desire to remain youthful for as long as possible, perhaps for fashion reasons or perhaps because even those who cast off the shackles of gender conformity find themselves unable to shake ageism. One day we will all be free.
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