Cruise around TikTok these days and you're bound to stumble on one: A young woman, standing next to a presumed beau, pointing out their “feminine, vintage-Levi’s-wearing, tote-bag-carrying, mustached little boyfriend.” If you haven't seen one of those, maybe it's the person saying “if my friends think you're a little bit fruity” then you're their type. Keep scrolling and you'll see commenters saying they're “manifesting my little gay boyfriend.
” Earlier this month, a piece in Dazed explained the trend thus: “Fruity boys” are “the new soft boys.” The slang term, the latest in a long line of similar monikers going back to “metrosexual,” aims to identify a new archetype: a man who is usually straight who possesses a set of nebulously feminine or queerish qualities, or a “zesty aura.” In that Dazed piece , writer Halima Jibril reported that these guys are suddenly catnip on the meat market , enumerating the social and political reasons why women are drawn to them.
Namely, they are thought to be softer and safer than their macho counterparts. Hot on the heels of the summer’s “ rodent men ” trend (think: Challengers ’ Josh O’Connor, The Bear ’s Jeremy Allen White), the concept feels like an attempt at rejecting gender norms while also reinforcing them—while also using a term often seen as pejorative . But all of this celebration of men who are yearning to have a Brat Summer or experiment with outré pant widths, though, exposes something.