I have seen at least 1 meme or other joke somewhere on the platform where one also mentioned a “twink” and where that word appeared to be the punchline somehow. I’ve scrolled through Urban Dictionary a bit (haha) and the meanings mentioned there are either literal, using burger as a metaphor for the kind of person who looks like they consume burgers regularly, as a random surrogate for things that are kind of round (haha) or even that aren’t, or 1 Instance of fandom ship name for piece of media where the name of a character sounds like the word for onions in Japanese. That didn’t really get me anywhere. Did I correctly pick up that I don’t get it, or is there nothing more to this word?
Wellll, like others have said, twink is a long standing term for very feminine presenting gay men, with varying regional connotations as to whether they’re also very thin and/or petite, and it can be used separate from a “flame”, which is a term for the very flamboyant gay men regardless of their presentation or physical appearance.
There’s a lot of overlap between twinks, flames, otters, and queens (which may or may not mean drag queens, depending on where you are). Some people use them interchangeably, others will use them as separate aspects.
Now, burger, I haven’t heard in a long time among gay folks. The only gay specific usage I am aware of was complimentary, as in “mmm, I wanna get a bite of that burger”. It was usually directed at someone with superior buns, though sometimes someone with a lot of meat. But the last time I heard that, I think it was maybe 1999? 98? And afaik, it wasn’t one of those terms that was used everywhere.
Mind you, most of the above is filtered through media, and/or local gay culture in my area. I’ve never lived anywhere but the south, and only in one state. I’ve visited plenty of the east coast, and since I’ve always felt more comfortable around gay strangers than straight strangers, I have had some exposure to other local cultures. But the majority of what I’ve picked up is regional. You’d be amazed how much difference there is in the gay scene between Atlanta, Charlotte, Nashville, Savannah, etc, just here in the south. You go north and things can be even less familiar.
Back in the day, a lot of the slang and culture traveled with drag queens. The ones that would travel for shows carried all the news and culture with them, like fabulous bards.
Anyway, memory lane aside, that’s the only context I’ve heard burger used for specific to gay culture.
Here’s the context I think
https://lemmy.world/post/20148917
If this is the context, I believe it has nothing to do with gays or twinks.
Just a sad anime image meant to convey an emotional response, according to Tineye, first seen around 2016, on pages no longer reachable.
First memetized around 2017, with the following image :
Translated labels from left to right : “Your new ‘waifu of the season’”, “you”, “Your waifu, to whom you’d vowed eternal love”. At this stage, the apple doesn’t fall far from the tree: The meme is still aimed at the weeb community that saw its birth, and still makes use of the context implyed by the image.
But to interpret what comes next, you must take into account the rise of “cringe” culture in the early 2020s. Former memes, deemed “cringe”, saw a new birth under several layers of irony to highlight their absurd nature. Here is another meme that underwent the same fate : https://knowyourmeme.com/memes/im-fine
This era also saw the appearance of the words “pog”, “poggers” and “pogchamp”, all of which quickly became cringe. The above meme can therefore be interpreted as a pile of cringe meant to be absurd.
What about burgers? The burger also has a place in meme culture.
Declaring one’s taste for a trash food or another belongs to another memetic trop, that of appearing relatable and whimsical. Most old memes using this trope appear cringe by today’s standard. The image may be a meta-meme about itself, describing the memer’s transition from pre-cringe to post-cringe culture, from “burgers” to “poggers”, and burying the image macros under countless layers of irony.
That, is not what I expected.
TIL. I’ve heard people being called, usually in a derogatory way, “flamers” or “flaming” but never just “flame”, nor did I understand the context.
So just your average bard, then?
Yup, bards be fabulous by default :)
I have seen flame and its variants used derogatorily as well. Moreso back in the late eighties and early nineties back when there were a lot of gay men trying to avoid attention and criticising the more visible people in the overall gay community. But it still gets used that way sometimes nowadays. Back in my younger years, flaming was usually followed by the other f-word connected to gay folks when used as an insult. Sometimes even when used affectionately, though that was rarer.
Myself, I’ve always enjoyed the company of the brighter burning flames. There’s just something so delightful in someone being exuberant and joyful as their primary way of moving through life. Even the drama some flames bring along is worth it lol.
I’m in old man mode again, but I can still remember my first night working as a bouncer at the drag club. All these people coming in, most of the customers dressed to the nines, happy and dancing, and letting go of all the camouflage they had to wear at work or whatever. All those flames burning bright and free.
The guy on the door with me performed as well and was in a dress and had his makeup on (but not the shoes lol), and I asked him if it was always like this, and he just laughed and said “Oh, honey child, this is a slow night.” And it was! Some Saturdays, it was like what I imagine dropping acid to be.
Gods, I miss that part of the job lol.
I greatly appreciate your old man mode. Sounds like a fantastic job.
ok I recognize all those but otter.
Otters would be bears, but they’re twinks.
Bears and otters both share being fairly hairy to some degree. Bears is usually applied to bigger men, and also typically to masculine presenting men as well as being past the mid twenties in age.
Otters may or may not be bigger, but are typically much more feminine presenting. You will sometimes see it applied more to small, hairy men, but that goes back to slang being variable by default.
Now, to complicate matters, there are also cubs. Cubs are just young bears. This means that they may well be smaller and less hairy than most bears, and will get lumped in with otters despite otters being feminine presenting as the standard usage of the term.
I feel like one of those characters in a movie who is lowborn and some friend brings them to a high society ball or something and is explaining all the nuances.
The comparison between a ball like that and a drag club isn’t unrealistic.
You have queens and their hangers on at the top of the social ladder, all these factions warring for space on the dance floor (territory), you’ve got gossip and affairs, there’s courtiers vying to woo the “maidens”, there’s music and dancing.
Then you had me and my fellow guardsmen keeping the peace and dealing with the envoys from other nations (the silly groups of women coming in to giggle with the gays), and the too frequent war raids of the enemy (bigots).
But, back in the office was the wily King, managing his lands and expanding them as much as possible to increase prosperity (mostly his, but it did actually trickle down, he was a great king. . . er, boss).
Newcomers to high drag society often needed a guide, lest they offend the wrong queen and be dragged out of the palace by a guardsman. Or, you know, end up with a stiletto stuck in them. Usually a shoe, but some of the queens carried the other kind too; a lady has to protect herself from the rabble.
Skinny hairy dudes.