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The Curious Appeal Of Gen Z’s ‘Hot Rodent Boyfriend’ Trend

Written by Sharon Dsilva
Posted on Jun 17, 2024, 20:30 IST
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On one hand, I feel like Gen Z in some capacity or the other has grasped modern dating dynamics remarkably well. On the other hand, however, I also find them equally unhinged in their approach. Allow me to explain why. 

Remember when we were all swooning over those ‘golden retriever boyfriends,’ thanks to Taylor Swift and Travis Kelce’s swoon worthy videos splashed across our Instagram explore pages? Well, apparently, they’re old news now. The internet’s obsession with rating attractiveness has taken a wild (pun definitely intended), unexpected turn, and now we’ve got a whole new breed of heartthrobs: ‘hot rodent boyfriends’ aka ‘sexy rat men.’ Yep, you heard that right, and currently it’s the Internet’s greatest compliment! 

It started with the movie Challengers which starred Zendaya opposite two love interests played by Mike Faist and Josh O’ Connor. Online jurors affectionately dubbed them ‘hot rodent boyfriends,’ likening their conventional attractiveness to that of creatures falling within the ‘mouse or rat range’–think along the lines of Timothée Chalamet, Matt Healy, Jeremy Allen White from The Bear, and more recently, Barry Keoghan.

You might sigh or roll your eyes at the seemingly endless array of labels, but animal metaphors have long been used to describe men, whether referring to facial features, physical structure, or behavioural traits. Puppy-faced. Gym rat. Workhorse. So, if I’m being honest–and I can't believe I’m actually typing this–a Stuart Little comparison, with its angular facial structure, beady eyes, prominent ears, toothy smiles and unkempt hair has been brewing for quite some time. TLDR: they’re often not conventionally handsome, but this only makes them more hot. 


The trend is also getting a bit of side-eye online, with critics chiming in on how the term feels like a backhanded compliment. But, hold on, because the internet’s attention span is about as stable as a squirrel on a caffeine high! So the next fleeting fixation is just around the digital corner. Afterall, where’s the spice in life without a dash of the absurd now and then? And true to form, the internet is serving up a feast of hilarious and oh-so-relatable reactions to this latest phenomenon. So, buckle up, because we’re about to embark on a journey through the weirder side of the web. Who knows, by the end of this you might just be ready to swipe right on a whiskered Romeo?


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