Twink (gay slang)

Twink is a gay slang term used to describe young men in their late teens to early twenties. Usage of the term varies, but traits attributed to twinks can include attractiveness, having little or no body or facial hair, a slim to average build, or appearing to be younger than their chronological age. The term dates back to at least 1963, but may be derived from the older British term twank.

Origin

The term twink has been recorded in use since 1963, and may be derived from an older British gay slang term twank, meaning "The quarry of a homosexual prostitute (male); a man willing and ready to become any dominant man's 'partner'."

The Oxford Dictionary says the word twink means "a homosexual or effeminate, or a young man regarded as an object of homosexual desire," and that the word has origins in the 1970s. The term is derived from the snack cake Twinkie, commonly regarded as the quintessential junk food: "little nutritional value, sweet to the taste and creme-filled."Cream is among the well-known food-related euphemistic terms for semen. In Queering Pornography: Desiring Youth, Race and Fantasy in Gay Porn, essayist Zeb J. Tortorici notes that gay twink porn thrives on the production and performance of "consumable and visually/anally receptive masculinity."