'It's horrifying, but also like, I won': The male thirst trap emerges - ABC Everyday

In 2022, TikTok is inundated with a wave of lip-smacking, smoldering videos with completely different eyes, and this one stars straight men looking for female followers.

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This might be a shirtless grind and lip sync, a POV where she’s role-playing the morning after you get home together, or if you’re lucky, a short motivational speech about how you’re the best girl in the world.

The whole thing was weird enough that Leia Jospe felt inspired to collect the best of the genre and repost it on her Instagram account, favetiktoks420.

“I see the trend going on on TikTok. All these young men peacock into the camera in a way I’ve never seen before, that I’ve always been associated with femininity and being a woman,” she said.

I just think they’re not only cute but [also] very representative of the changing culture of young people.”

Who’s in the men’s thirst trap zoo?

There are several different sub-genres of male traps that Leia and her friends have noticed, who are also eyeing this corner of the internet.

First: ‘sex maniac’.

“They always like doing weird BDSM, like role-playing scenarios,” he said.

Then there’s the ‘stupid’, which basically just poses, frowns, guys. In short, classic hot boys, sexy. Optional shirt.

But Leia’s favorite creators in this weird corner of the internet are those she calls ‘vibes freaks’: horny cousins ​​of motivational speakers.

“They’re like, ‘Baby, even though, like, you had the worst day, baby, you just woke up and smiled because you’re precious’.”

The final record category is what Leia calls ‘in the actor’s studio’.

“It’s the men and women that make TikTok truly special,” said Leia.

“They write screenplays that have weird twists, they try to act, they do different people in the screenplay … they obviously put a lot of effort into it.

“I don’t think they realized they were making this kind of, almost avant-garde performing art, because it’s a pretty incredible valley.”

‘I try to make people cry’: Calvin Reef

Leia Jospe points to 21-year-old South African creator Calvin Reef as one example of this latter genre, though Calvin says he’s not setting a thirst trap.

However, about 85 percent of the audience is female. About a third are under 18 years of age.

“I have a feeling that some of them might like me, but I don’t really know,” he said.

He calls his style “emotional content”.

“I try to make people cry,” he said with a laugh, when I asked him what he was doing.

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Very few if any topics are off limits—recently, she’s discussed bullying, eating disorders, suicide, grief, and addiction.

Calvin can cry on demand, and he does so in most of his posts.

He says he is in a good place now, but has been through his own tough times in the past.

“It’s really hard to do it myself. It’s also a big reason why I started posting”.

Is there a new script for heterosexual masculinity?

So are these kinds of ’emotional content’ and the thirst trap that finds a home in Favetiktoks420 a sign that socially acceptable definitions of masculinity have expanded?

“These men and boys look like they are comfortable in their own skin,” said Dr Emily Van Der Nagel, social media researcher at Monash University.

“But I’m not completely convinced that the thirst trap on TikTok [are] do the work we might really need [them] to.”

He suspects it has more to do with how the TikTok algorithm works.

“The idea is that Instagram’s audience is primarily made up of contacts we already know. These are friends,” he explained.

“That’s not really how TikTok works. It gives you a ‘For You’ page, which is really algorithmically curated, and should reflect personal interests.”

For Leia Jospe, TikToks shows some young men are more comfortable at an early age by “following the line that is considered masculine”.

“I asked these kids, ‘Are you being made fun of at school for posting this?’

“And they’re like” No… My friends know it’s kind of embarrassing, but they also see that I’ve become popular because of it. So, like, they can’t hate ’cause I’m in a rush.””

“Like, yeah, this is scary, but also like, I won.”

Ange Lavoipierre is an award-winning journalist, writer and comedian. He is the host and EP of ABC’s new culture podcast, Schmeitgeist.

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