What does ‘hot rodent men’ mean? Gen Z craze explained
disneyabc/Flickr, Andriy Makukha/WikimediaFrom Timothée Chalamet to Barry Keoghan, many of the world’s most famous men are being compared to rodents – and it’s actually a compliment, according to Gen Z.
In the last few years, the internet has enjoyed assigning unusual labels to men, with the most popular example being golden retriever boyfriends or “babygirl” men.
This time, hot rodent men are getting all the attention, good and bad. So, what does being a hot rodent man mean?
What are “hot rodent men”?
Social media has described hot rodent men as “usually more svelte than muscular, with more pinched, angular features,” New York Times reported.
To put it bluntly, rodent men are considered men who resemble or have certain features of rodents.
The idea gained traction after the April release of Challengers, which stars Mike Faist and Josh O’Connor as the male protagonists involved in a love triangle with a former tennis star played by Zendaya. The two were soon memed online after viewers noticed their supposed resemblance to mice, particularly cartoon ones.
One viral X post noted that O’Connor “looks like a very kindhearted mouse who got turned into a prince,” while another commented that Faist is what Stuart Little, the small animated mouse that stars in a popular children’s movie series, would look like “if he was human and hot.”
While many people are calling it “cruel” to unsolicitedly label A-listers such as Barry Keoghan, Josh O’Connor, Mike Faist, and Jeremy Allen White as “hot rodents,” others have called it “white mediocrity” given that all of the men who are considered a “hot rodent” are white.
One person took to X to discuss the trend. They wrote: “I love how much decency is lost in pop culture Calling certain actors rodent men is so weird.”
The trend has also opened a discussion about the differences in how men and women are portrayed and body-shamed.
“‘Dad bods,’ ‘rodent men,’ and other ways we elevate mediocrity or plain old normalcy in men while still holding women to unrealistic standards and perpetuating female body dysmorphia,” one person wrote on X.
Another person wrote: “If this is hot, can we stop body/age shaming women now then!? Cause wtf.”