The last thing I knew, we were still living in a ‘babygirl’ world. Babygirl being Gen Z speak for the kinds of hunky male celebrities who might wear a mohair cardigan on a chilly evening, or cry if they saw a particularly poignant movie: stars like Jacob Elordi in his role as Felix in Saltburn, Pedro Pascal in This Is Us or Paul Mescal in just about anything. But, as quickly as the seasons have changed so, apparently, has our taste in men and this summer has been officially declared the summer of the Hot Rodent Men.
Bear with us, for there is a backstory and it starts with the release of the much lauded, sexy tennis thriller Challengers in April. Its stars, Josh O’Connor and Mike Faist, caught the Internet’s eye with their raw, hot-blooded performances as Zendaya’s competing love interests, but while they are undeniably fit it also couldn’t be ignored that they both looked somewhat like cartoon mice.
One user on X noted that O’Connor ‘looks like a very kindhearted mouse who got turned into a prince’, another pointed out that Faist is what fictional mouse Stuart Little would look like ‘if he was human and hot.’
And so a viral moment was born, and a slew of headlines and memes have followed. Is it weird to say you fancy a 'hot rodent man', we hear you ask - to which we say no! It is a Gen Z term of endearment, and every member of the hot rodent clan is having a stellar summer; led by Saltburn star Barry Keoghan. The Irish actor is topping best dressed lists, is the subject of viral fancams on TikTok, AND is dating one of the most lusted after women in pop, Sabrina Carpenter. She even cast him in her new video for Please Please Please which caused a wave of people who had been hitherto unable to see his attraction to say, ‘OK, maybe we get it now’. One fan summed this up in perfect Gen Z terms when they wrote on X, ‘Everyone FINALLY seeing her vision.. that man has BEEN fine,, y’all been sleeping on him [sic]’.
Other hot rodents you may have already found yourself attracted to include Jeremy Allen White from The Bear (who I personally think is more hot otter than rodent), Timothée Chalamet (meaning Kylie Jenner is a hot rodent lover herself), Adam Driver (I'm no casting director but he would be perfect for Splinter in a Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles remake) and Matty Healy, although perhaps the less said about him the better.
We seem to move from viral aesthetic to viral aesthetic at warp speed these days, particularly when it comes to fashion (in the last six months alone we’ve had the Mob Wife, Strawberry Girl and Corporate Goth movements which have all come and gone before anyone with a regular 9-5 has even contemplated buying into them), such is the power of TikTok. And labels for men seem to be moving just as fast, whether you agree with them or not. So far we’ve had Babygirl, of course, Golden Retriever Men (eager to please and blindly loyal - I’m A Celeb winner Sam Thompson is considered to have classic GRE), Himbos (Ken being the poster boy for them) and Cinnamon Roll Men. The latter is described as having a passion for high culture and beautiful clothes, while still loving their mums - and Harry Styles is their king.
Are good, old fashioned hunks having a bit of an identity crisis at the moment then, the poor things? While they may be considered pedestrian compared with Timothée Chalamet in a Haider Ackerman silk halterneck top, all is certainly not lost for the hunks of today. Just look at Leo Woodall, who has a curtain-framed cherubic face which could have adorned a poster from Smash Hits in the nineties as easily as it would a phone wallpaper today. Woodall broke a million hearts as Dexter in Netflix’s recent adaptation of One Day and has just been cast as Bridget Jones’s love interest in the newest film Mad About The Boy.
So there we have it: Hot Rodent Men. The key take away from this is, of course, that men can be praised and uplifted by women for being 'uncharacteristically' handsome (though most of these men are still hot by anyone's standards) and breaking 'traditional beauty standards' as they're known. We’re nowhere near achieving the same freedom as women. And I fear not one of us would ever want to be referred to as a Hot Rodent Woman, either, so a double standard could be flagged in that case.