One would imagine the Geek to be a cute, smart guy with glasses, but you’d be surprised.
The correlation between the man and the animal has never been clear, but who cares, because both are cute.Ī celebrity Otter you can relate to: Aditya Roy Kapur Lean built with a sweater of scruff, he is laidback and lanky, and loves things ironically.
The Otter is the antithesis to the Twink. In which case you should probably get the Kindle version of this book. He’s even in his closet.Ī Discreet celebrity you can relate to: No one, because that’s the point.īut you might also be: Married, with kids. Hiding behind stock imagery and bathroom selfies that are strategically cropped right around the Adam’s apple, the discreet gay man is the most commonly found gay subculture in India. Fit in all the right areas, he’ll meet you for an iced Americano after his workout.Ī celebrity Twunk you can relate to: Justin Beiber or Nick Jonas Characteristically more muscular, Twunks can be identified by their raging levels of self-confidence, only made possible by their dedication to allot two chest days at the gym every week. He’s waiting.Ī celebrity Twink you can relate to: Tom Holland or Shawn MendesĪ Twunk is a twink on a protein-rich diet. Somebody buy the boy an appletini already. He’s feisty and fresh-faced, making him an easy target for stereotypical jokes and mature gay men. In gay terminology, a Twink is a young, slim man with minimal body hair, a clean-shaven face and the hopelessness of a doe-eyed ingénue. You’d describe your body hair situation as:Īt a house party, your friends describe you as:Ĭ. Until then, answer these nine questions to find out which gay clique you’d fit into: Let’s face it, the quintessential gay man will never find his true calling with one particular tribe – he’ll always be a mash-up of two (or more) of these. It’s safe to say that Grindr is very likely to help you find your next hook-up, and much less likely to help you find your next soul mate, but it certainly won’t help you find yourself. Is there a tribe for gay men who feel like they don’t belong? For years now, Kartik has been shunted from tribe to tribe, trying to find his identity. The Bears won’t accept him because he’s fit, and the Jocks shut him out because he’s not fit enough. The Twinks think he’s too scruffy, the Otters think he’s not scruffy enough. These only make him sound like a swine (side note: although my romantically-inclined friend wants me to tell you that he’s no ‘Pig’.) So where does Kartik find his true calling? Does that make him a Twotter? Or worse, an Oink? At best, he’s a cross between a Twink and an Otter. He works out regularly, but you can’t see his abs in HD, so that rules out him being a Jock or a Gym Bunny. At 28, he’s too old to be a Twink, but also too young to be a Daddy. Kartik is lanky and clean-shaven, so he’s not a Bear, but he’s also got tufts of hair on his chest, so he’s not one of those Clean Cut men. He also finds it hard to relate to any one particular tribe. Kartik thinks that gay men shouldn’t be sorted into tribes according to their body type this isn’t Hogwarts. Is this marginalising the gay community or moulding a human zoo? And then in descending order of size/hair (yes, hair) and kink, you’ve got Bears, Wolves, Cubs and Otters. You start off with some pretty self-explanatory stereotypes: Twinks, Femmes, Geeks, Jocks and Daddies. Also a feature of Grindr’s profile settings, tribes exist to help you find men you are attracted to, based on the quantity of hair on their bodies, and muscle on their bulk. A tribe is, in fact, a social grouping of gay men based solely on their body type key physical characteristics.
No, a gay tribe is not a group of still-surviving, nomadic queer men. What is it? The inevitability of death? The crushing loneliness of realising all humans inherently are and will die alone? The meaninglessness of his dead-end job? The purpose of life? I’ve clearly thought this through.