About

"Soy Boy" is a pejorative which is often used in right-wing online communities to describe men lacking masculine characteristics, bearing many similarities to the slang term "cuck". The term is based on the presence of phytoestrogens contained within soybeans, which have led some to conclude that soy products feminize men who consume them.

Origin

According to a study by Canadian researchers published in November 2009, soy products contain the second highest relative phytoestrogen content after nuts and oilseeds.^[2] In April 2010, an article by Dr. Mark Messina of the School of Public Health in Loma Lina, California revealed that soy consumption has no effect on the levels and quality of male sperm.^[1]

One of the earliest recorded, non-online uses of the term "soy boy" can be found in one of Kurt Cobain's diaries, where a character says, "shake it off soy boy" (shown below). The drawing is featured in the book "Journals," a collection of Cobain's diary entries, released in 2002.

On April 3rd, 2008, Katy Perry uploaded the music video for her song "Ur So Gay" to YouTube.^[12] Around the 2:30 timestamp, a license plate reading "#1 soy boy" can be seen, making this one of the earliest known uses of the term online (shown below).

Spread

An early archived use of the term "soyboy" as a pejorative on 4chan was submitted to a thread on the /tv/ (television & film) board on April 18th, 2017 (shown below).^[11]

On June 22nd, 2017, Urban Dictionary^[5] user Sandman_Aktual submitted an entry for "Soy Boy," describing it as "slang used to describe males who completely and utterly lack all necessary masculine qualities" (shown below).

On October 3rd, the @CernovichNews^[8] Twitter feed posted a photograph of a group of late night television hosts captioned with the Urban Dictionary definition of "soy boy" (shown below, left). On October 16th, Redditor _PM_Me_Boobs_plz submitted the "Pajama Boy" photograph of Organizing for Action employee Ethan Krupp in a post submitted to /r/The_Donald (shown below, right).^[7]

"We need a better name for harmless soft doughy docile male feminists. I humbly present 'soyboy' for your memeing consideration."

On October 19th, 2017, right-wing media personality Mike Cernovich tweeted "You caught me! I'm totally jealous of people who give free college talks that 15 soy boys show up to" (shown below).^[4] The tweet was subsequently deleted.

On October 26th, conservative writer Will Sommer posted an article titled "How 'soy boy' became the far right's favorite insult" to Medium.^[3] The following day, Mic^[6] published an op-ed by writer Chris Caesar titled "How 'soy boy' became the alt-right's new favorite insult." Also on October 27th, The Daily Dot^[9] published an article titled "‘Soy boys’ is the far-right’s newest favorite insult." On October 30th, Redditor EmArKay_11 submitted a photograph of a man wearing a long knitted cardigan titled "The return of the soyboy" to /r/malefashion,^[10] where it received upwards of 800 points (96% upvoted) and 50 comments within four days (shown below).

Related Memes

Nu-Male Smile

Nu-male Smile, also known as the Soylent Grin, Nu-Male Face and Cuckface, is an internet slang term referring to a facial expression associated with men described as nu-male or Soy Boys who are photographed expressing surprise or excitement with their mouth agape. Online, a variation of Wojak: referred to as "Soyjack" is illustrated with the open-mouthed smile.

Search Interest

External References