Tumblr Sexyman

About

Tumblr Sexyman is a broad slang term describing male characters that found significant fandom on Tumblr, which is usually expressed through a large amount of fan labor, memes, shipping and discussions related to these characters. Defining traits of the archetype include skinny body type, trickster or villain role and dapper clothing. Well-known examples of Tumblr Sexymen include Bill Cipher, Sans, Arataka Reigen, Connor, Komaeda, Once-ler and The Warden.

Origin

While it's unclear when the term "Tumblr Sexyman" was first coined, most fandom histories of the topic agree that The Once-ler was the prototype for future "Tumblr Sexymen" moving forward.^[1][2] The Once-ler fandom peaked in 2012-2013 and had many characteristics that would define the Tumblr Sexyman, such as being white, skinny and cis, wearing dapper clothing, and being vaguely villainous.

Wheatley from Portal 2 has also been considered as the first Tumblr Sexyman as he debuted before the Once-ler and a similar fandom developed around him, though the case for Wheatley is generally considered not as strong as that for Once-ler as the fandom for Wheatley wasn't as big and Wheatley is not a human.^[1]

An Urban Dictionary^[3] definition for Tumblr Sexyman didn't appear until February 28th, 2021. There, user PoopieTurd1 defined the character as:

A male character who goes viral on Tumblr for perceived attractiveness based on an established formula. Usually white, tall, dresses fancy and is evil or has a ‘dark side.’ Though the character can be non human or non human and anthrofied to fit the said formula. Most of the time, said character isn’t really as attractive as Tumblr weirdly makes him out to be.

Spread

Over the following decade, several other characters became well known on the platform as Tumblr Sexymen, and the definition of the archetype expanded. Bill Cipher from Gravity Falls, Alastor from Hazbin Hotel and Sans from Undertale have been widely accepted iterations of a Tumblr Sexyman.^[2] One characteristic of a Tumblr Sexyman was that the canon of their original series made it difficult to ship them with other characters, often leading to self-cest shipping fandoms. Roleplay blogs also began to play a part in establishing a character as a Tumblr Sexyman.

On March 20th, 2020, the blog sicklywhitedudes launched, devoted to documenting posts and discussions of Tumblr Sexymen. The blog's first post^[4] was a reblog of an alignment chart by user pyrlspite of various Tumblr Sexymen between the criteria "Onceler," "Clown" and "Sans" (shown below, left). On October 20th, 2020, Twitter user @meatgirl^[5] made a Tier List ranking the Tumblr Sexymen, gaining over 50 retweets and 600 likes in roughly 18 months (shown below, right)

On February 24th, 2021, YouTuber Izzzyzzz posted a video about the popularity of Tumblr Sexymen, gaining over 851,000 views in over a year (shown below).

In May 2021, some Tumblr users argued that Lady Dimitrescu had become the first Tumblr Sexywoman for meeting all of the criteria of a Tumblr Sexyman, including the requisite fandom reaction, but with the opposite gender.^[1][6]

Poor Little Meow Meow

Poor Little Meow Meow is a slang term popular among fandoms, particularly on Tumblr, to sarcastically describe fictional characters with antihero and oftentimes violent characteristics. In the summer of 2021, the term began seeing use in fandoms to describe sad, morally grey characters. This appears to have spawned from an April 26th, 2021 tweet by user @brokebackstan^[6] that read, "addicted to shows with sad little men with deep-rooted psychological issues and pathetic eyes……if a show gives me a character i can refer to as “my poor little meow meow” i’m hooked for life." The tweet gained over 500 retweets and 3,000 likes (shown below).

From there, the term quickly started seeing use on Tumblr, as users there applied the term to various Tumblr Sexymen and outlined the definition to set it apart from similar terms like "smol bean" and "cinnamon roll." In June of that year, user torturelabyrinth^[5] described "poor little meow meow" thusly over two posts:

The thing about a true poor little meow meow is they have to be 1) downtrodden 2) morally questionable at best 3) deeply and pathetically miserable
Some good examples: kendall roy, jin guangyao, loki but only in the first thor movie, dream from sandman, hellboy, robert pattinson the lighthouse, xiaojun, prince zuko, adam sandler uncut gems, ice king, squidward, jughead, ben linus, magneto, jack rackham black sails

Search Interest

External References