Hollywood’s male beauty standards have changed throughout the years. The Golden Age of the industry presented rugged masculinity with Humphrey Bogart and Kirk Douglas, while the 1980s gave us hyper-masculine macho men like Arnold Schwarzenegger and Sylvester Stallone. And, of course, 1990s presented more boy-next-door-type men like Brad Pitt and Tom Cruise. Tastes just keep on changing in regard to what audiences like. And, now, the Internet is getting in on the “sex rat boyfriend” trend, which includes Timothèe Chalamet, Barry Keoghan and more stars.
This trend has apparently been seeing quite an uptick as of late. To put it simply, the “hot rodent man” or the “sexy rat boyfriend” trend describes slim men, according to the magazine Dazed. These are individuals who aren’t considered “conventionally handsome,” but that quality only makes them even more attractive to the masses. In one tweet, a fan explained why the star of Saltburn was their choice of Internet boyfriend amid this trend:
Sorry to those I mocked all it took for me to fancy Barry Keoghan was for him to be winking in the presence of Sabrina Carpenter and have his arms slightly on show. Officially now locked in for rat boy summer.
That sentiment is in reference to watching Barry Keoghan getting handcuffed by his real-life girlfriend, Sabrina Carpenter, in her music video for “Please Please Please.” We see Keoghan’s bad boy side come out when he’s smashing faces and robbing banks in the video, while Carpenter continuously bails him out. Keoghan’s sex symbol status may have been amplified with his nude scenes in Saltburn, but his presence in the video was the icing on the cake many probably didn’t know they needed. Considering his smoldering looks in the production, it’s not hard to see why many would be enamored with him.
It’s also interesting that Timothèe Chalamet considered to be part of the “rat boy summer” trend. If you recall Chalamet’s best movies, he’s played a sexually awakened teen in Call Me By Your Name, a pretentious high-school crush in Lady Bird and the romantic desire of Amy Marsh in Little Women. On the surface, the star — who’s been romantically linked to Kylie Jenner for some time now — does fit the bill. Another X post described the Internet’s new preferred type of a leading man:
The masses (including myself) demanded actors with more interesting faces and our prayers were answered with the catch that they be known as ‘hot rodent men’.
This next X user gives us an idea of people just discovering what the “hot rodent men summer” trend actually is. They posted:
‘It’s a Hot Rodent Men Summer’ pic.twitter.com/9C0O59ZkkDJune 11, 2024
I’m not sure just how many people saw this trend coming, but it only seems to be gaining momentum from this point on. One factoid that an X user pointed out was that audiences actually saw these “sexy rodent men” in Luca Guadagnino’s latest movie, Challengers:
The power of Guadagnino is that both Mike Faist and Josh O’Connor look like cartoon mice but they are the hottest men alive in that movie.
When looking back at the tennis romance movie, it’s true that Mike Faist and Josh O’Conner’s characters may not have been at the conventional level of attractiveness. Nevertheless, critics still hailed Challengers as a “blisteringly sexy” grand slam. When thinking about the sweat dripping from their faces as well as those bold arm muscles blaring with each tennis swing in slow-motion, you can see why these two stars were considered eye candy.
Another funny post had something else to add about the trend, specifically as far as Luca Guadagnino’s movie is concerned. The person shared what they actually see when they think of the characters of Patrick and Art:
I’m sorry but they’re the guys from Challengers pic.twitter.com/76pUWElEEMMay 8, 2024
Whether this “sexy rat boyfriend” trend continues to pick up steam as the summer goes on remains to be seen. It’s downright interesting how this particular trend has manifested, and I’m curious as to how it’ll develop. Regardless of this specific fad though, I’d like to think that Timothée Chalamet, Barry Keoghan and their peers will continue to amass admirers regardless. Those who are already fans of them and other A-listers should check out the schedule of 2024 movie releases so you’ll know when the stars will appear on the big screen next.