Why are Gen Z calling attractive famous men 'babygirl'?

Gen Z are always making up new words and slang to sum up how they see the world.

They invented "rizz" and "slay" and now they've come up with "babygirl".

Used since 2021, surprisingly, the name doesn't describe young girls but it is used for male actors in a very broad range of contexts.

It has been used on social media to describe people including Paul Mescal, and Jeremy Strong's Succession character, Kendall Roy.

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But what does it mean?

"The exact metrics of what makes a man a babygirl [are] seemingly still loose," according to meme database Know Your Meme.

Sylvia Sierra, an assistant professor of communication and rhetorical studies at Syracuse University, said it feminises men in a positive way.

Typically, there’s “negative valence attached to these terms for women. ... With ‘babygirl,’ you’re not seeing that. It actually is being used in like a positive way, like you’re highlighting favorable qualities in a man,” she told NBC.

Phillip Hamilton, an editor for Know Your Meme suggested there is a joke about the gap between the term and the men to whom “babygirl” is applied. He added that many of the men called “babygirl” look like they would take offense if they found out they were being called the term online.

“It’s like the opposite of what a typical sort of manly man kind of guy might want to be called, right?” he told NBC. “But online that kind of works.”

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