A Daddy in gay culture is a slang term meaning a man sexually involved in a relationship with a younger male.[1][2][3]
In an internet meme context, Know Your Meme defines the term as a "slang term of affection used to address a male authority figure or idol in a sexualized manner."[4]
In BDSM, a "daddy/boy" relationship can share similarities with a dynamic of dominance and submission.[5]
History
New York claimed in 2017 that the specific archetype evolved from leather subculture, which began in the 1940s.[6]
The "leather daddy" archetype, which has sadomasochistic associations, was proliferated in such media as the Drummer magazine (launched in 1975); 1976 to 1979 gay pornographic films Working Man Trilogy; and BDSM novels by Larry Townsend.[7][6]
Predecessors
According to the Historical Dictionary of American Slang, the earliest use of "daddy" in a non-paternal context was in 1681, in reference to what sex workers called their procurers or older male customers.[8][9]
Throughout the 1920s, the term was used in blues music and African-American Vernacular English to mean one's boyfriend, especially an older man or a sugar daddy. In 1920, the term is used in a romantic context in Aileen Stanley's blues song "I Wonder Where My Sweet, Sweet Daddy's Gone."[10] Its usage is similar in Lavinia Turner's 1922 song "How Can I Be Your 'Sweet Mama' When You're 'Daddy' to Someone Else?"[8][11] The same year, the term appears in Trixie Smith's "My Man Rocks Me" in the lyrics "My man rocks me, with one steady roll [...] I said now, Daddy, ain’t we got fun".[12][9]
In gay culture
New York claimed in 2017 that the gay term evolved from leather subculture, which began in the 1940s.[6]
In the 1970s, the "leather daddy" archetype (which has sadomasochistic associations) was proliferated in such media as the Drummer magazine (launched in 1975); 1976 to 1979 gay pornographic films Working Man Trilogy; and BDSM novels by Larry Townsend.[7][6]
Braidon Schaufert has claimed that the term was further normalized through to Game Grumps' 2017 visual novel game, Dream Daddy: A Dad Dating Simulator, which centered "queer fathers in a romance game" and gained a significant online fandom.[13]
The term has increasingly been applied to heterosexual relationships.[citation needed]
Gender
In 2000, Andrew Schopp claimed that the Daddy archetype "challenge[s] dominant ideologies of masculinity by appropriating the icons of masculinity and male authority (jocks, leather, motorcycles, uniforms) and transporting them into the realm of gay male sexual experience."[14]
In 2018, Braidon Schaufert claimed that, by creating the 'daddy' term, "Queer communities have separated the specific gender performance of fatherhood from the actual act of raising children".[13]
In the context of T4T relationships (specifically, trans men dating trans men), a Daddy/boy dynamic can be part of the gender affirmation process, thereby leading to gender euphoria. In 2022, Transgender Studies Quarterly claimed that a Daddy/boy dynamic between trans people "can be read as gender labor; affective and intersubjective work that produces gender".[15][16]
See also
- Sugar dating, a transactional relationship, which may involve use of the term "sugar daddy"