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]
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]
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?"[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]
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]
Braidon Schaufert has claimed that the term was further normalized through to Game Grumps' 2017 visual novel game, , which centered "queer fathers in a romance game" and gained a significant online fandom.[13]
The term has increasingly been applied to heterosexual relationships.
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".
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]