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Daddy (slang)

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Daddy is a slang term that refers to a sexually attractive man who is involved with a younger or shorter partner.[1][2][3][4]

Beginning in the 1920s, the term was often heard in blues music and African-American Vernacular English.

History

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Predecessors

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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.[2][3] This term is also used across ethnic groups, with its origins becoming most recognized in the 1920s.

Aileen Stanley, who used the term in a romantic manner in her 1920 song "I Wonder Where My Sweet, Sweet Daddy's Gone."

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."[5] Its usage is similar in Lavinia Turner's 1922 song "How Can I Be Your 'Sweet Mama' When You're 'Daddy' to Someone Else?"[2][6] 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".[7][3]

A shirt reading "I Love Daddy Bears", pictured at the Oslo pride parade, 2015

In gay culture

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A group of “Leather Daddies”, pictured at the 2012 Folsom Street Fair.

In gay culture and BDSM, a "Dad/Son or “Man/Boy” relationship can share similarities with a dynamic of dominance and submission.[8][9]

New York claimed in 2017 that the gay term evolved from leather subculture, which began in the 1940s.[10]

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.[11][10]

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.[12]

Gender

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In 2000, Andrew Schopp[13] claimed that the daddy archetype,

"Challenge[s] dominant ideologies of masculinity by appropriating the icons of masculinity and male authority, (IE. jocks, leather, motorcycles, uniforms) transporting them into the realm of gay male sexual experience."[14]

In 2018, Braidon Schaufert[15] claimed that,

“By creating the term 'daddy',’Queer communities have separated the specific Gender Performance of fatherhood from the actual act of raising children.’”.[12]

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."[16][17]

See also

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References

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  1. ↑ Kirkland, Justin (2018-06-15). "Here's an Outrageously Comprehensive Guide to the Term 'Daddy'". Esquire. Retrieved 2023-12-10.
  2. 1 2 3 Farhi, Paul (January 4, 2005). "Conception of a Question: Who's Your Daddy?". Washington Post.
  3. 1 2 3 Karen. "The Deal with Daddy". Acelinguist.com. Retrieved 2024-01-14.
  4. ↑ Borge, Jonathan (2017-10-23). "Why People Are Calling Hot Guys Daddy". InStyle. Retrieved 2023-12-10.
  5. ↑ ""I Wonder Where My Sweet Sweet Daddy's Gone" Aileen Stanley (1920) T. A. Hammed & Ray H. Stark". 22 January 2023. Retrieved 2024-01-14 – via YouTube.
  6. ↑ "How Can I Be Your "Sweet Mama" When You Are "Daddy" to Somebody Else? - Lavinia Turner". December 2023. Retrieved 2024-01-14 – via YouTube.
  7. ↑ "My Man Rocks Me (With One Steady Roll) - Trixie Smith and the Jazz Masters_(Released October 1922)". 10 January 2023. Retrieved 2024-01-14 – via YouTube.
  8. ↑ Weinberg, Thomas S. (1995). S and M : Studies in dominance and submission. Prometheus Books. ISBN 0-87975-978-X. OCLC 478487523.
  9. ↑ Mahale, Aniruddha (2018-01-07). "The Guysexual's Urban Dictionary for Gay Slang". Firstpost. Archived from the original on 2021-05-16.
  10. 1 2 Albo, Mike (2013-06-14). "Rise of the 'Daddies': A New (and Sexy) Gay Niche". The Cut. Retrieved 2024-01-14.
  11. ↑ "Larry Townsend Books List". Ranker. Retrieved 2024-01-14.
  12. 1 2 Schaufert, Braidon (December 2018). "Daddy's Play: Subversion and Normativity in Dream Daddy's Queer World". Game Studies. 18 (3). ISSN 1604-7982.
  13. ↑ Schopp, Andrew (2000-04-15). "(De)Constructing Daddy: The Absent father, revisionist masculinity and/in queer cultural representations. Disclosure: A Journal of Social Theory, 9(3), 15-39". disClosure: A Journal of Social Theory. 9 (1). doi:10.13023/disclosure.09.03. ISSN 1055-6133.
  14. ↑ Schopp, Andrew (2000-04-15). "(De)Constructing Daddy: The Absent Father, Revisionist Masculinity and/in Queer Cultural Representations". disClosure: A Journal of Social Theory. 9 (1). doi:10.13023/disclosure.09.03. ISSN 1055-6133.
  15. ↑ Schaufert, Braidon (2024-12-31), "4. Virtual Museum Tours. Queer Nostalgic Pasts and Utopic Futures in Canadian Nightlife Memories", Digital Memory Agents in Canada, University of Alberta Press, pp. 75–100, ISBN 978-1-77212-786-7, retrieved 2026-02-06
  16. ↑ Cassius Adair; Aren Aizura (February 1, 2022). ""The Transgender Craze Seducing Our [Sons]"; or, All the Trans Guys Are Just Dating Each Other". Transgender Studies Quarterly.
  17. ↑ Cameron Awkward-Rich; Hil Malatino (February 1, 2022). "Meanwhile, t4t". Transgender Studies Quarterly.
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  • Wiktionary logo The dictionary definition of daddy at Wiktionary
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