What is 'rodent hot' and why Gen Z is swooning over it

Ibrahim Ali Khan, Kartik Aaryan and Babil Khan. Pics/Getty Images

The Internet is a strange place. And the most recent absurdity has been the term "rodent hot". You know, the ones with beady eyes, more svelte than muscular with pinched, angular features, and messy hair. They are not conventionally handsome, but that is exactly what makes them more desirable. And, as the spectrum of rodents is wide, a man could be a rat, a beaver, a hamster, or even a capybara.

GenZ is swooning over this hyper-specific type, calling these rodent-handsome men the hot boyfriends of the season. It started with a tweet that compared Challengers (2024) co-stars Josh O'Connor and Mike Faist to Roddy St James, the rat from Flushed Away, and Stuart Little, respectively. In the Indian context, celebrities including Rajkumar Rao, Kartik Aryan, Siddhant Chaturvedi, Babil Khan, or even Ibrahim Ali Khan could all be considered hot rodents. Their angular features coupled with unkempt hair and a slender physique make them… "rodent handsome".

It all started when Dazed, a digital publication headquartered in London and New York, made up the terms "hot rodent man" or "hot rodent boyfriend" or "hot rat summer". Thanks to the unique times we live in, it snowballed onto the Internet comparing men to rodents, the new version of comparing men to golden retrievers.

Kartik Aryan, Babil and Siddhant Chaturvedi have been termed as hot rodent men, along with Ibrahim Ali Khan; Kartik Aryan; Babil Khan

But who are these rat men and should you be scurrying away from them? On the contrary, fans of hot rodent men argue that a celebrity's charm comes from the rodent qualities. A hot rodent boyfriend is not dirty. He is the guy who will bring you a ridiculously large number of flowers or is a husband eager to post his wife's photos all over his social media. Unlike the golden retriever boyfriend, whom the Internet describes as upbeat, goofy, and wholly devoted to their partner; rat men are a little weird but in a funny, witty, sexy, way. Perhaps, rodent men are simply hot because they have what women really find attractive. To be fair, who wouldn't want to date someone like the rat from Ratatouille? Remy was after all, idealistic, clever, and determined.

What's sexy about Rajkumar Rao and all the rodent men? It depends on whom you ask, as it ultimately boils down to whom our brains find attractive. "Each individual perceives attraction differently," says Dr Dayal Mirchandani, a psychiatrist. "Attraction is more cultural," he says, explaining how some tribes in Africa find large buttocks attractive or that in the 1960s, slimmer women were considered attractive. "When you are attracted to someone, you establish a connection, try to get to know them. As you grow, the love map you have built also changes," he says, referring to the "love map" concept by American psychiatrist Dr John Gottman, which is the deep understanding partners have about each other's inner worlds.

It's no mystery then that the chemicals in your brain create feelings of desire. Neurotransmitters like dopamine, serotonin and norepinephrine determine if you are attracted to someone. "It's similar to how your sympathetic nervous system responds to fear. When you are attracted to someone, your heart rate goes up too. It's an adrenaline rush", says Dr Renu Sheth, psychiatrist and psychotherapist.

Dr Rakesh Lalla, consultant-neurology, Fortis Hospital

Does this mean rodent men are increasing heart rates and causing feelings of butterflies in the stomach? Dr Sheth says, "Attraction happens at a subconscious level. It happens because you hear or see something and it seeps into your mind. A lot of it stems from social perception." So, it's not as if Kartik Aryan and other celebrities who are being called rodent handsome, have not had female gaze on them before the term was invented. "The female brain is wired to be more attracted to men with higher testosterone, a chiselled face, lower body fat, broader jaw and shoulders. These attributes have always been traditionally more attractive to women," says Dr Rakesh Lalla, consultant-neurology, Fortis Hospital, Kalyan. And, like Dr Sheth, he says, "The human mind can be trained to like something. In the 60s and 70s, people preferred a cute face. With Amitabh Bachchan, the ‘angry man' look was attractive. What is bombarded at you, your mind gets influenced by that stereotypical appearance. In layman terms, ‘yeh aaj kal fashion mein hai' (this is now in vogue)." Looking back, it's not surprising that after the million capybara memes that flooded the internet earlier this year, we are now finding their reflection in men we find hot.

Rodent or not, the slender men with young-ish looks seem to be the object of desire in 2024 - Whether they are K-Pop stars, Hollywood celebrities, or the ones rocking Hindi cinema. And men, don't mind the attention. In fact, they are happy to comply to the female gaze. Mahzbin, a make-up artist, says that working on such faces is a challenge but it's fun at the same time. "Working on good-looking faces that are fair, or have smooth skin is easy. It's always a challenge to work on unhealthy skin or an uneven skin tone. And, I enjoy a good challenge."