Why sad TV men are the internet’s ‘babygirls’
As Kendall Roy, the number one boy of HBO’s tragicomedy Succession, stands on stage and makes his debut as the CEO of Waystar Royco, his eyes brim with tears. He’s introducing Living+, an unholy combination of WeWork and Theranos, a new real estate opportunity that comes with bespoke entertainment and medication. He’s smiling up there, but there’s a frantic energy in his eyes. He is actively having a mental breakdown; he’s the killer his father wanted him to be; he is babygirl.
“Babygirl” is a ubiquitous but ill-defined piece of internet slang that’s been around for a few years, but has recently risen to prominence with the fourth and final season of Succession. While a few key actors have been adopted by their fanbases as babygirl, like Paul Mescal and Pedro Pascal, most commonly it’s a descriptor levied at particular characters. Right now, Kendall Roy is the internet’s most prominent babygirl. He joins the ranks of longtime babygirls Lestat de Lioncourt from Interview with the Vampire — both from Anne Rice’s novels and the recent television series on AMC — and Breaking Bad’s Jesse Pinkman.
Nailing down exactly what makes a character a babygirl is a little bit persnickety. On its surface, the term “babygirl” is pretty easy to understand. These characters are emotionally sensitive in a feminized way — they wear their hearts on their sleeve, often openly weep on scenes in the show, and sometimes are victims of abuse by other men. But there’s also a smidgen of irony in how it’s applied. While Kendall Roy, Jesse Pinkman, and Lestat de Lioncourt are all characters who feel things deeply and are in a great deal of emotional pain, they are all also morally compromised: a capitalist, a meth dealer, and a vampire, respectively.
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