[Ads-l] Twinkle toes

[Bill Mullins]

The OED updates for June 2024 included "twinkle toes", meaning either the literal toes of a dancer, etc., or referring to that dancer, etc.  Also included is "ironically of a clumsy or ponderous person".

Any time I've ever heard it used in a deprecating way, I've always assumed it to mean something similar to the homophobic slur "fairy", alluding, I suppose, to gay dancers.  I'm probably influenced by Gunnery Sergeant Hartman, in Full Metal Jacket, who asked the platoon "Who's the slimy little communist-shit, twinkle-toed cocksucker down here who just signed his own death warrant?"

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tHxf17yJsKs&t=98s



1983 Ed McClanahan _The Natural Man_ p 82

Esther Williams was okay, but those twinkle-toed little dudes with pointy shoes and walking sticks gave him the willies.

https://archive.org/details/naturalman0000unse_m4g5/page/82/mode/1up?q=%22twinkle+toed%22




1998 Spin Aug 141/2

These delusions are taken to barfable extremes here by metallic dungeonmasters Seasons of the Wolf and Morphine Angel, both of whom flex too much Neanderthal muscle to make sense in such twinkle-toed company.

https://archive.org/details/bub_gb_PeGUjNqTnGcC/page/n152/mode/1up?q=%22twinkle+toed%22




1999 Janet Lowe _Ted Turner Speaks_ p. 149

"I have heard that you are a little twinkle-toed TV announcer," Turner shot back [Ted Turner to Dick Cavett]

https://archive.org/details/tedturnerspeaksi00turn/page/146/mode/1up?q=%22twinkle+toed%22



2000 PlayStationPro #46 Apr 40/2

What twinkle-toed son of a heathen managed to take the 'a' out of action and place it on the beginning of 'rse'?

https://archive.org/details/playstation-pro-46/page/n39/mode/1up?q=%22twinkle+toed%22




2014 A. G. Van Slyke _Digging Up Bones_  217

Somebody should write about this shit, the fucked-up pedophiles, those twinkle-toed rump-riders.

https://archive.org/details/diggingupbones0000augu/page/217/mode/1up?q=%22twinkle+toed%22




2012 Simon Doonan _Gay Men Don't Get Fat_  p. 119

When I was a teeny, tiny, twinkle-toed toddler, "gay" meant "cheery and/or brightly colored, as in your granny's kitchen curtains, or a post-hysterectomy pick-me-up bouquet of mixed blooms.

https://archive.org/details/gaymendontgetfat0000doon_w2y3/page/119/mode/1up?q=twinkle

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