# Trap

Trap is an internet slang term popularized by 4chan anime fans in the early 2000s for fictional androgynous or femininely-dressed male characters whose appearance doesn't match their stated gender. The word spread through YTMND parodies of the Admiral Ackbar 'It's a Trap!' line and anime message boards, eventually spawning the long-running 'Are Traps Gay?' debate across otaku forums and alt-right YouTube.

## Origin
The 'IT'S A TRAP!' reaction image spread from Something Awful and 4chan in the early 2000s, and starting in 2004 the Admiral Ackbar soundbite seeded hundreds of parody pages on YTMND, with a notable MultiKoopa upload on June 2nd, 2005 passing 313,000 views by 2016[3]. Around the same time, 4chan's anime boards started using the word 'trap' as a label for images of androgynous or crossdressing male characters, a tradition long present in anime and manga going back to Osamu Tezuka's 1949 Metropolis[3].

An Urban Dictionary entry by user Michaels V on September 8th, 2007 formalized the slang definition, framing a trap as a usually cisgender male character with the appearance of an attractive woman and warning against applying the term to real trans people[5]. The subreddit /r/traps opened on February 28th, 2010[3].

- **Platform:** YTMND / 4chan (viral spread)
- **Creator:** Unknown
- **Date:** 2004

## Overview
The term grew out of two overlapping sources: Admiral Ackbar's 'IT'S A TRAP!' line from Return of the Jedi, which became a stock reaction image, and a much older anime and manga device of crossdressing or androgynous male characters[3]. 4chan users fused the two, labeling images of femininely-drawn boys as 'traps' and running an internet theme day called Trap Thursday on the site's anime boards[3].

The word carries a derogatory implication, that a viewer is being 'tricked' into attraction, and it has been widely criticized as transphobic because it collapses crossdressing fictional characters, drag, and real trans women into the same slur[1]. Urban Dictionary definitions written by fans themselves note that transgender people are explicitly not what the archetype refers to and that applying the label to them reads as erasure[5]. Within otaku spaces the term stayed tied to fictional characters, while outside those spaces it moved as a general insult.

The recurring 'Are Traps Gay?' bit is where the slang got most of its wider recognition, a mock-serious debate about whether attraction to an androgynous male anime character counts as homosexuality[2]. The argument became a copypasta-tier gag on /r/anime, 4chan, and YouTube commentary channels throughout the mid-2010s[4].

## How to Use
In anime fandom, the word typically describes a specific fictional character design: an androgynous or crossdressing male whose look reads feminine. The common convention is to pair a screenshot of such a character with the Admiral Ackbar 'IT'S A TRAP!' caption, or to drop the word in reply threads debating a character's gender[3]. Because the term is widely treated as a slur against trans people, many anime communities have moved away from it in favor of 'femboy' or character-specific descriptions[5].

## Frequently Asked Questions
### What is Trap?
Trap is an anime fandom slang term for a fictional male character drawn to look convincingly feminine, typically paired with the Admiral Ackbar 'IT'S A TRAP!' reaction image[3].

### Where did Trap come from?
The term grew out of the Admiral Ackbar 'It's a Trap' YTMND and 4chan reaction image around 2004, applied to androgynous anime characters on 4chan's anime boards[3].

### What does Trap mean?
In otaku contexts, it labels a crossdressing or androgynous male character whose appearance 'traps' a viewer into attraction; critics point out the framing itself is transphobic because it treats gender variance as a trick[1].

### How do you use Trap?
The common convention is to post a screenshot of an androgynous anime boy with the Admiral Ackbar caption, or to debate 'Are traps gay?' in reply threads, a running joke popularized by videos from king rad and Lost Pause in 2015 to 2016[2][4].

### Is Trap still popular?
The slang is declining; anime spaces moved toward 'femboy' and character-specific terms, and the word is now widely treated as a slur against trans people, including in coverage of Malik Obama's 2016 anime tweets[1].

## References
1. [https://www.themarysue.com/obamas-awful-brother/](<https://www.themarysue.com/obamas-awful-brother/>)
2. [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=G5QxGkbQWmM](<https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=G5QxGkbQWmM>)
3. [https://knowyourmeme.com/memes/trap](<https://knowyourmeme.com/memes/trap>)
4. [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eRZvW6uk0r8](<https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eRZvW6uk0r8>)
5. [https://www.urbandictionary.com/define.php?term=Trap](<https://www.urbandictionary.com/define.php?term=Trap>)

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Source: https://meme.com/memes/trap
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