Barlo / Kaan (Sexuality)

Submission 2,906

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About

Barlo is a satirical sexuality used to describe people who are sexually attracted to bees. Kaan is defined as a slur against barlo people. The parody sexuality was first defined by TikToker @barlopride in April 2021 and gained viral spread through reposts on social media over the following years, inspiring further memes referencing the fake sexuality.

Origin

On April 16th, 2023, now-deleted TikToker @barlopride posted a video sharing a "new sexuality" called "barlo," described as, "where you are sexually attracties to bees." They write, "Yes it's real the slur against these ppl is 'kaan,' please don't say it if ur not barlo." The video gained an unknown number of views before it was deleted (screenshot shown below).^[1]

While the terms "barlo" and "kaan" are seemingly a joke, there is a real term for people who are attracted to bees. The term is "Melissophilia" and it has been documented by numerous publications throughout the late 2010s and 2020s, including YourTango,^[10] Vice^[11] and Metro.^[12] There is also a subreddit related to Melissophilia.

Spread

On April 20th, 2021, Tumblr^[2] user thesituation posted the "barlo" screenshot, writing, "I love the concept presented here where sexualities come equipped with at least one slur provided upfront free of charge," garnering over 55,600 notes in two years.

At a later date, Tumblr^[3] user glitchlight added a Bee Movie screenshot to the post (shown below, left). The post was shared to the subreddit /r/CuratedTumblr^[4] on April 23rd, garnering over 900 upvotes in two years.

On March 25th, 2022, the meme was shared to /r/shitposting,^[5] garnering over 34,000 upvotes in a year. On April 19th, Redditor u/YeaImBrokeFam posted a meme to /r/memes^[6] using the "barlo" screenshot, garnering over 10,000 upvotes in a year (shown below, right).

On June 10th, 2023, TikToker^[7] @brassius.s posted a video in which they comedically apologized for using the slur "kaan," garnering over 33,000 views in six months (shown below).

On November 26th, X^[8] user @FunneeBee posted the original meme, garnering over 1,600 likes in a week. On November 27th, X^[9] user @cementsoup quote-reposted the image, writing, "whoever made tiktok deserves some kind of award because even after 4 years people keep falling for this," garnering over 57,000 likes in a week (shown below).