How Golden Retriever Boyfriends Became The New Ideal In 2023

Brooding bad boys have had their moment, but their cool-guy mystique lost all of its charm this year. In 2023, a new ideal for the perfect boyfriend materialized: sunny, enthusiastic, hyper-loyal, happy-go-lucky, and never overthinking things. A man with all the best traits of a golden retriever.

The concept of a golden retriever boyfriend isn’t new (the phrase has been floating around the internet for at least a couple years), but between buzzy new celeb romances, doting movie beaus, and the power of social media, it blew up in 2023. At the beginning of the year, the term went viral on TikTok as users tried to pin down what makes these type of guys such perfect partners. Adorable videos garnered millions of views, as girlfriends showed off how their BFs would excitedly light up when spotting them in the distance, or boyfriends who eagerly explained their whole day to their partner.

These are the boyfriends who are the life of the party, find the magic in every moment, and will do anything in the world to make their partner happy. And according to the people who date them, they’re just as delightful as they sound.

Justine, 30, an influencer marketing director, knows this newly popular category of men well — her partner Dan is a GRB. “Kelsea Ballerini put it best saying ‘he’s a man written by a woman’ when describing her golden retriever boyfriend,” Justine tells Elite Daily. “He’s genuinely friends with my girlfriends, and I often hear that he’s the only man who is a friend’s significant other that they’re also genuinely friends with.”

As Justine notes, Chase Stokes has quickly risen the ranks as a quintessential golden retriever boyfriend since he began dating Kelsea Ballerini at the start of the year. Sure, his curls help push the connection, but it’s really Stokes’ sheer devotion to Ballerini that exemplifies his golden retriever-dom. He “cried the whole time” watching his GF perform in concert, never fails to lovingly embrace her while supporting her at shows and events, and gushed that Ballerini is literally “the best human being on planet Earth.” Now that’s true admiration.

It’s a trait he shares with the undisputed No. 1 golden retriever boyfriend of the year: Travis Kelce. In the past, Taylor Swift never really went for the golden retriever type (she’s famously a cat person, after all). She had a thing for more sensitive and withdrawn artists who would keep the personal details of their love lives away from the public eye. But Kelce smashed right through that pattern, giddily carrying Swift into her most unrestricted romance, filled with grand gestures and enthusiastic displays of support.

With the dopey smile and can’t-sit-still excitability of a puppy, Kelce brought out Swift’s real lover era. Just like a loyal dog, he would do anything to be by her side: renting out whole restaurants for date nights, flying across continents even on a tight schedule to support her, and of course, never shying away from as much PDA as possible. In return, Swift has been more public about her love life than ever, even inserting a surprise shoutout to Kelce in song lyrics, as a treat for her adorably attentive BF.

Kelce’s head-over-heels devotion to Swift coincides with a renewed interest in one of the singer’s exes. As Swift welcomed Taylor Lautner back into her musical universe with her re-recording of Speak Now, fans realized exactly why he’d been dubbed Swift’s best ex: He’s also a total golden retriever boyfriend. He’ll even perform literal tricks for Swift and her fans whenever they ask, eagerly launching into backflips at Eras Tour film screenings.

In 2023, those overly complicated love interests are so out of vogue.

Lautner’s categorization is especially telling given that he’s so diametrically opposed to the exact opposite of the golden retriever boyfriend: Edward Cullen. Back in the Twilight days, pretty much everyone was Team Edward (even Lautner’s own wife). There was just something so irresistible about the brooding, emotionally distant bad boy. The culture fawned over dark mysterious types like Edward, Jess from Gilmore Girls, Angel from Buffy, and Chuck from Gossip Girl.

But in 2023, those overly complicated love interests are so out of vogue.

“A lot of us millennials have grown up seeing men joke about hating their wives and partners and doing the absolute bare minimum, and we are tired,” Kate, 28, a marketing manager, tells Elite Daily of how tastes have shifted. And now, Gen Z is changing up the blueprint for what really makes an ideal boyfriend.

Fifteen years after Twilight, the internet is all-in on Team Jacob, as further exemplified by other golden retriever-coded characters getting their long overdue respect among fandoms. The overlooked lovestruck puppy Jeremiah Fisher finally got his kiss with Belly after she moved on from his sullen, tortured brother, Conrad. And the renaissance of the Hunger Games movies brought with it a renewed respect for Peeta’s unwavering devotion to Katniss.

Of course, the ultimate fictional golden retriever boyfriend of 2023 was Ken. Ryan Gosling’s portrayal of a grinning himbo who exists solely to dote on Barbie hit the cultural bullseye for a reason.

Although he does get briefly poisoned by the patriarchy, Ken’s sole brain cell never stops focusing only on Barbie. And really, that laser-focused attention is the true hallmark of this year’s ideal BF. There may have been a time when subtlety and tension was sexy, but who has time for all that now?

This year has given a whole new meaning to the saying, “Men are dogs.” Suddenly, that’s a good thing.