Ah, Tomdaya. The latest portmanteau couple striking us all dizzy with their beauty and combined star power.
But what, you may ask, is the portmanteau couple? “Portmanteau couple” refers to the coupling of celebrity pairs’ names, so, for example, Brangelina for (the ill-fated) Angelina Jolie and Brad Pitt. I think it’s apt that the term portmanteau is being used, given that it denotes the coming together of two words to form a new word. So, too, do celebrity couples like Tomdaya come together to form a more powerful whole.
So, who exactly are the proponents of Tomdaya? Tomdaya refers to one Tom Holland and one Zendaya Coleman (who mononymously goes by Zendaya).
Tom is a clean-cut Brit hailing from Kingston, London, who famously took ballet and dance classes as a young boy. Even more famously, Tom recreated Rihanna’s “umbrella” music video in a lip-sync battle against none other than Zendaya. Both of these facts give Tom a somewhat counter-hegemonic edge as a celebrity, not to mention his decrying of the racism hurled at black UK football players. Persona-wise, Tom is funny, an apt storyteller, a little bit potty-mouthed and well, pretty English. I mean, he loves Jaffa cakes and football. Doesn’t get more English than that. Zendaya, on the other hand, is… well, for one, she doesn’t need much introduction. She’s Zendaya! Slayer of the Met Gala and red carpets everywhere. Star of Disney shows, Eu-freaking-phoria, and Dune. Zendaya’s a multi-hyphenate talent, given that she can sing, dance and act. Tom and Zendaya’s rapport together is very much of a “two people sharing one braincell” variety, with one of them usually cracking the other up. Notably, neither member of Tomdaya has any scandals to their name. Like other celebrities, they’re able to foster authenticity by interacting with fans on social media and at events. One article posits that celebs forge online authenticity by means of shutting down rumours and responding to fans. Tomdaya does both of these things: years before they became a couple, they denied being one on Twitter.
What is my point here? Well, it’s simple. Tomdaya, with its libertarian edge and generally wholesome image, fits Gen Z’s standards for a celebrity couple. Tom embodies warm, positive masculinity and Zendaya is a boss at everything she does.
Plus, I feel that celebrities are often figures that people project their own desires onto. With Tomdaya, that’s easy – the pair has a clear persona, but not one so well–defined that there’s no wiggle room for fan fantasies (and by this I mean middling, benign fantasies that don’t pose any harm to either Tomdaya or the person fantasizing).
In total, go Tomdaya!
Author’s Note: I haven’t mentioned Zendaya’s status as a person of colour/young Black woman too much in this article, but I by no means want to disregard it. Her prominence as a young woman of colour, and her having grown up in proximity to the Black Panther Party’s headquarters are important markers of her racial identity, and she remains an aspirational figure for many people of colour.