Product Code Database
Effeminacy or male femininityHoskin R. A. “Femininity? It’s the aesthetic of subordination”: Examining femmephobia, the gender binary, and experiences of oppression among sexual and gender minorities // Archives of sexual behavior. – 2020. – V. 49. – №. 7. – p. 2319-2339.Berkowitz D., Windsor E. J., Han C. W. (ed.). Male femininities. – NYU Press, 2023. is the embodiment of feminine traits in boys or men, particularly those considered untypical of men or masculinity. These traits include gender roles, stereotypes, behaviors, and appearances that are socially associated with girls and women. Throughout Western civilization, men considered effeminate have faced prejudice and discrimination. Gay men are often LGBT stereotypes as being effeminate, and vice versa. However, femininity, masculinity, and other forms of gender expression are independent of sexual orientation.
Other vernacular words for effeminacy include: pansy, nelly, pretty boy, nancy boy, girly boy, molly, sissy, pussy, tomgirl, femboy, roseboy, baby, and girl (when applied to a boy or, especially, adult man). The word effete similarly implies effeminacy or over-refinement, but comes from the Latin term effetus meaning 'having given birth; exhausted', from ex- and fetus 'offspring'. The term tomgirl, meaning a girlish boy, comes from an inversion of tomboy, meaning a boyish girl. The term girly boy comes from a gender-inversion of girly girl.
When Aeschines was accused of treason by Athenians Timarchus and Demosthenes in 346 BC, he brought a counter suit claiming Timarchus had prostituted himself to (or been "kept" by) other men ( Against Timarchus). He also attributed Demosthenes' nickname Batalos ("arse") to his "unmanliness and kinaidiā" and frequently commented on his "unmanly and womanish temper", even criticising his clothing: "If anyone took those dainty little coats and soft shirts off you... and took them round for the jurors to handle, I think they'd be quite unable to say, if they hadn't been told in advance, whether they had hold of a man's clothing or a woman's."Dover, 1989
In ancient Koine Greek, the word for effeminate is κίναιδος kinaidos ( cinaedus in its Latinized form), or μαλακός malakoi: a man "whose most salient feature was a supposedly 'feminine' love of being sexually penetrated by other men":Winkler, 1990
The late Greek Erôtes ("Loves", "Forms of Desire", "Affairs of the Heart"), preserved with manuscripts by Lucian, contains a debate "between two men, Charicles and Callicratidas, over the relative merits of women and boys as vehicles of male sexual pleasure." Callicratidas, "far from being effeminised by his sexual predilection for boys... Callicratidas's inclination renders him hypervirile... Callicratidas's sexual desire for boys, then, makes him more of a man; it does not weaken or subvert his male gender identity but rather consolidates it." In contrast, "Charicles' erotic preference for women seems to have had the corresponding effect of effeminising him: when the reader first encounters him, for example, Charicles is described as exhibiting 'a skillful use of cosmetics, so as to be attractive to women.
Roman consul Scipio Aemilianus questioned one of his opponents, P. Sulpicius Galus: "For the kind of man who adorns himself daily in front of a mirror, wearing perfume; whose eyebrows are shaved off; who walks around with plucked beard and thighs; who when he was a young man reclined at banquets next to his lover, wearing a long-sleeved tunic; who is fond of men as he is of wine: can anyone doubt that he has done what cinaedi are in the habit of doing?"fr. 17 Malcovati; Aulus Gellius, 6.12.5; cited/translated by Williams 1999, p. 23
Roman orator Quintilian described, "The plucked body, the broken walk, the female attire," as "signs of one who is soft mollis and not a real man." Institutes 5.9.14, cited/translated by Richlin, 1993
For Roman men masculinity also meant self-control, even in the face of painful emotions, illnesses, or death. Cicero says, "There exist certain precepts, even laws, that prohibit a man from being effeminate in pain," Fin. 2.94 and Seneca adds, "If I must suffer illness, it will be my wish to do nothing out of control, nothing effeminately." Epist. 67.4
Emperor/philosopher Julian the Apostate, in his Against the Galileans, wrote: ''Why are the Egyptians more intelligent and more given to crafts, and the Syrians unwarlike and effeminate, but at the same time intelligent, hot-tempered, vain and quick to learn?''
In his Commentaries on the Gallic Wars, Julius Caesar wrote that the Belgae were the bravest of all because "merchants least frequently resort to them, and import those things which tend to effeminate the mind". Commentarii de Bello Gallico, I,1
Emperor Marcus Aurelius evidently considered effeminacy an undesirable trait, but it is unclear what or who was being referred to.Meditations, Book 4.
In September 2021, the Associated Press reported that the mainland Chinese government has banned effeminate men from appearing in television commercials. The Chinese government instructed broadcasters to stop showing "sissy men".
Before the Stonewall riots, inconsistent gender role performance had been noticed among gay men:Karlen, 1978Cory and LeRoy, 1963Newton, 1972 "They have a different face for different occasions. In conversations with each other, they often undergo a subtle change. I have seen men who appeared to be normal suddenly smile roguishly, soften their voices, and simper as they greeted homosexual friends ... Many times I saw these changes occur after I had gained a homosexual's confidence and he could safely risk my disapproval. Once as I watched a luncheon companion become an effeminate caricature of himself, he apologized, 'It is hard to always remember that one is a man.'"Stearn 1962, 29Levine, 1998, p. 21–23 Before Stonewall, "Closeted" culture accepted homosexuality as effeminate behaviour, and thus emphasized camp, drag, and swish, including an interest in fashionHenry, 1955West, 1977 and decorating.Fischer 1972White 1980Henry 1955, 304 Masculine gay men were marginalisedWarren 1972, 1974Helmer 1963 and formed their own communities, such as the leather subculture, and/or wore clothes that were commonly associated with working-class individuals,Fischer, 1972 such as Sailor suit.Levine, 1998, p. 21–23, 56
After Stonewall, "Castro clone" became dominant and effeminacy is now marginalised. One indicator of this is a definite preference shown in personal ads for masculine-behaving men.Bailey et al. 1997. The avoidance of effeminacy by men, including gay ones, has been linked to possible impedance of personal and public health. Regarding HIV/AIDS, masculine behaviour was stereotyped as being unconcerned about safe sex practices while engaging in promiscuous sexual behaviour. Early reports from New York City indicated that more women had themselves tested for HIV/AIDS than men.Sullivan, 1987Levine, 1998, p. 148 David Halperin compares "universalising" and "minoritising" notions of gender deviance: "'Softness' either may represent the specter of potential gender failure that haunts all normative masculinity, an ever-present threat to the masculinity of every man, or it may represent the disfiguring peculiarity of a small class of deviant individuals."David Halperin, 2002
The term effeminiphobia (sometimes effemiphobic, as used by Randy P. Conner) was coined by Will Fellows to describe strong anti-effeminacy. Michael Bailey coined the similar term femiphobia to describe the ambivalence gay men and culture have about effeminate behaviour in 1995.Michael Bailey, 1995 Gay author Tim Bergling popularized the term sissyphobia in ,Dylan Vox, "Would Life Be Better if You Were Straight?" , Gaywired.com, Dec 20, 2007, also appeared in Edge, Boston although it was used before. Trans woman writer and biologist Julia Serano has coined the similar term effemimania. (2025). 9781580051545, Seal Press. ISBN 9781580051545 Feminist sociologist Rhea Ashley Hoskin suggests that these terms can be understood as relating to a larger construct of , or "prejudice, discrimination, or antagonism directed against someone who is perceived to identify, embody, or express femininely and toward people and objects gendered femininely." Since the 2000s, Peter Hennen's cultural analysis of gay masculinities has found effeminacy to be a "historically varying concept deployed primarily as a means of stabilising a given society's concept of masculinity and controlling the conduct of its men based upon the repudiation of the feminine".
While the term can be used as a slur towards trans women, it is also used as a positive/self-describing term within the LGBT community.
|
|
