WEffeminacy is the manifestation of traits in a boy or man that are more often associated with feminine behavior, mannerism, style, or gender roles rather than with masculine behavior, mannerisms, style or roles. It is typically used implying criticism or ridicule of this behavior.
WFeminization or feminisation, sometimes forced feminization, and also known as sissification, is a practice in dominance and submission or kink subcultures, involving reversal of gender roles and making a submissive partner take on a feminine role, which may include cross-dressing. Subsets of the practice include "sissy training" and variations thereof, where the submissive partner is trained over time in femininity. Feminization as a sexual fetish is not the same thing as being a transgender woman, and the submissive partners engaging in it are typically heterosexual, cisgender men. It has been speculated that the fetish is rooted in societal pressure for men to be traditionally masculine.
WFemminielli or femmenielli is a term used to refer to a population of people who embody a third gender role in traditional Neapolitan culture. It may be hard to define this term within modern Western notions of "gay men" versus "trans women" since both these categories overlap to a degree in the case of femminielli. This term is not derogatory and does not carry a stigma; instead femminielli are traditionally believed to bring luck. Ironically, Achille della Ragione suggests that recent surveys have shown that Neapolitans have a generally negative view of what he calls "the politically correct model of homosexuality of a hypocritical do-gooder society", yet he contrasts femminielli as enjoying a favorable attitude from a part of Neapolitan society.
WFop became a pejorative term for a foolish man excessively concerned with his appearance and clothes in 17th century England. Some of the many similar alternative terms are: coxcomb, fribble, popinjay or dandy, fashion-monger, and ninny. Macaroni was another term of the 18th century more specifically concerned with fashion.
WA macaroni in mid-18th-century England was a fashionable fellow who dressed and even spoke in an outlandishly affected and epicene manner. The term pejoratively referred to a man who "exceeded the ordinary bounds of fashion" in terms of clothes, fastidious eating, and gambling. He mixed Continental affectations with his English nature, like a practitioner of macaronic verse, laying himself open to satire:There is indeed a kind of animal, neither male nor female, a thing of the neuter gender, lately [1770] started up among us. It is called a macaroni. It talks without meaning, it smiles without pleasantry, it eats without appetite, it rides without exercise, it wenches without passion.
WWalter Brown, or Walter the Softy and Softy Walter as he is sometimes called, is a fictional character in Dennis the Menace, the main comic strip in British children's comic The Beano. Though Walter is portrayed as the antagonist of the strip, he is often a victim of Dennis' bullying. Walter made his first appearance in the Beano in 1953 and is the primary target of Dennis and his friends. His last name was first mentioned in "A Beano Christmas Carol" strip in 1994. Two issues in 2012 finally confirmed that his surname was indeed Brown.
WDuring the 15th century, ballet was a way to show a person's position in society. Since the early 19th century, the western world has adopted a view of male ballet dancers, or danseurs as weak, effeminate or homosexual. Through gender expectations and performance, male ballet dancers combat the stereotypes that surround them. Through education and media exposure, the stereotypes about male ballet dancers lead to changes in perception.