Padva, Gilad (2005). Radical Sissies and Stereotyped Fairies in Laurie Lynd's The Fairy Who Didn't Want To Be A Fairy Anymore. Cinema Journal 45(1), 66–78. Dalzell, Tom (2009) [1st pub. 1937]. The Routledge Dictionary of Modern American Slang and Unconventional English. London, New York: Taylor & Francis. p.885. ISBN 978-0-415-37182-7. OCLC 758181675 . Retrieved 19 March 2017. an effeminate boy or man, especially a homosexual; a coward. US, 1879. Random House Dictionary of the English Language - Second Edition - Unabridged, Random House, New York (1987). ISBN 978-0-3945-0050-8 Steinmetz, K. (2015). "Everything You Need to Know About the Debate Over Transgender People and Bathrooms". Time.

The word sissy in its original meaning of "sister" entered American English around 1840–1850 and acquired its pejorative meaning around 1885–1890; the verb sissify appeared in 1900–1905. [10] In comparison, the word tomboy is approximately three centuries older, dating to 1545–1555. [11] Dixon, Robyn (2019-04-26). "To fight K-pop's influence in China, a club teaches young boys to be alpha males". Los Angeles Times. Beijing . Retrieved 1 July 2019. Padva, Gilad and Talmon, Miri (2008). Gotta Have An Effeminate Heart: The Politics of Effeminacy and Sissyness in a Nostalgic Israeli TV Musical. Feminist Media Studies 8(1), 69–84.Elliott, Josh K. (September 3, 2021). "China bans 'sissy' and 'effeminate' men under new macho media rules". Global News. Archived from the original on 15 November 2021 . Retrieved 15 November 2021. The discourse of straight-acting produces and reproduces anti-femininity and homophobia (Clarkson. 2006). For example, feminine gay men are often labeled "fem," "bitchy," "pissy," "sissy," or "queen" (e.g., Christian, 2005; Clarkson, 2006; Payne,2007). They are perceived as if they perform like "women," spurring straight-acting gay men to have negative attitudes toward feminine-acting gay men (Clarkson, 2006; Payne, 2007;Ward, 2000). This is called sissyphobia (Bergling, 2001). Kimmel (1996) supports that "masculinity has been (historically) defined as the flight from women and the repudiation of femininity" (p. 123). Thus, sissyphobia plays as the communication strategy for straight-acting gay men to justify and empower their masculinity. (p. 38). [30]

Gregory M. Herek wrote that sissyphobia arises as a combination of misogyny and homophobia. [29] Communication scholar Shinsuke Eguchi (2011) stated:Sissy is, approximately, the male converse of tomboy (a girl with masculine traits or interests), but carries more strongly negative connotations. Research published in 2015 suggests that the terms are asymmetrical in their power to stigmatize: sissy is almost always pejorative and conveys greater severity, while tomboy rarely causes as much concern but also elicits pressure to conform to social expectations. [2] In some communities, especially ones whose members are prominently part of Generation Z, highly effeminate males are referred to as " femboys" (feminine boy), a term which aims to provide a way to refer to effeminate males without negative connotations. Goodfellow, M., "New guidelines released to 'counter gender stereotyping' in UK schools". The Independent, 19 October 2015. Fellows, Will (2004). A Passion to Preserve: Gay Men as Keepers of Culture. Madison, Wisconsin: University of Wisconsin Press. p. 280. ISBN 9780299196837 . Retrieved 2012-02-10. Thorne, B. (1993). Gender Play: Girls and Boys in School. Rutgers University Press, pp. 115-116. ISBN 978-0-8135-1923-4. Wilkinson, Sue; Kitzinger, Celia (1993-02-08). Heterosexuality: A Feminism & Psychology Reader. SAGE. p.164. ISBN 9781446229576.

The term sissyphobia denotes a negative cultural reaction against "sissy boys" thought prevalent in 1974. [23] Sissyphobia has more recently been used in some queer studies; [24] other authors in this latter area have proposed effeminiphobia, [25] femiphobia, [26] femmephobia, or effemimania [27] [28] as alternative terms. Eguchi added, "I wonder how 'sissyphobia' particularly plays into the dynamic of domestic violence processes in the straight-acting and effeminate-acting male same-sex coupling pattern." (p.53). [30] In sexual subcultures [ edit ] Taormino, Tristan (2002-08-13). "Still in Diapers". Village Voice. Archived from the original on Aug 31, 2012 . Retrieved 2012-02-10.Oliven, John F. (1974). Clinical sexuality: a manual for the physician and the professions (3rded.). Lippincott. p.110. ISBN 0-397-50329-6. By the 1930s, "there was no more damning insult than to be called a sissy" and the word was widely used by American football coaches and sports writers to disparage rival teams and encourage ferocious player behavior. [12] The use of the word sissy was "ubiquitous" among delinquent American youth of the 1930s; the term was used to provoke boys to join gangs, demean boys who violated group norms, force compliance with the mandates of masculinity, and justify violence (including sexual violence) against younger and weaker children. [13] Good students were taunted as sissies and clothing styles associated with higher social classes were demeaned as sissified. Among members of a Detroit, Michigan youth gang in 1938–39, sissy was "the ultimate slur" used to tease and taunt other boys, as a rationalization for violence against rivals, and as an excuse for not observing the dicta of middle-class decorum and morality. [13] In the BDSM practice of forced feminization, the male bottom undergoing cross-dressing may be called a sissy as a form of erotic humiliation, which may elicit guilt and/or sexual arousal. Another common theme is the use of a chastity belt, compounding the male bottom's humiliation by restricting the size and access to their genitals.