Effeminacy Quotes

“[Asiaticus responds] Ask your sons, Suillius. They will testify to my masculinity.”
― Tacitus, Publius, Cornelius, The Annals of Imperial Rome

“The newer word “gay” was perhaps even worse, reminding him of limp-wristed men simulating ridiculously the opposite sex in the ludicrous hope of attracting a real specimen of their own.”
― edmund marlowe, Alexander's Choice

“Our fathers were both rude and bold,
And would not live like brothers;
But we are of a finer mould -
We’re much more like our mothers!”
― H.P. Lovecraft

“A core part of...'orthodox masculinity' has its bedrock in not doing, saying or being anything that might be seen as feminine... The first rule of being a man is 'no sissy stuff'. Instead, these sexist and misogynistic constructs at the heart of orthodox masculine gender performance are understood as helping shore up the theory of men's 'natural' dominance over effeminate men and women. Men who fail to live up to the standards set...are excluded or marginalised to the extent of their transgression. The fear of the loss of power and male privilege lies in the rejection of masculinity's apparent binary and complementary opposite, femininity.”
― Penny Lenihan, Counselling Skills for Working with Gender Diversity and Identity

“They can clutch with both hands at the myth of the great dark man. Their choice, unless they suffer from some subsidiary kink, is guided by the desire to bolster up, with a number of contrasts, that dream of themselves which it is their one increasing purpose to maintain.
To understand what kind of man they most admire it is only necessary to guess what they wish they themselves were—young, frail, beautiful and refined. Hence their predilection is for huge, violent, coarse brutes.”
― Quentin Crisp, The Naked Civil Servant