It’s time for our series of posts here at Jessica Who?, titled “Word of the Week”. In these short articles, from here on out published each Friday, I will explore the various labels and umbrella terms used to label us. By doing this, I hope to educate not only myself, but also anyone who may not be familiar with these terms. Feel free to add your own knowledge to each post by leaving a comment 
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The label that we will be examining is: sissy
Standard Definition
An effeminate man or boy
Derogatory?
Most definitely. This is one of the worst things to call a male, especially younger ones. Every guy shudders in fear of being labeled as a sissy, because it singles him out as weaker than the others, usually leading to bullying and/or taunting.
What’s It Really Mean?
In male circles, this is one of the lowest things to be named. There is a huge stigma associated with the word sissy and it can hurt very deeply.
With that in mind, I do know that there is a substantial community of men that have turned the word around a bit and proudly call themselves sissies, for varying reasons. This is cool, in my opinion, whenever a person can move past a damaging connotation and reclaim a word.
My Take
Among macho men and boys, anything less than 100% manly is shunned, at least most of the time. There are exceptions, but for the most part in groups of guys to be singled out as a sissy is terrible.
It’s a way for males to police each other and reinforce the notion that anything feminine is inferior to masculinity. Obviously, I completely disagree with this, but it is out there.
Your Take
Have you anything to add? Please leave your take on this word in the comments section, I hope we can open up a dialogue and learn from each other while educating the masses.
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{ 9 comments… read them below or add one }
In my view there are a number of ways its used, in the autogynephilic (sp?) sense, the way its used by pornographers, certainly as a word of reclamation by the more confident and in your face members of the trans and gender variant communities.
It was called at me however because others thought I was effeminate and in many guys eyes thats one of the worst things you can be.
I really hate the macho attitude that anything feminine is to be looked down upon
My Father never kissed me. That was for sissies, men shook hands. In 8th Grade a Religious brother at school praised a boy for not crying at his Fathers funeral. Apparently that showed he was a man and not a sissy. If being a sissy means I can be affectionate, sensitive and emotional aware call me a sissy any day!
Hugs
Sissy Karen
Right on Karen!
“Sissy” = “effeminate”. That’s OK with me.
Yea
My problem with the word sissy, which has never had much impact on me because I’m proud of who I am, is the way it has been co-opted into a type of porn/fetish that is crossdressing but a much uglier, misogynistic, S&Mish type of CDing that I can’t say doesn’t bother me a little bit. I try to be open minded about people’s kinks and stuff but I think it’s just the way that sissy fetishists often degrade women that can get to me sometimes.
Yea, I can understand your point there
As a kid the word sissy, pansy and panty waist was another way of saying you were chicken. Of course now-a-days it’s a tag for being gay. The porn industryand some TG web sites of course loves the term.