Sissies: Born or Made? Essay #1

"Some are born sissy, some achieve sissyhood, and some have sissyhood forced upon them."

That’s a paraphrase and parody of a line from Shakespeare’s Twelfth Night, and I believe it is entirely true. In this series of essays, I will be exploring the idea that some males are sissies (almost) from birth, others develop into sissies on their own, and still others are made into sissies.

Some Are Born Sissy

Let me be clear—I’m not suggesting there is a genetic component to being a sissy, or that it is an inheritable trait. I do, however, think that some boys begin the journey to sissyhood very early, possibly within the first 12 months of life. There are specific circumstances that can lead to this.

The first is being the “baby” of the family, the last child born—especially if he is also the only male child. As such, he is surrounded by femininity and experiences girlish things—clothes, toys, activities—as normal and desirable. His elder siblings, all female, will be his natural first playmates…and, as the youngest in the group, he will most likely be seen by them as a playtoy, a dolly to be dressed and posed.

A second is maternal domination. If the father is absent, or distant (either geographically or emotionally), the mother will come to be the dominant influence in the boy’s life, from a young age. This is very true in the single-parent situation, where all discipline and control is supplied by the mother, who will naturally be more comfortable dealing with a submissive and somewhat feminine child. In addition, the mother who is left to handle things alone will often turn to her own mother and sisters for support and assistance.

All this places the developing child in an overwhelmingly feminine culture and society. Is it little wonder, then, that he finds comfort and joy in girlish things? By the time he is pre-school age, and is beginning to act out what he perceives as his adult models—at time when most boys are pretending to be such figures as policemen, firemen, pilots—the boy in our scenario is, instead, dressing in his mother’s cast-offs and pretending to be a housewife, a waitress, or ballerina.

In other words, he is, by his own volition and through his early training, a sissy.