Pejorative terms for failed gender roles
Pejorative terms for failed gender roles arise when some group in a society looks at individuals and decides that some performances of gender role behavior are in some way unsatisfactory. For instance, a child wears typical boy's clothing, is not particularly careful about combing his hair, thinks about washing his face only in terms of avoiding parental criticism, etc. So in most ways he appears like other little boys. However, he is much less bold than his cohorts. He is reluctant to climb trees, descend into storm sewers, invade abandoned buildings through open windows, play rough and tumble games, fight, etc. So he gets called a "sissy," i.e., a boy who looks and acts like somebody's sister. When a person gives a truthful representation of his/her motivations, aspirations, etc., and then experiences some form of negative response from the general society, one response that such a person may make is to ignore the negative response, a second response would be to try to become more like the person that the society wants him/her to be, a third response would be to try to falsify the presentation of self given in the gender role, and a fourth response would be to defiantly exaggerate the parts of the gender role that have occasioned negative reactions. There are probably as many gender roles as there are individuals, although they will fall into broadly similar groups most of the time. Here is a list of some of the most common pejorative terms for gender roles that some people find objectionable, unsatisfactory, or inadequate: Sissy: A would-be boy who does not meet somebody's minimum requirements for behavior from which masculinity can be inferred. Such a person is alleged to be less masculine and more feminine than the critic thinks he should be. Tomboy: A would-be girl whom the critic judges to be too masculine to be a "real girl." Effeminate man: A would-be man whom the critic judges to be too feminine to be a "real man." (Such a man could be called a mollycoddle, milquetoast, milksop, sop, mamma's boy, or namby-pamby -- all terms with negative connotations.) Mannish woman: A would-be woman whom the critic judges to be too masculine to be a "real woman." (Synonyms with more negative connotations include: amazon, virago...) A woman who is very self assertive, challenges the assumed authority of men, and pushes other people around the way some men do may get called a virago. There are also pejorative terms that apply to atypical gender roles.
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