The act or process of becoming effeminate or being made to lose masculine qualities; the state of having become unmanly.
From Latin 'effeminatio,' a nominalization of 'effeminare' (to make womanly). This is the third-person singular present form, used as a noun to describe the abstract process or state. Entered English through Late Medieval religious and philosophical texts.
Early Christian writers used 'effemination' as a sin or moral failing, showing how tied together religious morality and gender performance were in medieval Europe—a connection we've mostly abandoned now.
Nominalization emphasizing 'effeminacy' as a process or condition, historically used in medical/psychological discourse to pathologize gender-nonconforming men and male homosexuality.
Avoid in modern usage. Use 'gender-nonconforming expression' or 'feminine presentation' for descriptive neutrality.
["gender-nonconforming expression","feminine presentation","rejection of masculine norms"]
LGBTQ+ scholars and gender theorists have reclaimed femininity in all genders as valid, not deviation; medical pathologization of these terms has been thoroughly discredited.
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