History of Masculinity
| Term | Contextual note | Time/Region | References |
|---|---|---|---|
| boys will be boys | |||
| chicken | |||
| coward/s
cowardice |
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| dandy | |||
| flower | |||
| girly
girlish |
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| grow some balls
haven’t got the balls |
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| macho | |||
| man up | |||
| manly | |||
| Nancy | |||
| octopus | Slang for someone (usually a man) who commonly initiates unwanted physical contact with another person. Can euphemistically obscure/excuse sexual violence or harassment. Use "repeatedly accused of sexual harassment" or similar instead. | 1930s-. US and UK | Green's Dictionary of Slang [1] |
| pansy | |||
| pussy | |||
| sissy | |||
| soft | |||
| Toxic Masculinity | “The constellation of socially regressive [masculine] traits that serve to foster domination, the devaluation of women, homophobia, and wanton violence.” | ||
| unmanful
unmanlike unmanly unmasculine womanish womanlike |
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| weakling/s | |||
| white feather | A symbol historically used to denote cowardice. White feathers were presented by various groups to non-combatant men in Britain during the First World War, with the intention of shaming them into enlisting. | 18th Century- | Oxford English Dictionary [2] |
| yellowbelly
yellow-belly yellow-bellies yellow belly yellow bellies |