Amy Diehl, Ph.D.Mar 22
Girls are often encouraged to be athletic, assertive or like “tomboys,” while boys face no socially acceptable equivalent in the other direction. There is no benign male version of tomboy. The closest is “sissy,” not typically considered a compliment.
https://theconversation.com/gender-conformity-starts-young-and-boys-and-girls-fall-in-line-in-different-ways-275996
Gender conformity starts young – and boys and girls fall in line in different ways

Children learn what it means to be a woman or a man early on. How they respond to threats to how well they conform to gender stereotypes changes with age.

The Conversation
Show threadMiguel Angelo CacilhasMar 22

@amydiehl well, very few media try to enlighten People with the beauty of a feminine side men aesthetic.

One of the few very popular medias I see doing that with absolutely no "sassy" or overall negative conotation is Araki's JoJo's Bizarre Adventures Mangá/Anime.

It did start as a major "big muscly male standard", but since the 4th part (1992), it started shifting The male characters beauty into a very femine aesthetic, without associating those characters as "weaklings" or futile.

Show threadMiguel Angelo Cacilhas
@amydiehl this for example is a 1995 protagonist of JoJo's 5th part. He is taken as a very cunning and menacing gangster, that fights to turn the mafia away from child drug dealing, and is shown also as a fairly strong fighter. Not portrayed as gay, or vulnerable. Just a extremely fashion straight man.
Mar 22 at 7:09pmMastodon for Android