Determining the degree of effeminate behavior needed to define a gay male as a sissy is subjective because expectations of gender roles shift according to culture, nation, region, and even population density. Behavior deemed acceptable for a straight adult male in an urban center such as New York or Chicago may be considered effeminate elsewhere. What might be regarded as the commonplace attributes of a "metrosexual" (i. e., a heterosexual man interested in fashion and grooming and other stereotypically homosexual pursuits) in a large city could well be seen as evidence of homosexual effeminacy in a rural area.

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Gender is performative. Hence, an individual's instances of overtly sissy behavior tends to vary depending on setting and social group. Even the most effeminate individual is usually able to "butch it up" for specific occasions or in particular circumstances. Some gay men present a conventionally masculine appearance in professional situations or in family gatherings, but assume a sissy persona when socializing in gay bars or other places where gender nonconformity is welcomed or at least tolerated.

The fluidity of social behavior makes it difficult to determine if a man is or can be, by definition, a sissy. Moreover, whether a man is defined as a sissy is often decided less by any objective measure than by comparison of his mannerisms with the behavior of others.

Conclusion

The sissy is an important constituent of the gay male community. Although sometimes reviled by both heterosexuals and other homosexuals, the sissy has historically helped define gay culture, and has often used his own sexual and gender nonconformity as a means of questioning the dominant constructions of sex and gender.

Most homosexuals are not sissies (and not all sissies are homosexuals), and many "masculine" gay men resent being thought of as effeminate simply by virtue of their homosexuality. Nevertheless, the sissy has in the popular imagination been seen as the quintessential homosexual. This perception may reflect a kind of imposition of heterosexual binaries on homosexuality (i. e, homosexuals are like women), but it may also reflect the fact that effeminate homosexuals were for many years almost the only visible gay men. They remain the most easily identifiable.

The Bear Movement has inspired a number of organizations, events, publications, and resources dedicated to affirming and eroticizing large-bodied, hirsute gay men, known as Bears.

Although more often denied than recognized, gay men and lesbians are an important part of bodybuilding, both as athletes and as consumers of the physical culture and entertainment products that the sport sponsors.

Combining elements of incongruity, theatricality, and exaggeration, camp is a form of humor that helps homosexuals cope with a hostile environment.

"Coming out" is the revelation or acknowledgment that one is a member of a sexual minority, a process that is at once personal and social and often political.

The earliest etiologies--or theories of causation--of homosexuality date from European antiquity, but the search for a universal etiology has intensified as homosexual behavior has come under the scrutiny of science.

The film sissy had his heyday in the 1930s, but persists as a film archetype, subtly reminding audiences that there are other ways of being than conventional heterosexuality.

"Leather" is a blanket term for a large array of sexual preferences, identities, relationship structures, and social organizations loosely tied together by the thread of what is conventionally understood as sadomasochistic sex.

Stereotypes usually include inaccurate and negative assumptions about groups, thus contributing to racism, classism, sexism, and homophobia.

Although tomboys must contend with the often false assumptions that they are lesbian or want to be male, for many the tomboy stage is the first manifestation of a gender-fluid life journey.

A movement that emerged in the late 1970s, the Radical Faeries identify with the gender variant sacred outsider that has appeared and reappeared in many cultures throughout human history.

Best known for his syndicated sex-advice column, Dan Savage is also the author of books chronicling his and his partner's experiences in adopting a child and dealing with the issue of same-sex marriage

When the American Psychiatric Association removed homosexuality from its list of mental illnesses, it added in its place "Gender Identity Disorder in Childhood," or "The Sissy Boy Syndrome."