The only term I could think of is defeminization.
It seems like most people understand what emasculation is and the things that cause it.
What are some examples of situations that can cause the feeling?
Edit: changed effeminization to defeminization.
Infertility/miscarriage, menopause, loss of breasts or uterus to cancer, perhaps being unable to attract a partner or being ‘friend zoned’, trouble bonding with child maybe caused by ppd, loss of hair, accidently mistaken as being a man, failure at traditionally seen as women’s work such as cooking or keeping a clean house
And I’m not sure effeminization is right. When I hear that, I think of a feminized male, not a defeminized female.
I’ll add: growing “excess”, unfeminine hair.
I’m old enough to just pluck as needed and not care all that much, but there are definitely times when I feel like there’s something wrong with me because I can feel two or three hairs on my chin.
No one ever mentions to you as a young girl going through puberty that there’s another one coming in your late 20s-early 30s that will cause you to subconsciously stroke your neck/chin upwards and make smirky faces in your mirror to catch all these hateful manly hairs.
I do this and I see women at stoplights doing this all the time now. But no one clued me in to it as a preteen that it was coming, and that’s rude.
People should pause and realize for many men emasculation is: having someone decide what burger they are getting without consulting them, a spouse that earns more money, and having to look after their own children. We have some work to do.
Yeah that all sounds accurate. Ps. The word I had in mind was defemenization, my bad.
The fact that there’s not an easily defined name for it should tell you something.
The long and short of it is that emasculation is what happens when people think someone isn’t acting enough like “a man,” or is stopping someone from doing so.
In women, it’s generally acting too much like a man. Getting called “shrill” or “aggressive” is something that frequently brought against women who take an assertive role. I’ve also seen women who were in senior positions asked to take notes during a meeting, as if they were a personal assistant rather than a manager.
Emasculation is treating a man as less than a man. As if he were a woman. The equivalent for a woman is treating her like society has traditionally treated a woman. Our current best word for that is probably “misogyny,” but we can unfortunately also go with “normal.”
A flat-chested female friend of mine was bullied by her female peers as a teen; they called her “A-cup”, especially around boys.
That’s a particular brand of cruel.
I’ve wondered about this before. Given my experience as a male teenager, I do not know how I would have coped with an aspect of puberty being so prominently visible and literally front and center. Males obviously have the whole penis size thing, but its an organ entirely out of sight in public. Your story sounds awful!
It is not a very commonly used word, but I think the word you are looking for is “defeminize” - it’s the closest ‘clinical’ English word I’ve heard - every other word to describe the feminine equivalent of emasculation is either slang or a slur.
Yep, that was a brain fart right there.
Shakespeare used the word “unsex” for this, I think. It’s been a while but maybe Lady Macbeth was an example?
Wow I didnt expect this answer!
“Come, you spirits That tend on mortal thoughts, unsex me here, And fill me from the crown to the toe topful Of direst cruelty!”
Now the removal female qualities is the desire of the character herself as she wants the spirits to remove her feminine qualities and emotions, so I dont know if this would count since the lack of traditional gender traits is a positive or atleast desired aspect.
But great reference, I would never have thought of that.
What if your kids bond to a female friend and start calling her Mommy instead of you?
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There is no equivalent because women are culturally allowed to enact both gender roles without taking on shame.
The shame a man is assigned when he either adopts or is cast into the feminine role is a asymmetrical aspect of our gender culture.
7yyyyuu
