Effeminacy and Peace

Abstract

Effeminacy is a controversial topic in the history of homosexuality. Several historians have alleged, first, that the word ‘effeminate’ had a different meaning in the seventeenth century and, secondly, that it was not particularly linked to male homosexuality.1 Let us begin with the question of meaning. It is true that the meanings of words were not as fixed in the seventeenth century as they later became. The word ‘effeminate’ was sometimes applied to a man in two ways that would seem odd to us today. It could be used to suggest that a man was excessively attracted to women; it could also be used to suggest that a man was wanton or oversexed (as women were presumed to be). Both of these meanings suggest heterosexuality — indeed robust heterosexuality — not homosexuality.2 By emphasizing these two alternative meanings of the word, some scholars have managed to create the impression that effeminacy could not have been associated with male homosexuality in the seventeenth century. Jonathan Goldberg, for example, wrote that ‘effeminacy was more easily associated with, and was a charge more often made about, men who displayed excessive attention to women than taken as an indication of same-sex attraction’.3