Castrated boy feminine or masculine

In the joy of the castrated boy, queer theorists explain the castrated boy as the “expression of the gay male refusal or inability to thus be “threatened or undone” by femininity” (39). This idea of avoiding femininity, while consequently being persecuted as a homosexual for not being ‘masculine’ undermines the use of masculine and feminine. In fact feminine and masculine seem are used for different purposes. Masculine is represented as a measure of heterosexuality, and a way to degrade other men. Femininity is a representation of the female persona perceived in the stereotypical male dominated society. Although the two terms are treated as opposites it seems more often that not that they are innately different from one another, which explains why the castrated boy and others don’t fall under anyone particular category, yet we still describe people as a level of masculine and feminine.

Then considering the description of effeminate boys in “How to bring your kids up gay” and how parents strive to support or degrade, it also explains the need to associate a child as overly feminine or masculine. For the boy it’s obvious any lack of masculinity serves as degradation of the identity of being a boy. This is the true impact of the person’s actually personality, not a simple association of which side one represents. As the two sides are skewed, it becomes uncertain what feminine and masculine are supposed to represent.