What Might Someone be a Sissy?
Safe Humiliation:
Humiliation in one form or another is a common fetish, as it is an aspect of masochism. A lot of different activities can be sought out to achieve embarrassment, and sissy play and sissification is one of them. For a grown man, there are few things more humiliating than being caught wearing a frilly dress that looks like something a little girl might wear. There is a powerful stigma for most men against appearing either feminine or childish. To be caught deliberately embracing both identities would be absolutely devastating for most men, and it's this sort of humiliation that many sissies seek after.
Domination:
The loss of control over themselves can be a strong motivator for sissies. Some may want a partner to force them into their sissy clothes. In addition to being humiliated, they lose their status, and the responsibilities implicit in that status. The male stereotype is that they are powerful, leaders, and in control. Being forced into sissy clothes completely destroys those perceptions, reducing them to a little girl with no power or control.
The enjoyment of this power exchange may be sexual, as with the humiliation fetish. However, it may also function as a sort of stress relief. To be forcibly removed from one's role also strips away the expectations associated with that role. In a way, it's a sort of escapism, a temporary relief from the stresses of adult life through being forced to surrender one's identity.
Attention:
Often as a given "sissy task" as a part of sissification or for thrill seekers, some sissies choose to wear their exaggerated outfits in public. With the use of the outfit's outrageous styles and bright colors, it's often impossible to not draw attention to yourself. This is especially satisfying for some sissies because most people would never want that kind of attention in public, especially not when wearing an outfit most would consider humiliating. Sissies will get this attention by wearing their outfits to stores, or walking down the street. Anywhere they feel that they'll get a reaction out of someone.
As a Way to Escape Traditional Gender Roles:
This has been hinted at by the first two reasons; a sissy may desire to give up the power and status specifically implied by masculinity. For some, being a sissy is more explicitly about rebelling against gender norms. Some people find happiness in deliberately breaking the "rules" of gender - like being a man in a dress, for example. Being a sissy can be a powerful way to accomplish this. Overall, there is a strong element of subverting gender norms present in being a sissy - whether for stress relief, sexual desire, or a simple means of self-expression.
As a Desire to Emulate the Innocence and Freedom of Little Girls:
While humiliation can be a driving factor for a sissy's desire to adopt a youthful esthetic, this is not necessarily the only reason. There are a wide variety of non-sexual reasons a man may seek to wear clothing inspired by designs used for little girls.
Little girls are often seen as an archetype of innocence. In the collective mindset of society, young girls represent a powerful image of being free of the ugliness and challenges of the world. While boys are often seen as being more rowdy or energetic, girls are perceived as being loving and gentle. Realistically these stereotypes are often not accurate in real life. As any adult who has spent time with children can attest, real little girls are far from angels much of the time! The image of little girls as innocent and kind is largely constructed from our culture. Even a quick glance at movies and television shows for girls, or reading books for girls, consistently presents a picture of girlhood as more emotional, sensitive, and innocent than it actually is. Well-known examples include Alice from Alice's Adventures in Wonderland, Ramona Quimby from Beverly Cleary's Ramona books, the television show Strawberry Shortcake, and virtually every Disney Princess.
Yet while this picture is grounded in stereotypes, it holds appeal for many adults. They want to break free of a world that is often cruel and ugly. And the imagined state of girlhood is an inviting break from this world. Thus, if someone has regressive tendencies to begin with, a powerful motivation for being a little girl is present. For many, a return to kindness and innocence is a major reason for their little girl interests.
Again, consider the stereotypes of girlhood and boyhood. What's the response to a child who is upset or crying? For many boys, the response is a pat on the back, or an admonition to "suck it up!" ironically, perhaps with the term "sissy" often given to a boy who cries too much. Girls, on the other hand, are often expected to show tears, or be more vulnerable. It's okay for a young girl to be distraught, crying in the arms of a caretaker. For an adult, this display of weakness would almost never be considered acceptable. Thus, being a sissy is an opportunity to feel some release which can be necessary for one's mental well-being - without the barriers brought on by one's adult or male identity. Again, this does assume a somewhat stereotypical view of masculinity and femininity, but there is some truth in terms of how children versus adults, and males versus females, are expected to express emotions.
Finally those who enjoy a little girl’s aesthetic sometimes state that, as children, they either enjoyed more feminine activities and toys, or wished they could have them. They enjoyed playing games such as "House", playing with dolls or using their action figures to create more family-based scenarios, or enjoyed playing "dress-up", perhaps even in their mother or sister's old clothes. As a result, feminine activities carry fond childhood memories desires, and they take on an identity to experience those memories again. Some sissies have been bullied for these activities, and want to enjoy them in an identity where it's safe to do so.
What do Sissies Wear?
A Typical Sissy Outfit:
Traditionally sissies enjoy wearing hyper feminine clothing, designed with exaggerated feminine features. Sissy outfits may feature satin dresses with short skirts, petticoats, many frills, and bows, additionally frilly panties, bras, tights, thigh highs, heels, mary janes, plastic panties, and even diapers (we'll circle back to these) are worn by sissies. These over the top outfits are typically not seen as normal clothing by your average person, so wearing them is often a unique experience to the sissy. A sissy's esthetic is not all that different from that of a little girl: cutesy and feminine. This is what makes sissies unique, the fact that it is an adult male wearing this clothing and not a little girl.
Sissy Clothing Manufacturers:
Sissy clothing is so inherently unique in it's style that it is often custom manufactured by companies specializing exclusively in sissy clothing. Websites such as Leanne's Pretty Dresses or The Sissy Store, specialize in making custom made sissy attire. However because these clothes come custom made they can often be pricey. Your average high quality sissy dress may cost well over a hundred dollars. While they are quite expensive, the customizability means you can create your dream dress. Often you are able to control the type and color of the material, as well as add extra details of accessories. So while the price may be high, you are able to craft a one of a kind sissy dress tailored just to you!
Plenty of Pink
The color predominantly featured on sissy clothing is the color pink. Pink being the color stereotypically associated with the female gender and by extension femininity. Sissies of course seek to be the embodiment of femininity so it's only natural that a majority of sissy clothing comes designed with the color pink. Everything from dresses, to panties, to shoes have been made pink for sissies at one point or another. The color pink has become so inextricably linked to sissies, I'd wager that every sissy has at least one 100% pink outfit that they can pull out of their closet.
Sissy Maids: Other than an esthetic inspired by that of a little girl, by far the most common esthetic of sissies are maids. Maids work in service to someone else, and based on anachronistic hierarchical standards are typically associated with being lower class. This is right up most sissy's allies as they have a desire to feel humiliated, and be "made low". Being forced to be someone's maid is quite the humiliating event, and exactly what sissies crave. Therefore many sissy dresses take inspiration from maid uniforms (although typically with more sissified features). This way sissies can dress the part and be ready to be someone's sissy maid, or at least enjoy the feeling of looking like one!
PVC Dresses
Clothing made of PVC (Polyvinyl chloride) is not very soft or comfortable, and it isn't breathable, making the wearer feel hot. Under normal circumstances the idea of wearing clothing made of PVC sounds pretty awful, however sissies are by no means normal. While your typical sissy dress is made of satin or similar materials some sissy dresses are made with PVC. Sissies enjoy PVC for a number of reasons, firstly it plays into their love of shiny clothing. Similar to satin, PVC gives off a glossy sheen when it is used to make sissy dresses, and gives sissies a feminine glow.
Additionally as discussed earlier some sissies dress as an opportunity to escape traditional gender roles. Men are not normally provided with an opportunity to wear any form of exotic fetishy materials, so when taking on the role of a sissy they're able to try new materials. A final reason is precisely the reason why most avoid PVC clothing, you get hot wearing it! There's no air flow through PVC so all the heat you generate is held in, although this sounds awful, for sissies it may be an opportunity. Being uncomfortable in a sissy dress is exactly what so many sissies want to feel, that sense of safe humiliation. Not only do PVC sissy dresses humiliate the wearer because of how feminine they are but also because of how hot and uncomfortable they make the wearer feel.
EXTREMELY Short Skirts
Another common design feature of sissy clothing is that many dresses feature an extremely short skirt. These dresses are designed this way for two reasons. Firstly to invoke the little girl esthetic I spoke of earlier. Many dresses worn by toddler girls have skirts that cut off very high up, either to avoid tripping them or to give the parent easy access to their diaper. In combination with other design features of the dress that invoke little girls a short skirt ties together the esthetic.
The second reason is arguably far more important in the mind of a sissy, short skirts expose your undercarriage. Some sissy dresses are so short that the sissies panties, diapers, or chastity are in full view. How you cover your genitals is arguably among the most humiliating things that can be inflicted upon you, and sissies have their humiliation in fill display. A short skirt displays a sissy's humiliation for the world to see, and leaves nothing to the imagination. It screams yes I am a sissy, and yes as you can see, my penis is bathing in humiliating femininity.
Chastity:
An important aspect of humiliation is often loosing control over yourself. Whether that be through forced feminization or blackmail, sissy's loss of control is often an important factor in sissification. Male chastity devices symbolically represent this loss of control, because while worn the wearer is theoretically unable to grow an erection or have any access to their penis. The keys to the chastity device can be given to the sissy's dominant "owner", who will control for how long the sissy will not have access to their genitals. It can contribute to humiliating feelings to not be in control of your own genitals.
For many sissies, lack of access to their male genitals, locked behind a chastity cage can contribute to a sissification experience. For men, stimulation of the penis is generally what leads to sexual gratification. However sissies are meant to detach themselves from masculine trappings and embrace, or be forced to embrace, a more feminine lifestyle. Wearing chastity makes you physically unable to stimulate your penis, thereby removing the option of the typical form of masculine pleasure.
Chastity cages come in a variety of sizes, colors and materials. Although they can serve a functional purpose, they does not mean they can't be accessorized to perfectly match your sissy outfit. A very fashion forward sissy that utilizes chastity devices as an accessory will have a wide variety of cages available to match a given outfit.
Bondage: While chastity cages cause a loss of control with just the sissy's genitals, bondage cause total loss of control. Bondage is already a common utilized fetish outside of sissy culture, however it has perfect synergy with sissy culture. Bondage can lead the sissy to either endure further sissification or punishment from a dom. It's broad spectrum of uses is what makes it so popular among the sissy community.Diapers:
I mentioned diapers earlier when listing accessories to accompany a sissy outfit. While it may seem strange for an adult to wear diapers when they don't have need of them, it has actually become an increasingly popular trend among sissies. As discussed earlier a feeling of humiliation can often be a driving force for sissies, and since wearing adult diapers is still considered very taboo, being forced to wear a diaper as a part of your sissy ensemble would be quite humiliating.
Alternatively, since sissies often derive their esthetic from little girls, diapers help connect with the regression and innocence associated with little girls. In this way a diaper may act as a prop which helps the person roleplay and imagine themselves as a child. While some sissies may wear and use diapers as a part of their play, others may simply enjoy the aesthetic or symbolic aspect of diapers.
Whether motivated mainly by sexual pleasure or feelings of comfort, many sissies find wearing diapers to be an intense multisensory experience in which touch (the soft, bulky, squishy, heavy or warm feeling of wearing a diaper), sight (seeing themselves or another adult in a diaper), sound (the crinkle of the material), and in some cases smell are all stimulated. For some people with a diaper fetish, any one of these sensations may be enough stimulus to derive some level satisfaction of either erotic pleasure and sexual arousal, or regression into a little girl-like state.
Like sissy dresses, the adult diapers worn by sissies are usually made by brands that specialize in making them. Rearz, Littleforbig, and ABUniverse are just a few of the brands that specialize in making adult diapers themed after baby diapers. They often get made with cutesy patterns to emulate what may be seen on a child's diaper. For sissies there are a wide variety of feminine designs available, so that a sissy can match the desired esthetic of their outfit.
Mincing Ribbons
Another common accessory to be worn with a sissy outfit are mincing ribbons. Mincing ribbons are long elaborately decorated ribbons which connect to both the wearers wrists and ankles. The intended function of wearing mincing ribbons is that the wearer is forced to walk in a more sissy-like effeminate manor. This is accomplished by the wearer ensuring that the ribbons do not drag on the ground, forcing themselves to walk with your hands and arms up and out, while walking in a sashay like way.
Sissy Culture
As I've mentioned the sissy community is made up of a full spectrum of people with different interests. Naturally as a result the sissy community has a wide variety of common interests and opinions, shared and enjoyed by many sissies. Of those common themes I've decided to highlight some of the most pervasive below:
Sissy Magazines:
Perhaps the oldest form of sissy's sharing their love for all things feminine is in specialty magazines. They term "Sissy" can be found in gender non-conformist magazines dating back to the 1960s! Since then sissies have featured in many magazines featuring crossdressers and drag artists. Sissies have written about their tips and tricks to help sissify themselves, or even written classified ads to meet up with other likeminded sissies! There have even been a couple magazines written exclusively about all things sissy. Although the internet has made many gender nonconformist magazines obsolete, sissy magazines still have held an indisputable historical impact on the community.
Sissy Captions:
The modern online version of sissy magazines are sissy captions. Sissy captions are typically just some text accompanying an image which describes some aspect of the sissy lifestyle or writes about a fictional sissy scenario. Whichever the case, for the longest time sissy captions were the dominant media in sissy culture. It was impossible to search sissies online and not be flooded with thousands of caption images online. Most of the images were made available on the social media site Tumblr by hundreds of sissy themed accounts. However when Tumblr banned what it considered "adult content" in 2018, most sissy captions were removed. With many of the internet's sissy captions no longer available their influence on sissy culture was diminished. However there are several other sites where users published sissy captions meaning that not all had been lost. To this day sissy captions continue to have a large impact on sissy culture online.
Sissy Fan Art:
Perhaps the most creative form of sissy media being published online is fan art. Artists are creating sissy themed art in a variety of mediums. Similar to the diversity of sissy culture, art gives sissies a medium to express their wide diversity interests and desires. These unique art pieces give a view into the mind of a sissy and have naturally become quite popular among the sissy community.
Given the intense popularity of well done sissy art, some artists have transitioned to exclusively making sissy themed art. I've highlighted some of the most famous sissy specialist artists below!
DovSherman
Click HERE for a full Gallery of DovSherman's Art
Prim
Click HERE for a full Gallery of Prim's Art
Sissified by Family Member:
Although anyone can sissify someone else, BY FAR the most common sissification scenario published or made in any medium is sissification by a family member. Whether it be a Mother, Aunt, Sister, or Cousin, sissification is most popularly portrayed as being done by a family member. Why this is the most common choice of sissifier is not clear. Our family members are our first exposure to femininity, perhaps it our desire to be sissified by them is a desire to feel closer to them. Perhaps it is some deep psychological condition which drives sissies to enjoy this scenario such as some variation of the Oedipus complex. Or perhaps most simply it is because incest pornography is extremely popular. Whatever the reason, it is impossible to find a corner of the sissy community which does not have some form of sissification being carried out by a family member.
Sissy Hypno:
Perhaps one of the most unique products to come out of sissy culture is Sissy Hypno. Using subliminal messaging and fast moving imagery the hypnosis videos are intended to encourage sissification. The direction the hypnosis takes can vary, it may encourage an attraction to men, to dress more femininely, to behave submissively, or even subconsciously change what you find attractive. Many sissies regularly utilize sissy hypno to encourage them in the sissification process when they don't have access to a dom. Sissy hypno can be found on a variety of sites ranging from pornographic video sites to even Youtube.
Sissy Gatherings:
Although sissies do not have the largest population among fetish communities, gatherings of sissies do still occur. Sissies come together to enjoy each other's dresses, frolic in femininity, or engage in more explicit activities. Although there are any number of different reasons sissies may come together, the joy of sharing a sissified experience is always clearly shown on their faces. Sissies take such joy in spending time frolicking together that they've been known to travel vast distances to come together. There are even sissy themed events hosted by professional dominatrixes where sissies will pay huge sums of money to be professionally sissified and enjoy a weekend together with other sissies (most famously the infamous "Sissy Manor"). It seems that not money nor distance will stop sissies from spending time enjoying femininity together!
A Summary of Sissies!
From their elaborate sissy dresses to creating a new form of hypnosis, sissies are a unique breed. They enjoy the sissification process for a variety of reasons and go about it in different and unique ways. Sissies are a broad community with many different subsets and interests, and can't possibly be narrowed down to any one type. They might seek to serve as a sissy maid, or be humiliated as a girly diaper baby. Whatever the case may be, sissies will continue to find themselves enthralled by the trappings of femininity, and enjoying their over the top devotion to it!
Are you a Sissy, Carly?
You might be asking yourself this question after reading this rather long post on sissies that I've painstakingly written. Well my answer to that question is you'll just have to wait and see!
-Carly