Sissification Is Not What You Think It Is

There are a lot of things men have projected onto Femdom—sissification being one of them.

To be clear: sissification is not the same as feminisation. They are often confused, but fundamentally different. Feminisation is about crossdressing or presenting as a woman, often to embody or explore beauty, elegance, or sensuality. Sissification, on the other hand, is about being turned into a feminised object. It’s not just about dressing as a woman, it’s about becoming a sexual caricature, a doll, a bimbo, or something infantile and ornamental.

The term “sissy” comes from Cissy dolls, which were popular in the 1950s. These dolls had a strange, almost unsettling design with a face of a small child, but the body of an adult woman. They were intentionally made this way to solve a marketing problem. Traditionally, dolls were passed down from generation to generation, but toy companies wanted to sell more. So they created the “Cissy” as a fashion doll, with an ever-expanding wardrobe of outfits for girls to beg their parents to buy. It was one of the first steps toward what would become the Barbie phenomenon.

But the thing is, these dolls weren’t elegant; they were downright ugly. They were infantilised adult figures, marketed as dress-up objects. Not people. Not characters. Just vessels for decoration. And that’s exactly what the sissy aesthetic borrowed from. It is something that is overdone until tasteless, juvenile, sexualised, and totally disconnected from any real sense of personhood. So… men who wanted to dress up in infantilised, hyper-feminine clothing were labelled as “sissies.” They weren’t feminising themselves in the image of a woman. They were dressing like toys.

So “sissification” is definitely NOT that same as “feminisation.” Feminisation is about identity. Sissification is about objectification, regression, and humiliation. In fact, every time I hear a person say “sissy”, I’m thinking the line from The Princess Bride: “You keep using that word. I do not think it means what you think it means.”

So, when a heterosexual man wants to dress as a baby doll in frilly pink taffeta, exaggerated bows, and theatrical makeup, he’s not just crossdressing. He’s enacting a very specific fantasy of regression and humiliation. The term “sissy” was used to label men who dressed for this. You’ll notice these depictions frequently appear in true crime dramas and 1970s horror – the disturbed man raiding his mother’s wardrobe when she’s out at bridge. These were not considered empowered choices. They were taboos, and they were associated with dysfunction, shame, and fetish.

So now you might ask, “How did sissification become part of Femdom?”

Well, it didn’t. Not really. Primarily, it was an import by heterosexual men who didn’t want to be seen as gay or deviant for their fetish. Including a woman in the process, or having her lead it, allowed them to externalise the shame: “She made me do it.” That reframed the act as one of submission, not identity. It allowed the man to stay “straight” in his mind because a woman was still at the centre of it.

Sissification is big money in the ProDomme industry. Nearly every man going to see a ProDomme wants to be “forced” and humiliated into women’s clothing. However, over twenty years of knowing and working alongside Dominas, I can say this with confidence: very few authentic lifestyle Femdoms engage in sissification. And those who do? Often do it because they have no sexual or emotional attraction to the man in question. They’re not doing it as part of a loving or intimate D/s relationship. They’re doing it to emasculate someone they have no desire for. You got to remember, a lot of women grew up with (and were repulsed by) Cissy dolls, so being attracted to a living, human-sized one is a far stretch.

Most Dominant women are heterosexual, and they are attracted to masculinity. That doesn’t mean they reject all feminisation. Far from it. I know a lot of women who adore feminised men, but not so much sissies. I’m pansexual, so I love anyone with an ass. I have been with many sissies, crossdressers and feminised men. I personally feminise nearly every man I’m with—yes, even vanillas. I’ve had them wear panties for me, stockings, fishnets, or I rework their ugly boxers into briefs. Why? Because I want my men to look sexy for Me. I want them to see Me lust after them when they are feminised. And, I want to prove to them that feminisation doesn’t steal their masculinity. Such is only a fallacy that weak men tell each other. Again, feminisation is not sissification. But yes, I have also used sissification on submissive men because I sensed in them an aversion to feminisation. I wanted them to truly submit to Me, and I used sisification to do it. Sissification is a tool for domination.

True sissies are rare. And I mean true sissies—the kind who light up when in candy-pink ruffles, who feel delicate in white knee-high socks, and who squeal at the sight of lacy gloves. Many get a rush from being pretty and innocent. They are virginal objects. (And often have cherry-popping fantasies.) Their entire mindset is that of a 1950s “good girl” or a Victorian model of etiquette and propriety. They channel tween-age femininity, complete with accessories, bows, and bashfulness. For them, it’s not about fucking. It’s about purity. (But for some, the thought of being sexually defiled.)

Now, yes, I’ve met a few sissies who go the other way—slutty sissies who want to be used, degraded, and sexualised. But even then, their reasoning often goes back to the belief that only women are sluts, only women are used, and so if a man wants to feel that, he must become a woman first. But this logic is rapidly becoming outdated. In modern Femdom and BDSM culture, being a “slut” for your Domina is now celebrated. It’s not taboo anymore. The edge is gone. So, if dressing as a woman is still a source of humiliation for someone, it can come off as misogynistic.

Feminisation, in all its forms, is increasingly normalised now. Whether a man is gay, queer, or straight, it’s not a big deal. If it is a big deal for you, it’s probably your upbringing that’s the problem, not the culture.

So when a Gen Z sub slides into my inbox declaring, “I’m a sissy,” I’ll be honest… my eyes roll. “Really? You think you’re a sissy?” Because more often than not, what I’m actually hearing is they’ve seen a few memes, watched a few porn clips, and now think they have inherited a lineage (from petticoat fantasies of Fin de siècle era or even far back as the 2nd millennium BCE with forced castration and the making of eunuchs) they know nothing about. It’s the Jon Snow Complex.

They don’t understand the history. Or the transformation. Or the intertextuality, the symbolism, the gender politics, the psycho-erotics of regression and objecthood. They have no sense of how sissification evolved as a practice, especially in relation to Femdom. They just think it’s cute. Or hot. Or viral. Or something that might get them attention. Or a quick orgasm. Sure, in the spirit of BDSM, they can do whatever the fuck they want, but I draw a line for my own Femdom.

You can absolutely call me old-school. I don’t dabble. I don’t do things for trend. My Femdom is rooted in real passion. Real erotic architecture. Real agony. Real devotion. If you’re playing at sissification like it’s a dress-up game and calling it power exchange—you’re not wrong to enjoy it, but you’re missing out on a lot… and I refuse to. For me, it disrespects the depth of Femdom, and it certainly doesn’t honour what sissification meant when it was dangerous, deviant, and deeply transformative.

But the frustrating part… Men keep assigning sissification to Femdom, as if it’s inherently ours. Like pegging, CBT, and foot worship, sissification has become part of the porn genre of Femdom. But those are porn tropes, not inherent Femdom truths.

If a woman is a roleplayer, she may pull from porn scripts and perform sissification for theatrical effect. But authentic Femdoms—women who live this lifestyle as an orientation, not a costume—do not perform from porn. They dominate from their own internal desires. Their own aesthetics. Their own logic.

So if you’re looking for someone to sissify you exactly the way it happens in porn, you’ll need to hire a professional. A lifestyle Domina will only engage in sissification if she genuinely desires it. And she’ll do it Her way. Not yours. Just like every other male-centric kink that’s been assigned to Femdom, sissification only belongs in the dynamic when the Domina wants it there.

So, when you think about it, perhaps you’re not a sissy after all?