ABSTRACT
This chapter examines the nexus of effeminacy and masculinity in Roman antiquity by first setting out the conventional signs of mollitia and their connection both with pathic homoeroticism and the cinaedus, but then go on to detail the instances in which an appearance conventionally held to be effeminate was also linked with youth, urbanity, and heteroeroticism. It talks about the existence of a male figure on Rome's urban scene seldom acknowledged by scholars: the dandy, or urban young man of fashion. The chapter argues that dandyism and effeminacy were not exclusive indications of sexual passivity, but of membership in or aspirations towards the upper class. There was more than a whiff of sexual ambiguity about the dandy even in Roman antiquity, which only serves to highlight the diverse and dynamic character of gender performance and identities in the Roman world.
