The Humanistic Psychologist, Vol 54(1), Mar 2026, 1-10; doi:10.1037/hum0000382
Repairing and expanding our lexicon is part of repairing the microlevel therapeutic container as well as the macrolevel challenges to social justice. In the wake of the #metoo era, the authors are attempting to bring awareness to the power and potency of the lexicon to determine social agency and access to social justice through a depth psychological exploration. There appears to be no word in the English language to articulate the stripping of feminine power. Both emasculation and effemination are defined as the action of stripping away of masculine power leaving one more feminine and without power. It is established in the lexicon that power is equated with being male, and to lose power is equated with being female. Our very language serves as a cultural gaslighting. Without language to articulate the experience of loss of feminine power, it is much more difficult to identify the phenomenon and consequently take action to amend this social injustice. Taking the stance of a depth psychological cultural critique, this article is an act of refemination: reclaiming the word effemination to articulate the deprivation of feminine power and exploring what that entails. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2026 APA, all rights reserved)