Agent Peacock



" "Look at how sensitive and vulnerable he is -- he must be gay. That means women feel safe around me, and trust me... then BAM! Pregnant! BAM! Pregnant! BAM! Pregnant.""

- Russell Brand

These characters are not simply Badass Bishonen, nor are they all necessarily transvestites. Basically, these are male characters who are badass nancy boys. They're often campy, vain and in many cases quite pretty, but they're also incredibly effective at what they do, and quite powerful. They may have insane combat skills, seduction ability that rivals James Bond's, or simply be Chessmasters skilled in manipulating others. They can be gay or straight, good or evil, played for laughs or played seriously, but they're all dominant personalities who tend to get their way. They tend to be romantically successful, attracting admirers, and often getting the girl (or boy, as the case may be). Unlike Real Men Wear Pink these characters are not macho with one or two girly interests, they're all around girly characters, who are also tougher, cooler, and more surrounded by ladies than any normal person could ever hope to be (to some extent because they're girly). These characters are rarely regimented military types, usually filling more the loveable (or in some cases detestable) rogue type, though occasional one does see one in the role of military leader of some sort. Decadence is also a big part of this trope, as they're usually more FABULOUS than simply "feminine".

Some ways in which girly-ness can make a character more badass:


 * In some cases effeminacy is a tactic for these characters, a way to unsettle and intimidate their enemies, by the logic that "if he can still be badass and confident in his masculinity in that dress, his balls must be the size of watermelons and made of steel." They're still inherently effeminate characters, but they've realized that it throws people, and so use it to their advantage.
 * It can also be seen as a sexual tactic, as in some universes acting girly seems to attract women (and in certain shows everyone else) in droves. This is possibly a case of Truth in Television as women seem to have an easier time trusting girly men, and thus girly men often use this as a tactic to get laid.
 * On a related note some characters use their femininity to maintain an element of surprise. (E.G. "No one suspects the flamingly camp hairdresser of being a super soldier")
 * Sometimes girly knowledge is also a part of the badassitude. (E.G. "Mrs. Busby did it because her shade of lipstick was on the napkin that was found with the victim, it's called passion plum, I very nearly borrowed it for the ball the other day")

Compare: Sissy Villain, Real Men Wear Pink, In Touch with His Feminine Side, Wholesome Crossdresser, Creepy Crossdresser, Badass Long Hair, Gay Bravado (straight men using homoerotic comments to reinforce their heterosexuality), Camp Straight, Camp Gay, Even the Guys Want Him, The Fighting Narcissist, Kicking Ass in All Her Finery (Distaff Counterpart).

Contrast: Pink Is for Sissies

Many elves fall under this. Unrelated to the Peacock Girl.

Anime and Manga

 * Leeron from Tengen Toppa Gurren Lagann, full stop. He's basically every Camp Gay mannerism personified, but he's also capable of being able to creep out the manliest badasses in the show (both Kamina and Viral especially). He also happens to be the most awesome engineer in the multiverse, and all the crap he makes or takes command of does totally awesome shit that makes reality and probability his collective bitch. Being voiced by Steve Blum, whose Camp Gay is surprisingly good, doesn't hurt either.
 * Black Butler: Sebastian's demon form has Combat Stilettos, which, on a man, pretty much epitomize this trope.
 * The androgynous and beautiful angel Rosiel from Angel Sanctuary serves as the series' Big Bad. The extent of his powers cause even some of the lesser villains to fear and/or respect him.
 * Dorian: From From Eroica with Love, it's almost impossible imagine anyone more camp than Dorian... and yet he's a world renowned art thief and keeps avoiding capture by...everyone.
 * Yuujirou: From Princess Princess seems to be the toughest (or at least the most macho) of the bunch, but he has long pretty hair, and seems to be the one most dedicated to being a Princess for the sake of being a Princess.
 * Pegasus from Yu-Gi-Oh! is this to some extent.
 * Lelouch from Code Geass. When he's not fiercely commanding his troops on the field of battle, he's often seen comforting his little sister and sometimes hanging out with the girls at school. In addition, he cooks, and, when in Secret Identity mode, is absolutely fabulous.
 * Kuranosuke from Kuragehime sort of qualifies. He saves the jellyfish for Tsukimi and other awesome stuff.
 * Nathan Mahler of Blood+ seems to use his flamboyant qualities to conceal some of the darker elements of his personality.
 * Although Emporio Ivankov of One Piece is a Transvestite that can change gender on a whim, he is a competent revolutionary that can take people out with a mere bat of his eyelashes.
 * Also, Mr. 2 Bon Kurei, an earlier awesome transvestite who uses the same transvestite martial arts Ivankov is a master of.
 * Cain from Nightwalker is fairly flamboyant and tough as nails.
 * Count D from Pet Shop of Horrors qualifies. He's girly and loves sweets... and is technically responsible for many many deaths.
 * Bleach introduces us to Shunsui Kyoraku, who wears a pink flowery woman's kimono, likes making grand entrances surrounded by falling petals, and hates fighting. According to the Bleach Character Book of Souls, he's well-known as being Soul Society's biggest dandy. He's also a Combat Pragmatist who is fond of attacking people mid-speech whilst making pithy comments of his own, and does so with a look of something like Dissonant Serenity.
 * Szayel Aporro Granz, who will stop a fight just so he can change into a less torn set of clothing and whose entire theme is full of sexual innuendo. As an Espada, he's also a leader of Hollows, although he tends to cultivate followers solely to eat them when he needs to power up.
 * Sani from Toriko. He even prepares food that makes anyone that eats it become Bishonen (by killing creatures that would take entire armies of "normal" people for incredigents). His effeminancy and aloofness are contrasted with his Tomboyish, Genki Girl younger sister.
 * Nuriko from Fushigi Yuugi, moreso before his Important Haircut.
 * Ukyo of Samurai 7 initially seems like a simpering, brainless fop, which he actually is, minus the brainless part. The real Ukyo is a Magnificent Bastard who is like The Prince distilled into a person. While he has little to no combat skill himself, he's good enough at manipulating those who do that he doesn't really need it.
 * Jaibo and Raizou from Litchi Hikari Club, are sadistic badasses... and rather effeminate.
 * Cilan from the Pokémon anime, not too effeminate but very, very fabulous, and incredibly competent in multiple fields such as cooking, fishing, science, detective work, dressing up, acting, and of course Pokémon fights. Most of the time funny and lovable, but when he gets serious, he gets mean - just ask Burgundy. Ironically, his manga and game counterpart are the exact opposite to the point where he's rather withdrawn and shy.
 * Cultured Badass and White-Haired Pretty Boy Griffith of Berserk.
 * Another Nathan in the list: Nathan Seymore/Fire Emblem from Tiger and Bunny. The dude's literally flaming, via his Camp Gay antics and his fire powers.
 * Of course there Orochimaru who possessed a girl's body for his own at one point
 * Haku as well.
 * On Digimon Frontier, Crusadermon, the Indifferent Warrior is this.
 * Zarbon from Dragonball Z is a great example of the military version of this, being Frieza's highest ranked general and right-hand man.
 * Saint Seiya: Lizard Misty, the Leader of the Silver Saints.
 * Kurama from Yu Yu Hakusho. Long, flowing red hair, a rose motif, his main weapon being a whip, and little visible muscle add up to a fairly camp-looking guy, but one who is not to be underestimated. Being a master of demonic plants has it's advantages; just counting the people Kurama has hacked to pieces with his rose whip would be a good start, but by no means is it the full list of lives he's taken demons and humans alike. The resident Blood Knight even considers him the deadliest one of the team.

Comic Books

 * Maidman from Empowered is a transvestite, and the biggest Badass Normal of the story. He's basically that universe's version of Batman, except a crossdresser.
 * Roxxas, a villain from Legion of Super Heroes, is best described as "flamboyant" (though "flaming" might also be a good word). He traditionally dresses in the highest fashion, in the brightest colors, and loves to wear makeup (we're talking eye shadow and lipstick). He is literally portayed as having most of the worst "limp-wristed gay" stereotypes you've ever heard of. And did we mention that he's a murderous, psychotic, renegade Kryptonian who escaped from the Bottled City of Kandor?
 * Eduardo Flamingo, who debuted in Grant Morrison's run with Batman. The Flamingo is a psychotic hitman. He was lobotomized by the mob and was recruited by them. Despite his name, as well as his pink uniform and vehicles, he is a sociopathic, mindless, killing machine, nicknamed "the eater of faces", a title he has lived up to. He appears as an enemy of Damian Wayne in the future. His appearance is heavily inspired by the cover artwork for the Prince album Purple Rain.

Fanon

 * Sephiroth from Final Fantasy VII often becomes this in fanfic... when he's not falling prey to rampant Wimpification.
 * Legolas from Lord of the Rings often becomes this in comedic fan fiction, and sometimes does this in yaoi as a way of averting rampant ukeification.

Film
"Duffy: This was their target, the fag man. Smecker: The what man? Duffy: (beat) The fat man. Smecker: Well. Looks like Freud was right."
 * Brian Slade: From Velvet Goldmine... he's not bisexual, he's biwinning. His androgynous sex appeal is what kick starts his career as a rockstar.
 * Dr. Frank N. Furter of Rocky Horror Picture Show: Seduces everyone and everything... in a corset, and (presumably) tops Rocky.
 * Jareth: From Labyrinth... extremely camp and rather swishy...and yet King of the Goblins with insane magical powers. My god, the costume changes.
 * Priscilla Queen of the Desert: When the Drag Queens are almost assaulted by a bunch of roughnecks, they scare them off.
 * Similarly in To Wong Foo, Thanks for Everything! Julie Newmar, there's a scene where Patrick Swayze's character (a drag queen) beats up a woman's abusive husband, thus saving the woman (and he does it in drag).
 * To some extent Captain Jack Sparrow of Pirates of the Caribbean is one of these, with the eyeliner and all the dangly things in his hair and his rather effete and flamboyant mannerisms. Johnny Depp has stated in interviews that he intends Captain Jack to read as bisexual.
 * Lord Shen from Kung Fu Panda 2. Despite actually being a peacock, his skills with steel claws and razor feathers makes him impressive to watch.
 * Zohan in You Don't Mess With the Zohan is a Moussad agent who fakes his death to become a hairdresser. This movie is based on a true story.
 * Guy Bennett in Another Country. Nobody else has ever looked this badass in extremely effeminate dark sunglasses. And when he gets attacked by jocks he simply threatens to expose their numerous earlier homosexual experiences with him. Ka-Pow!
 * The Boondock Saints: When the Boston cops first notice Agent Paul Smecker's flirtatious behavior towards men and generally camp hand gestures, they start to laugh. Cue Smecker owning their asses for the rest of the movie. In fact, he gets progressively more camp and progressively more awesome, coming to the point where he


 * Ramon de la Vega aka Bunny Wigglesworth, the eponymous Zorro, The Gay Blade, a utter Camp Gay but you don't want to get on the wrong side of his whip.

Literature

 * Zillah: From Poppy Z. Bright's Lost Souls, is a super strong, sadistic vampire who keeps impregnating women... and is continually described as "androgynously beautiful" with "long caramel colored hair" which he ties back with a purple scarf and he seems to enjoy wearing eyeliner and other makeup.
 * Lestat: From The Vampire Chronicles He's a clothes horse and a huge dandy... but also obviously quite terrifyingly badass.
 * Both Silk and Takeshi in the novel Dark Designs, they're both extremely pretty Yaoi Guys. Silk has knee length blonde hair and long painted nails, and Takeshi is a Visual Kei dandy. However Silk is a massive womanizer, and Takeshi is a hardcore biker.
 * The man with the thistledown hair from Jonathan Strange & Mr Norrell has shades of this.
 * In George R. R. Martin's A Song of Ice and Fire, Ser Loras Tyrell, the "Knight of Flowers," is repeatedly described as beautiful and effeminate (he looks very similar to his sister Margaery, who is a paragon of female beauty) He is also one of the best knights in the realm.
 * The Sharpe series gives us Lord Pumphrey.
 * Howl of Howl's Moving Castle is a pretty prissy narcissist who kicks insane amounts of butt. The narcissism gets better.. however he stays quite a girly boy throughout the series.
 * Firesong from the Heralds of Valdemar series. He's Camp Gay, very effeminate and the most powerful mage in the world, basically. Also he is literally called a peacock to his face multiple times. Vanyel also counts, though he's slightly less camp, even more powerful, and Firesong's ancestor. Just as pretty, though. And he is also literally called a peacock more than once, having quite an affinity for finery and good grooming.
 * Vanyel also mentioned a duelist who was straight, but intentionally played camp to annoy his enemies
 * Jerry Cornelius might qualify—he's been known to dress in drag (and look damn good doing it), and happily seduces people of either sex.
 * Huillam d'Averc from the Runestaff series could also qualify; as he's an effeminate and foppish French aristocrat, who seems more interested in clothing, womanizing, and his (exaggeratedly hypochondriac) various illnesses. But he's also a renowned swordsman and tactician, and one of the most feared nobles of The Empire prior to his Heel Face Turn; using his effeminate manner and supposed illness to cause his opponents to underestimate him.
 * Psmith, PG Wodehouse's monocle-wearing, clothing-obsessed dandy character, is an unstoppable Guile Hero and has his moments of physical badassery too.
 * Two of Tamora Pierce's most powerful male mage characters are very vain: Numair Salmalin from the Tortall Universe (also a ladies' man) and Niklaren Goldeye from the Circle of Magic universe.
 * Raoul de Beausoleil from Margaret Weiss's Star of The Guardians and Mag Force 7 series certainly fits this description. He's flashy, campy, effeminate and deadly gorgeous in an extaordinarily androgynous way. Quite fitting for an assassin whose favorite weapon is poisoned lip gloss. He reads Camp Gay as he's usually flirting with the guys and being catty toward women concerning their physical appearance. He spends so much time fussing over his hair, makeup, nails and clothes, that it almost falls into the comic relief category - until he does something so awesomely badass that it reminds everyone that he really IS one of the most dangerous men in the galaxy.
 * Thomas Raith from The Dresden Files is very much a pretty boy, but he's also indisputably bad ass. It helps that he's a vampire, and thus has supernatural speed and strength. To give an idea of how effeminate he is (or rather, how effeminate he looks), for a good portion of the series, he masqueraded as a French Camp Gay hairdresser, and no one saw through the disguise.
 * Lord Brandoch Daha from E. R. Eddison's The Worm Ouroboros. He is explicitly referred to as "delicate", his looks are described as "like a girl's", and he dresses extravagantly—but he is also one of the best warriors and the best swordsman in the world of Mercury.
 * Sir Percival Blakeney, Baronet, aka The Scarlet Pimpernel. Dresses to outshine the girls, appears late at balls because he lost his time trying to tie his cravat just right, and generally dismissed as a fop. Has snagged the hottest redhead in Europe as his wife, and all the ladies fawn over him, his Camp posturing, and his slender white hands that are dainty enough to pass as a woman's. Also happens to be the ultra-badass secret vigilante who pulls off daring rescues of French aristocrats on a regular, if not daily, basis. Might even be the Ur Example; also a case of Author Appeal, since he was created by a woman who very obviously wanted to be his wife.
 * In Julian May's Saga of the Exiles, there's a member of the supporting cast known as Mr Betsy- a transvestite former engineer and Queen Elizabeth the First impersonator (with a goatee). He's also one of the enforcers the Lowlives have to ensure none of them get any ideas about stealing the aircraft they're repairing, quite capable of holding up someone a good ten kilograms heavier than him.
 * Major Joachim Steuben of Hammer's Slammers is one. The words that describes his appearance best is "pretty", and everything about him, from clothes and gun to manicure and haircut is stylish, beautiful and expensive. However, Steuben is a full-blown psychopath, and a pistol marksman to rival Wild Bill Hickok. Everyone in the regiment, except possibly Colonel Hammer, is scared shitless of him.
 * Magnus Bane, the High Warlock of Brooklyn, from Cassandra Clare's Mortal Instruments series is this. He features glitter eye shadow, rainbow leather pants, and awsum ass-kicking.
 * Lymond, from the Lymond Chronicles by Dorothy Dunnett has his Peacock moments, including being prettier than all the girls and fatally attractive to everyone he meets, and dressing like an arch-dandy, with exquisite gorgeousness times ten. Subverted in those moments when, in private, he reveals that his real tastes are simple and modest.
 * Felix in Doctrine of Labyrinths is this trope to the very core: beautiful, vain, cruel, and shallow, but still an extremely powerful wizard.

Live Action Television
""Nicky Clark, hottest you can get," - Vince (in reference to the hair straightener)"
 * Jason King, in both Department S and Jason King. And how.
 * Ser Loras Tyrell, the "Knight of Flowers" in Game of Thrones. He is very pretty and very effeminate. In his first appearance he rides in the Hand's Tourney and, through careful application of some trickery and Combat Pragmatism., unhorses the seven-foot-tall, psychopathic knight Ser Gregor Clegane.
 * Vince Noir is one of these. He consistently ends up saving the day for his more masculine counterpart. He's a superb fisherman, and has many foppish "battle scars" as well as the fact that he's been shown to use a hair straightener as a weapon.

Mythology

 * The Greek god Dionysus: He's a hard drinking, effeminate pretty boy... whose cultists tore goats apart for fun and feasted on raw meat. Originally, though, artwork depicted him as bearded and masculine like other gods, so this is only Older Than Feudalism.
 * Not quite. The robes he is usually shown wearing in Greek Art are women's clothes.
 * Particularly in Bacchae, where he's seen as the non-supernatural variety of this—a rather femme con man who leads all the women out of the city to have what obviously must be an orgy (why else would women want to leave their homes and spouses?) -- before he proves himself to be an androgynously beautiful wizard-god whose devoted followers rend nonbelievers limb from limb in a state of ecstatic frenzy.
 * Oberon has shades of this in a lot of depictions, possibly due to Elfeminate being in play. In A Midsummer Nights Dream, he even has some mild Ho Yay.

Professional Wrestling

 * In pro wrestling this trope is known as Gorgeous George.
 * Goldust.
 * Edge and Christian during their more pretty boy years.
 * Chris Jericho can sometime borderline on this depending on his vanity level at the time.
 * Ditto for Shawn Michaels.

Video Games
"Spy (domination line): "Oh dear, I've made quite a mess.""
 * Joshua from The World Ends With You takes this to an extreme. Not only is he prissy, but he also loves trolling the main character by (perhaps jokingly) flirting with him while simultaneously (given time) being the most potentially powerful partner in the game. This trope finally gets maxed out when it turns out that Joshua
 * Vega from the Street Fighter series.
 * Final Boss Marluxia from Kingdom Hearts
 * Leon Powalski from Star Fox.
 * Balder from Bayonetta. He is an elderly sage who wears an ornamental gown along with the body of a white peacock draped around his shoulders, its feathers fanned out behind him. He proves himself a badass when, shortly after tossing Luka out of a window and stopping Bayonetta's bullets, he destroys two demons with little to no effort; he even combs his hair with a feather after killing the second one.
 * A mild example, but Spy from Team Fortress 2 qualifies in-context. Amidst a horde of brutish, smelly mercenaries, Spy considers himself a gentleman.


 * In World of Warcraft, all male Blood Elves give off this vibe.
 * Zelos from Tales of Symphonia.
 * About the male Big Bad and Dragon characters (and some protagonists!) from the majority of the post-FFVI Final Fantasy games; while it's mostly a matter of fan interpretation considering how FABULOUS people such as Sephiroth, Kuja, and Seymour happen to be since they're rarely (if ever) referred to as femininely attractive in-universe, Cloud definitely deserves at least an honorable mention. Not only is he able to perform acrobatic maneuvers involving a sword that should logically weigh more than he does, fight off dozens of soldiers in a high-speed motorcycle chase, and, he is also a more convincing female prostitute than both Tifa and Aerith.
 * Demon Lord Ghirahim from The Legend of Zelda: Skyward Sword, who is not only pretty darn flamboyant and fancy looking, but is also an utter bastard and is someone you really don't want to cross.
 * Endrance from .hack//G.U. is very pretty, flamboyant, and deeply in love with the male lead. Said love is what motivates him to perform two awesome Big Damn Heroes moments, and he is a very useful party member.
 * Zhang He in Dynasty Warriors. In one of the games he had a butterfly outfit. Seriously. He always looks, acts and talks overly flamboyantly (like when he persuaded Xiahou Yuan to do a pre-battle dance routine so their ride to victory would start "beautifully")... but those ginormo claws attached to his hand aren't just for show, and he tends to be one of the most frighteningly effective officer killers in the series.
 * Sergei from Asura's Wrath shares the look, but is a very, VERY cruel version of this trope. He shares the look of Endrance above, but he is not in anyway a good guy.
 * Celice from Fire Emblem: Genealogy of the Holy War... well, he's got the looks, and adds in the fact that he's surrounded by beautiful women (if you take them all into account, 15 of them are possible Love Interests, a number that sets him apart from other Lords in the series), and then he's a total Badass once he gets out there to fight The Empire—he's got the same caps as the famous Ike, and he grows faster, and has a better weapon to boot.
 * Just for Pun: He's Shogun Peacock in Fire Emblem Awakening.

Web Comics

 * Cherry from Footloose.
 * Tip Wilkin from Skin Horse is on a team with a genetically engineered battle dog and an unstoppable undead killing machine, and so people forget he's a threat. However, Tip is phenomenally badass. Holds a Captain's commission in the USAF. Recieved a Medal Of Honour for saving men in combat in Afghanistan. Saved the Skin Horse team from a town full of werewolves with an amazing I Call It Vera moment. Defeated Moustachio's attempt to detonate a nuclear bomb. Out-wrestled a trained former KGB agent. Can take it for granted that almost any woman he meets will be falling all over him within minutes. He is currently employed as a psychologist, and only wears the peak of feminine fashion
 * Tarvek of Girl Genius is looking more and more like one of these, particularly when his response to the possibility of Agatha's becoming an Evil Queen is to speculate on how well she'd pull off the outfit.
 * Prince Tramennis from Erfworld is a diplomat with flippy hair and male Zettai Ryouiki (jump boots + plate armor skirt). His dandyish attitude embarrassed his father into trying to push him away from the kingdom for a while. Charlie's idea of A Form You Are Comfortable With for him has a strong rainbow theme. Tramennis is also the recently returned Ambadassador who forged the Jetstone Coalition, and a tactical genius able to keep up with Charlie and, perhaps even more impressively, with Parson A. "God Mode" Gotti.

Web Original

 * Thalia's Musings has Apollo, Pretty Boy God of the Sun, Medical Science, Archery, Theatre and everything else. When Thalia puts gold eyeliner in his eyes before a debriefing, he leaves it there.

Western Animation
"Shore Leave: Hiii. You even think about it, I’ll pull the trigger. Goon: Okay. Just take that gun out of my back. Shore Leave: No no, that’s not my gun; that’s an indicator of how excited I am to do this to you. That is my gun."
 * On The Venture Brothers, ex-OSI & current S.P.H.I.N.X. agent Shore Leave is as camp as he is deadly


 * Knock-Out from Transformers Prime is effeminate and vain, but can kick massive amounts of Autobot aft, especially when paired with his assistant Breakdown.
 * Ray Gillette from Archer. He's very gay, and he's probably the most competent employee of ISIS.
 * , Tahno from The Legend of Korra looked like a Camp Straight Sissy Villain from a rival team to Korra, but turned out to be a very ruthless waterbender in the pro-bending circuit.
 * Mozenrath from Aladdin is a young, snarky pretty boy of a wizard who tends to greet his foes with a friendly, if not outright flirty tone of voice. He also happens to be one of the most cunning and dangerous enemies Aladdin has ever faced.

Real Life

 * Russell Brand: While he may not be physically tough, he is quite the lady killer...and my lord is he camp.
 * Also Eddie Izzard's coinage "Action Transvestite" probably sums this up quite nicely, though not all examples are true transvestites.
 * Jonathan Rhys Meyers is quite camp and plays many gay roles, yet is a well-known womanizer. The Cork accent didn't help combat the camp.
 * Nikki Sixx: when he was young he was a juvenile delinquent who burgled homes, dealt drugs, and beat people up. He also really knows how to rock lipstick...and he's dated a bunch of play boy bunnies and other famously sexy women. In a Crowning Moment of Awesome chased down and beat up Lars Ulrich (of Metallica) after Lars heckled him during a show...while wearing platform heels.
 * Le Chevelier D'Eon: In real life, not the anime. "I'm just going to live the rest of my life as a woman so I can continue to be a badass super spy, whatever."
 * Flamboyantly gay H.H. Munro (Saki) turned down an cushy officer assignment in WWI and died in the line of duty protecting a comrade.
 * Male ballerinas are incredibly strong due to the amount of time they spend building strength to perform.
 * Nezi Arbib is an Israeli commando turned hairdresser who runs a fashionable salon in LA, the movie You Don't Mess With the Zohan mentioned above is based on him.
 * Lux Interior. Nothing to say but - ULTIMATE Agent Peacock.
 * Men whose personalities tend towards the feminine often become tough in real life to protect themselves against bullying.
 * This American Life had an episode devoted to "sissies" and how, whether you're gay or not, being an out-and-proud sissy can mean you're actually braver than otherwise.
 * Gaius Julius Caesar (you know, THE Caesar) was considered too vain to be manly, yet seduced other men's wives, and made himself the most powerful man in Rome.
 * The quip that went around about him was that he was every woman's man, and every man's woman.
 * These chaps.
 * Alexander The Great was pretty fabulous in terms of dress sense, and we all know how badass he was.
 * Neil "Bunny" Roger, fashion designer and socialite, who was already a famous Camp Gay when he went to fight in World War II. He came back a hero, and his line on the subject was, "Now that I've shot so many Nazis, Daddy will have to buy me a mink coat."
 * Similarly, "Vidal Sassoon: Anti-fascist warrior-hairdresser".
 * Vikings, believe it or not, had shades of this back in the day. Many of the surrounding cultures thought it was kind of sissy to wash and comb your hair every day, bathe once a week, and wear colourful clothes and blingtastic jewelry. Then these nancy-boys start beating you up, take your stuff, steal your girlfriend and burn what's left...