One of the revisionist Protestant strategies aimed to justify repudiation of Catholicism was the gendering of religious behaviour[…]. At its simplest, yet most insidiously dangerous, it associated vetero-testamentary or pre-conversion characters with the old/Catholic religion and gendered them feminine or effeminate—unruly speech- and behaviour-wise, viz. overly emotional, even exhibitionist and ultimately anti-Christian. By contrast, positive neo-testamentary characters, Christian converts and generally reformed figures were deemed the true Christians/Protestants.
Source: wiktionary