вариант

was a namby-pamby milk-and-water affected creature."

Definitions of milksop on the Web:

* sissy: a timid man or boy considered childish or unassertive
wordnet.princeton.edu/perl/webwn

* A weak or ineffectual person; A piece of bread sopped in milk
en.wiktionary.org/wiki/milksop

на мой взгляд выражение "тютя-матютя" применимо не только к мужскому полу, но и к женскому. Ведь говорят о женщинах: "хищницы, нормальные или тюти-матюти?", то есть "тютя-матютя"(тихий, смирный, невнимательный, равнодушный, апатичный человек)

milquetoast means a very timid, unassertive, spineless person, esp.
e.g. one who is easily dominated or intimidated: *a milquetoast who's afraid to ask for a raise.*
*person who is timid or meek, unassertive. Such people may appear apathetic or unmotivated*
http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/milquetoast
milquetoast- опоним от Mr Milquetoast

"Milquetoast is an eponym, named after a fictional cartoon character named Caspar Milquetoast, invented by the American illustrator Harold T Webster in 1924. The strip was called The Timid Soul and appeared every Sunday in the New York Herald Tribune up to his death in 1953. Mr Webster said that his character was “the man who speaks softly and gets hit with a big stick”.
The name is just a Frenchified respelling of the old American English term milk toast, an uninspiring, bland dish which was created from slices of buttered toast laid in a dish of milk, usually considered to be food for invalids. There’s an even older foodstuff, milksop, which was untoasted bread soaked in milk, likewise something suitable only for infants or the sick. From the thirteenth century on, milksop was a dismissive term for “an effeminate spiritless man or youth; one wanting in courage or manliness”, as the Oxford English Dictionary puts it. Mr Milquetoast is in the same tradition."
http://www.worldwidewords.org/qa/qa-mil1.htm

"Milksop" I would have had to double-check in the dictionary, if Jack hadn't supplied the definition. I don't know how "wimp" travels back across the pond.

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Note added at 4 hrs (2008-07-04 14:02:11 GMT)
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Actually, "wimp" comes up pretty well on .uk sites, too, though some of the references are to "weakly interacting massive particles." Here's a real example:

Paul McCartney: 'I'm a sport wimp and proud of it'
http://www.guardian.co.uk/sport/2008/jun/29/olympicgames2008...

And a great combo:

A squeamish namby-pamby European wimp joins the Washington war debate
http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2003/jan/14/usa.features11

I have overheard them from my neighbars in real life. I like these words because metaphor is visually more expressive, easy to catch. But "wimp" placed in the briefest dictionary. So all entries above are really good. Asker has enough choice. Good luck! ( My version is not for credit.)