Androgyny

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For other uses, see Androgyny (disambiguation)

Androgyny is a term derived from the Greek words andras (άνδρας) (meaning man) and gyne (γυνή) (meaning woman) [1] that can refer to two concepts regarding the mixing of both male and female genders or having a lack of gender identification.

The first is the mixing of masculine and feminine characteristics, be it the example of the loud fashion statements of musicians like David Bowie, Annie Lennox, Grace Jones, Alice Cooper, Michael Jackson, Marilyn Manson, Prince, Freddie Mercury, Boy George, Mick Jagger and Little Richard or the balance of "anima" and "animus" in Jungian psychoanalytic theory. The second is in describing something that is neither masculine nor feminine, for example the Hijras of India who are often described as "neither man nor woman".

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Contents 1 Androgynous traits 2 Androgynes 3 Famous androgynes 4 Androgyny in culture 5 See also 6 References 7 External links

[edit] Androgynous traits

Androgynous traits are those that either have no gender value, or have some aspects generally attributed to the opposite gender. Physiological androgyny (compare intersex), which deals with physical traits, is distinct from behavioral androgyny which deals with personal and social anomalies in gender, and from psychological androgyny, which is a matter of gender identity. A psychologically androgynous person is commonly known as an androgyne, although there is a politicized version known as genderqueer.

To say that a culture or relationship is androgynous is to say that it lacks rigid gender roles and that the people involved display characteristics or partake in activities traditionally associated with the other gender. The term androgynous is often used to refer to a person whose look or build make determining their gender difficult but is generally not used as a synonym for actual intersexuality, transgender or two-spirit people. Occasionally, people who do not actually define themselves as androgynes adapt their physical appearance to look androgynous. This outward androgyny has been used as a fashion statement, and some of the milder forms of it (women wearing men's pants/men wearing skirts, for example) are not perceived as transgendered behavior.

Lesbians who don't define themselves as butch or femme may identify with various other labels including androgynous or androg for short. A few other examples include lipstick lesbian, tomboy, and 'tom suay' which is Thai for 'beautiful butch'. Some lesbians reject gender performativity labels altogether and resent their imposition by others. Note that androgynous and butch are often considered equivalent definitions, though less so in the butch/femme scene.

A recently-coined word, often used to refer to androgynes, is genderqueer. However, this term can be used to refer to anyone who identifies as transgender, or even someone who identifies as cisgender but whose behavior falls outside the average standard gender norms. An androgyne may be attracted to people of any gender, though many identify as pansexual or asexual. Terms such as bisexual, heterosexual, and homosexual have less meaning for androgynes who do not identify as male or female to begin with. Infrequently the words gynephilia and androphilia are used, which refer to the gender of the person someone is attracted to, and do not imply any particular gender on the part of the person who is feeling the attraction.

[edit] Androgynes

An androgyne is a person who does not fit cleanly into the typical masculine and feminine gender roles of their society. Many androgynes identify as being mentally "between" male and female, or as entirely genderless. The former may also use the term bigender or ambigender, the latter non-gendered or agender. They may experience mental swings between genders, sometimes referred to as being gender fluid.

Intergender is also a word that androgynes can use to describe being between or beyond genders. Androgyne used to be primarily used as a synonym for hermaphrodite (a term since replaced by the word intersex), but this usage has fallen out of favor.

Androgynes sometimes refer to themselves using gender-neutral pronouns or the singular they.^{[citation needed]} A few even take steps toward transitioning from their birth sex into a physically androgynous form.

[edit] Famous androgynes

• King Xerxes I

[edit] Androgyny in culture

In fiction, androgynous characters are growing in popularity.

Anime & Manga

Japanese products in particular such as anime and manga tend to be the most prominent source in recent times for the display of androgynous characters. Examples include:

• Yue and Ruby Moon from Cardcaptor Sakura
• Envy from Fullmetal Alchemist
• Jakotsu from Inuyasha
• Kazuki Fuuchouin from Get Backers
• Haku and Deidara from Naruto
• Ed from Cowboy Bebop
• Yuki Sohma, Ayame Sohma and Momiji Sohma from Fruits Basket
• Luppi from Bleach
• Akame Nisei from Loveless
• Sailor Uranus from Sailor Moon
• Harara from Apocalypse Zero
• Lyserg Dithel from Shaman King
• Endrance from the .hack Conglomerate
• Ryo Bakura and Maximillion Pegasus from Yu-Gi-Oh!
• Kurama, or Shuichi Minamoto from Yu Yu Hakusho
• Haruhi Fujioka from Ouran High School Host Club.
• Dilandau Albatou from The Vision of Escaflowne
• Nanami and Sunao/Ran from Sukisho
• Integra Hellsing from Hellsing
• Yu Kanda, Rhode Camelot from D.Gray-man
• Nuriko from Fushigi Yugi
• Cain and Abel Nightroad and Ion Fortuna from Trinity Blood
• Eve from Judas
• Ashiya Mizuki from Hana-Kimi
• Frieza from Dragonball Z
• Shun, Misty, Aphrodite and Mime from "Saint Seiya"
• Seguchi Tohma from "Gravitation"

Video games

There are multiple examples of androgynous characters in video games as well.

• Perhaps the first ever androgynous video game character, Birdo from Super Mario Bros. 2, dresses like a girl but is said to actually be male.
• Vega (Street Fighter) from the Street Fighter series.
• Bridget from the Guilty Gear video game series.
• Raiden of Metal Gear Solid 2 was given an androgynous appearance on purpose so that both male and female players could relate to him and draw themselves deeper into the experience. This form of "beautiful boy" androgyny is known as bishōnen.
• Similar reasoning was behind the choice to make NiGHTS, the main character in the Sega Saturn game NiGHTS into Dreams..., androgynous.
• Larsa Ferrinas Solidor from the PS2 RPG Final Fantasy game FFXII
• Kuja from the Playstation RPG Final Fantasy game FFIX
• Giroette from the Nintendo DS game Megaman ZX
• Soma Cruz from the GBA game Castlevania: Aria of Sorrow
• Isaac from Castlevania: Curse of Darkness
• Mithos Yggdrasill from the Nintendo GameCube and PlayStation 2 RPG Tales of Symphonia
• Ion from the PS2 RPG Tales of the Abyss
• Lucius from the GBA game Fire Emblem: Rekka no Ken
• Fox from Bloody Roar

Music

• The 1970s rock genre, glam rock, which peaked in 1973, had players, such as David Bowie, Marc Bolan, Alice Cooper (see cover of Easy Action), Suzie Quatro and Queen, who dressed in an androgynous manner.
• The song and subsequent video "Androgyny" by Garbage.
• The Joan Jett song "Androgynous" talks about the concept.
• The song "Androgynous" by The Replacements

Movies and TV

• The movie Orlando follows the young nobleman Orlando, who lives through four centuries in Britain and changes sex on the way, ending up as an androgynous being.
• In the movie Stargate, the Egyptian god Ra is portrayed as an androgynous figure.
• In the episode of Star Trek: The Next Generation entitled The Outcast, The Enterprise helps an androgynous race.
• Saturday Night Live's popular character "Pat", played by Julia Sweeney, was portrayed as an androgynous figure.
• The figure of Satan in Mel Gibson's film The Passion of the Christ is presented as genderless. The character was portrayed by a woman, Rosalinda Celentano.
• The movie and the graphic novel 300 both showed the Persian king, Xerxes I as an androgynous figure.
• Both of the characters of Hedwig and Tommy in Hedwig And The Angry Inch were androgynous, although to different extremes.

Other

• various alchemical, magical and metaphysical traditions had an allegorical figure named variously the Alchemical Androgyne ^[1] and the Divine Androgyne. All these concepts are derived from the sense of unity that a combination of femininity and masculinity in one being implies.
• Elves in fantasy-fiction are often portrayed as androgynous.
• In the fantasy Tabletop games Warhammer 40K and Warhammer Fantasy, one of the gods of an army in the series known as Chaos, Slaanesh, is described as often appearing in an androgynous form.
• The character Desire from the graphic novel series The Sandman has physical characteristics of both sexes.
• The elven wizard Vaarsuvius of the webcomic The Order of the Stick has never had his/her gender genuinely identified.
• In A Series of Unfortunate Events by Lemony Snicket, one of Count Olaf's accomplices is described as looking "like neither a man nor a woman", being very fat, and having a very plain face. This character is only addressed twice in the series; once as "Orlando" by Sunny Baudelaire and as "Liza".
• In the Angel episode Orpheus, Willow Rosenberg calls the eponymous main character's son Connor androgynous, saying, "You must be Angel's handsome yet androgynous son."

[edit] See also

• Ageless
• Ardhanareshvara
• Asexuality
• Bisexuality
• Effeminate
• Feminine side
• Futanari
• Glam rock
• List of transgender-related topics
• Pangender
• Postgenderism
• Visual Kei

[edit] References

1. ^ Alchemical Androgyne

• Bem, Sandra L. (1974). The measurement of psychological androgyny. Journal of Consulting and Clinical Psychology. 42, 155-62
• Dynes, Wayne Androgyny Encyclopedia of Homosexuality. Dynes, Wayne R. (ed.), Garland Publishing, 1990. pp. 56-68.
• LIlar, Suzanne, Le couple (1963), Paris, Grasset; Translated as Aspects of Love in Western Society in 1965, with a foreword by Jonathan Griffin, New York, McGraw-Hill.

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[edit] External links

• Sandra Bem and androgyny
• Androgyne Online
• Discussion group
• Neutrois
• Sphere
• The Two-Spirit Tradition
• A Different Da Vinci Code The missing pieces of Leonardo's puzzle point to plain and simple Hermeticism (altreligion.about.com article).
• Susan's Place Transgender Forums: Androgyne Talk Section