 | Androgyny: Encyclopedia - Androgyny
Androgyny
If referring to a flower, see Hermaphroditism in plants and Plant sexuality.
For the song, see Androgyny (Garbage single).
Androgyny refers to two concepts. The first is the mixing of masculine and feminine characteristics, be it the example of the loud fashion statements of musicians like Ziggy Stardust 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".
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 or transgender or two-spirit status of people.
The morpheme andr- means 'man', and the morpheme -gyn- means 'woman', derived from Greek.
Some famous people known for their androgynous appearances include Grace Jones, Marlene Dietrich, David Bowie, Pete Burns, Boy George, Annie Lennox, Phranc, Gladys Bentley, Brian Molko, Prince, Gackt, Patrick Wolf, Susan Powter, Marilyn Manson, k.d. lang and Mylene Farmer.
References:
- Bem, Sandra L. (1974). The measurement of psychological androgyny. Journal of Consulting and Clinical Psychology. 42, 155-62
See also
- List of transgender-related topics
- Feminine side
- Ardhanareshvara, androgynous aspect of the Hindu deity Shiva/Shakti
- Bem Sex Role Inventory
- Crash Test Dummies, who released a song called Androgynous on the album The Ghosts that Haunt Me.
Also a Greek Myth: Myth of the Androgyny
Other related archivesAndrogyny (Garbage single), Annie Lennox, Ardhanareshvara, Boy George, Brian Molko, Crash Test Dummies, David Bowie, Feminine side, Gackt, Gladys Bentley, Grace Jones, Greek, Hermaphroditism in plants, Hijras, Hindu, India, Jungian, List of transgender-related topics, Marilyn Manson, Marlene Dietrich, Myth, Patrick Wolf, Pete Burns, Phranc, Physiological, Plant sexuality, Prince, Shakti, Shiva, Susan Powter, Ziggy Stardust, androgyne, anima, animus, gender roles, genderqueer, intersex, intersexuality, k.d. lang, man, morpheme, transgender, two-spirit, woman
 Adapted from the Wikipedia article "Androgyny", under the G.N U Free Docmentation License. Please also see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki |
