Androgyny
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Androgyny is the possession of both
When androgyny refers to mixed biological sex characteristics in humans, it often refers to
Regarding
Androgyny in those who are assigned female at birth is suggested to contribute to positive mental health, although individual factors such as education and marital status may affect this.[3]
Etymology
The term derives from
History
Androgyny is attested from earliest history and across world cultures. In ancient
The
Philosophers such as
Modern history
The symbolism and meaning of androgyny was a central preoccupation of the
In the mid-18th century, the macaronis of Georgian-era England were a wealthy subculture of young men, known for androgynous gender expression. Their unusually large wigs, lavish fashion, and sentimental behavior prompted backlash from conservative generations of the time. In 1770, the Oxford Dictionary declared, "There is indeed a kind of animal, neither male nor female, a thing of the neuter gender, lately started up among us. It is called a macaroni."[15] An example is portrait artist Richard Cosway, referred to as "the Macaroni artist."[16]
Psychological
This section needs attention from an expert in psychology. The specific problem is: This article describes personality attributes, but not underlying principles.(December 2018) |
In psychological study, various measures have been used to characterize gender, such as the Bem Sex Role Inventory and the Personal Attributes Questionnaire.[17]
Masculine traits are categorized as agentic and instrumental, dealing with assertiveness and analytical skill. Feminine traits are categorized as communal and expressive, dealing with empathy and subjectivity.[18] Androgynous individuals exhibit behavior that extends beyond what is normally associated with their given sex.[19] Due to the possession of both masculine and feminine characteristics, androgynous individuals have access to a wider array of psychological competencies in regards to emotional regulation, communication styles, and situational adaptability. Androgynous individuals have also been associated with higher levels of creativity and mental health.[20][21]
Bem Sex-Role Inventory
The Bem Sex-Role Inventory (BSRI) was constructed by the early leading proponent of androgyny, Sandra Bem (1977).[22][23] The BSRI is one of the most widely used gender measures. Based on an individual's responses to the items in the BSRI, they are classified as having one of four gender role orientations: masculine, feminine, androgynous, or undifferentiated. Bem understood that both masculine and feminine characteristics could be expressed by anyone and it would determine those gender role orientations.[24]
An androgynous person is an individual who has a high degree of both feminine (expressive) and masculine (instrumental) traits. A feminine individual is ranked high on feminine (expressive) traits and ranked low on masculine (instrumental) traits. A masculine individual is ranked high on instrumental traits and ranked low on expressive traits. An undifferentiated person is low on both feminine and masculine traits.[22]
According to Sandra Bem, androgynous individuals are more flexible and more mentally healthy than either masculine or feminine individuals; undifferentiated individuals are less competent.[22] More recent research has debunked this idea, at least to some extent, and Bem herself has found weaknesses in her original pioneering work.[citation needed] Now she prefers to work with gender schema theory.
One study found that masculine and androgynous individuals had higher expectations for being able to control the outcomes of their academic efforts than feminine or undifferentiated individuals.[25]
Personal Attributes Questionnaire
The Personal Attributes Questionnaire (PAQ) was developed in the 70s by Janet Spence, Robert Helmreich, and Joy Stapp. This test asked subjects to complete a survey consisting of three sets of scales relating to masculinity, femininity, and masculinity-femininity. These scales had sets of adjectives commonly associated with males, females, and both. These descriptors were chosen based on typical characteristics as rated by a population of undergrad students. Similar to the BSRI, the PAQ labeled androgynous individuals as people who ranked highly in both the areas of masculinity and femininity. However, Spence and Helmreich considered androgyny to be a descriptor of high levels of masculinity and femininity as opposed to a category in and of itself.[17]
Biological sex
Historically, the word androgynous was applied to humans with a mixture of male and female sex characteristics, and was sometimes used synonymously with the term hermaphrodite.[26] In some disciplines, such as botany, androgynous and hermaphroditic are still used interchangeably.
When androgyny is used to refer to physical traits, it often refers to a person whose biological sex is difficult to discern at a glance because of their mixture of male and female characteristics. Because androgyny encompasses additional meanings related to gender identity and gender expression that are distinct from biological sex, today the word androgynous is rarely used to formally describe mixed biological sex characteristics in humans.[27] In modern English, the word intersex is used to more precisely describe individuals with mixed or ambiguous sex characteristics. However, both intersex and non-intersex people can exhibit a mixture of male and female sex traits such as hormone levels, type of internal and external genitalia, and the appearance of secondary sex characteristics.
Gender identity
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Transgender topics |
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An individual's gender identity, a personal sense of one's own gender, may be described as androgynous if they feel that they have both masculine and feminine aspects. The word androgyne can refer to a person who does not fit neatly into one of the typical masculine or feminine
Some non-Western cultures recognize additional androgynous gender identities, called third genders.
Gender expression
Gender expression that includes a mixture of masculine and feminine characteristics can be described as androgynous. The categories of masculine and feminine in gender expression are socially constructed, and rely on shared conceptions of clothing, behavior, communication style, and other aspects of presentation. In some cultures, androgynous gender expression has been celebrated, while in others, androgynous expression has been limited or suppressed. To say that a culture or relationship is androgynous is to say that it lacks rigid gender roles, or has blurred lines between gender roles.
The word
An alternative to androgyny is gender-role transcendence: the view that individual competence should be conceptualized on a personal basis rather than on the basis of masculinity, femininity, or androgyny.[33]
In
Contemporary trends
Throughout most of twentieth century Western history, social rules have restricted people's dress according to gender. Trousers were traditionally a male form of dress, frowned upon for women.[40] However, during the 19th century, female spies were introduced and Vivandières wore a certain uniform with a dress over trousers. Women activists during that time would also decide to wear trousers, for example Luisa Capetillo, a women's rights activist and the first woman in Puerto Rico to wear trousers in public.[41]
In the 20th century, starting around World War I traditional gender roles blurred and fashion pioneers such as Paul Poiret and Coco Chanel introduced trousers to women's fashion. The "flapper style" for women of this era included trousers and a chic bob, which gave women an androgynous look.[42] Coco Chanel, who had a love for wearing trousers herself, created trouser designs for women such as beach pajamas and horse-riding attire.[40] During the 1930s, glamorous actresses such as Marlene Dietrich fascinated and shocked many with their strong desire to wear trousers and adopt the androgynous style. Dietrich is remembered as one of the first actresses to wear trousers in a premiere.[43]
Throughout the 1960s and 1970s, the women's liberation movement is likely to have contributed to ideas and influenced fashion designers, such as Yves Saint Laurent.[44] Yves Saint Laurent designed the Le Smoking suit and introduced it in 1966, while Helmut Newton's erotized androgynous photographs of the suit made it iconic and a classic.[45]
In 1972, David Bowie presented his alter ego Ziggy Stardust, a character that was a symbol of sexual ambiguity when he launched the album The Rise and Fall of Ziggy Stardust and Spiders from Mars.[53] Marc Bolan, the other pioneer of glam rock, performed on the BBC's Top of the Pops in 1971 wearing glitter and satins, with The Independent stating his appearance "permitted a generation of teeny-boppers to begin playing with the idea of androgyny".[54] The 1973 West End musical The Rocky Horror Show also depicted sexual fluidity.[55]
Continuing into the 1980s, the rise of avant-garde fashion designers like Yohji Yamamoto,[56] challenged the social constructs around gender. They reinvigorated androgyny in fashion, addressing gender issues. This was also reflected within pop culture icons during the 1980s, such as Grace Jones, Jamie Lee Curtis, Annie Lennox and Boy George.[51][57]
Power dressing for women became even more prominent within the 1980s which was previously only something done by men in order to look structured and powerful. However, during the 1980s this began to take a turn as women were entering jobs with equal roles to the men. In the article "The Menswear Phenomenon" by Kathleen Beckett written for Vogue in 1984 the concept of power dressing is explored as women entered these jobs they had no choice but to tailor their wardrobes accordingly, eventually leading the ascension of power dressing as a popular style for women.[59] Women begin to find through fashion they can incite men to pay more attention to the seduction of their mental prowess rather, than the physical attraction of their appearance. This influence in the fashion world quickly makes its way to the world of film, with movies like "Working Girl" using power dressing women as their main subject matter.
Androgynous fashion made its most powerful in the 1980s debut through the work of Yohji Yamamoto and Rei Kawakubo, who brought in a distinct Japanese style that adopted distinctively gender ambiguous theme. These two designers consider themselves to very much a part of the avant-garde, reinvigorating Japanism.[60] Following a more anti-fashion approach and deconstructing garments, in order to move away from the more mundane aspects of current Western fashion. This would end up leading a change in Western fashion in the 1980s that would lead on for more gender friendly garment construction. This is because designers like Yamamoto believe that the idea of androgyny should be celebrated, as it is an unbiased way for an individual to identify with one's self and that fashion is purely a catalyst for this.[citation needed]
Also during the 1980s, Grace Jones, a singer and fashion model, gender-thwarted appearance in the 1980s, which startled the public. Her androgynous style inspired many and she became an androgynous style icon for modern celebrities.[61]
In 2016, Louis Vuitton revealed that Jaden Smith would star in their womenswear campaign. Because of events like this, gender fluidity in fashion is being vigorously discussed in the media, with the concept being articulated by Lady Gaga and Ruby Rose and in Tom Hooper's film The Danish Girl. Jaden Smith and other young individuals have inspired the movement with his appeal for clothes to be non–gender-specific, meaning that men may wear skirts and women may wear boxer shorts.[62]
Androgyny has been gaining more prominence in
The rise of the
While the 1990s unrolled and fashion developed an affinity for
Symbols and iconography
In the ancient and medieval worlds, androgynous people and/or hermaphrodites were represented in art by the
Another common androgyny icon in the medieval and early modern period was the
-
The caduceus
-
Mercury symbol derived from the caduceus
-
A rebis from 1617
-
"Rose and Cross" androgyne symbol
-
Alternate "rose and cross" version
See also
- List of androgynous people
- List of transgender-related topics
- Bigender
- Epicenity
- Futanari
- Gender bender
- Gender dysphoria
- Gender neutrality
- Gonochorism
- Gynandromorphism
- Gynomorph
- Non-binary gender
- Pangender
- Postgenderism
- Sexual orientation hypothesis
- Soft butch
- Third gender
- Transsexual
- True hermaphroditism
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External links
- The dictionary definition of androgyny at Wiktionary