Androgyny

:If referring to a flower, see disambiguation under bisexual.

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Androgyny refers to two concepts. The first is the mixing of masculine and feminine characteristics, be it for example in the loud fashion statements of musicians like Ziggy Stardust or the balance of "anima" and "animus" in Jungian psychoanalytic theory. Secondly it describes 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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Androgynous traits are those that either have no gender value, or have some aspects generally attributed to the opposite gender. Physiological androgyny (compare intersex), dealing 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.

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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.

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The morpheme andr- means 'man', and the morpheme -gyn- means 'woman', derived from Greek.

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Some famous people known for their androgynous appearances include Grace Jones, Marlene Dietrich, David Bowie, Boy George, Annie Lennox, Phranc, Gladys Bentley, Brian Molko, Prince, Gackt, Patrick Wolf, Susan Powter, and k.d. lang.

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References:

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• Bem, Sandra L. (1974). The measurement of psychological androgyny. Journal of Consulting and Clinical Psychology. 42, 155-62
Androgyny: See also ►



 

Ziggy Stardust: Ziggy Stardust may refer to:...

Anima: Anima is used variously:...

Animus: According to Carl Jung, the animus is the masculine side of a woman's personal unconscious. It can be identified as all the unconscious masculine psychological qualities that a woman possesses....