Androgyny, Masculinity And Nonconformity In Society
924 Words4 Pages
Androgyny is the amalgamation of masculine and feminine individualities within a person. Androgyny is a term that was originated from the Greek word avnp, which means man, and yuvn, meaning woman. It is referred to the combination of male and female physical appearance. Androgynous is a person who does not fit in gender categories of masculinity and femininity, culturally defined and determined rules of how male and female must behave in certain cultures within society.
Since the 1970s it has been embraced as a new form of sexuality role that is an alternative to psychological characteristics and roles traditionally set for the different sexes. In its most generic sense, androgyny indicates a deficiency of any sex based distinction, including…show more content… Referencing male and female, we all came along knowing women had characteristics that where feminine, they were seen as being sensitive, emotional, selfless, and expressive. Whereas the characteristics associated with men, masculinity center around goal orientation, assertiveness, self-development, dominating and instrumental in whatever they do.
The connotation of the two characteristics we just explained that divides the differences between a man a woman were considered typical, expected, and psychologically healthy. Individual nonconformity to the said characteristics were either that way because of failure to exhibit attributes typical of one's sex or through endorsing characteristics atypical to one's particular sex implying there is some sort of psychological maladjustment.
Androgyny became mainstream in 1972 when David Bowie launched his new album The Rise and Fall of Ziggy Stardust and Spiders from Mars’. Bowie was introducing his alter ego Ziggy Stardust, Dressed as bisexual alien with a pale face and flamboyant cheekbones. He took on the person of this alter ego who was created by Andy Warhol, who without a shadow of a doubt encourages the trend…show more content… Marlene Dietrich shocked public opinion when she appeared in men’s suit with hat. This was then promoted by Hollywood but officially took flight with Mr. Bowie. Now today androgyny is mostly promoted by persons from fashion industry and pop culture. The phenomenon of androgyny is becoming very wide spread with different areas of today’s world. You can find it very prevalent in business world, entertainment industry, arts, and in particular fashion industry.
Naturally in all of us weather be it male or female we have male and female genetic material make ups. Masculinity traits such as strong, persuasive, logical, dominant, determined, and femininity traits with adjectives such as emotional, caring, soft, sympathetic. This can be seen in today’s world when it comes to women undertaking jobs male oriented we find women who are have the have feminine tendencies but also masculine attitudes. So we have a woman who is warm, ladylike, caring but her inner attitude is determined, aggressive, dominant and