Androgyny
From Encyclopedia of Sex and Sexuality
When traits that are commonly regarded as male or female are mingled in one person, he or she is said to be androgynous. (The word androgyny comes from the Greek words andros, for male, and gyne, for female.) In literature the term has been applied to characters who seemed to move back and forth between male and female sex or roles. One famous example is Orlando in Virginia Woolf’s novel of the same name, about an individual who moves through history changing sex with reappearances in successive generations. It might also apply to Scarlett O’Hara’s secret love, Ashley Wilkes, in the novel Gone With the Wind, seemingly a romantic and sensitive man in a society in which men were expected to be arrogant and macho.
Psychologists once thought they could measure masculinity and femininity using scales based on attributes that were believed to encompass male and female sex roles. Traits commonly defined as male included ambition, self-reliance, independence, and assertivenesss. Those regarded as feminine included affection, gentleness, sympathy, and sensitivity to others’ needs . Recognizing that many men and women do not define themselves according to the popular conventions and that many display a mixture of these traits, psychologist Sandra Bem introduced an androgyny scale in the early 1970s that reflects self-descriptions of people who equally endorse masculine and feminine attributes.
In recent years Americans have seen a growth of androgyny in their daily lives, as the distinctions and separations between the sexes seem to dissipate in many ways. Professions such as television announcing, reporting, and the law, once nearly entirely male, and airline cabin attendants, once almost entirely female, have become more androgynous. Beauty salons and barbershops have given way in many areas to androgynous unisex haircutters. Androgynous clothing too, such as blue jeans and sweat suits, are worn by both sexes.
