Androgyny - Traits

Traits

Androgynous traits are those that either have no gender value or have some aspects generally attributed to the opposite sex. Physical androgyny (compare intersex), which concerns physical traits, is distinct from behavioral androgyny, which concerns personal and social anomalies in gender, and is also distinct from psychological androgyny, which is a matter of gender identity.

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 sex. 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 to describe actual intersexuality, transgender or two-spirit people. Occasionally, people who do not actually define themselves as androgynes adapt their physical appearance to look androgynous. This outward androgyny has been used as a fashion statement and some of the milder forms (women wearing men's trousers/men wearing skirts, for example) are not perceived as transgender behavior.

Lesbians, who do not define themselves as butch or femme, may identify with various other labels including "androgynous" or "andro" for short. A few other examples include "lipstick lesbian", "tomboy", and "tom suay", which is Thai for 'beautiful butch'. Some lesbians reject gender performativity labels altogether and resent their imposition by others. Note that androgynous and butch are often considered equivalent definitions, though less so in the butch/femme scene.

The recently coined word genderqueer is often used to refer to androgyny, but the terms "genderqueer" and "androgyny" (or "androgynous") are neither equivalent nor interchangeable. "Genderqueer" is not specific to androgynes. It does not denote gender identity and may refer to any person, "cisgender" or "transgender", whose behavior falls outside conventional gender norms. Furthermore, "genderqueer", by virtue of its ties with queer culture, carries sociopolitical connotations that androgyny does not carry. For these reasons, some androgynes may find the label "genderqueer" inaccurate, inapplicable, or offensive.

Terms such as "bisexual", "heterosexual", and homosexual have less meaning for androgynes who do not identify as men or women to begin with. Infrequently the words gynephilia and androphilia are used. These words refer to the gender of the person someone is attracted to, but do not imply any particular gender on the part of the person who is feeling the attraction.