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Androgyny is a term derived from the Greek words ανήρ (anér, meaning man) and γυνή (gyné, meaning woman)^[1] that can refer to either of two related concepts about gender. The first is the mixing of masculine and feminine characteristics, be it the example of fashion statements of David Bowie, Marilyn Manson, Boy George, Brian Molko, Paul Stanley and Annie Lennox, or the balance of "anima" and "animus" in psychoanalytic theory. The second is in describing something that is neither masculine nor feminine, for example the Hijras of India who are often described as "neither man nor woman" or angels which are often portrayed as genderless.

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Contents 1 Androgynous traits 2 Androgyne 3 Androgyny in culture 3.1 Anime and manga 3.1.1 Video games 3.2 Literature 3.3 Movies and TV 3.4 Music 4 See also 5 References 6 External links

Androgynous traits are those that either have no gender value, or have some aspects generally attributed to the opposite gender. Physiological androgyny (compare intersex), which deals 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^[2] is commonly known as an androgyne^{[citation needed]} (and, less commonly, as a non-binary gender variant), and there is a politicized version known as genderqueer.

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, 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 of it (women wearing men's pants/men wearing skirts, for example) are not perceived as transgendered behavior.

Lesbians who don't 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.

A recently-coined word, often used to refer to androgynes, is genderqueer. However, this term can be used to refer to anyone who identifies as transgender, or even someone who identifies as cisgender but whose behavior falls outside the average standard gender norms. An androgyne may be attracted to people of any gender, though many identify as pansexual or asexual. Terms such as bisexual, heterosexual, and homosexual have less meaning for androgynes who do not identify as male or female to begin with. Infrequently the words gynephilia and androphilia are used, which refer to the gender of the person someone is attracted to, and do not imply any particular gender on the part of the person who is feeling the attraction.

An androgyne is a person who does not fit cleanly into the typical masculine and feminine gender roles of their society.^{[citation needed]} Many androgynes identify as being mentally "between" male and female, or as entirely genderless.^{[citation needed]} The former may also use the term ambigender, the latter non-gendered or agender. They may experience mental swings between genders, sometimes referred to as being bigender or gender fluid.

Intergender is also a word that androgynes can use to describe being between or beyond genders. Androgyne used to be primarily used as a synonym for hermaphrodite (a term since replaced by the word intersex), but this usage has fallen out of favor.

Androgynes sometimes refer to themselves using gender-neutral pronouns or the singular they.^{[citation needed]} A few even take steps toward transitioning from their birth sex into a physically androgynous form.^{[citation needed]}

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• Various alchemical, magical and metaphysical traditions had an allegorical figure named variously the Divine Androgyne or Alchemical Androgyne.^[3] All these concepts are derived from the sense of unity that a combination of femininity and masculinity in one being implies.

Androgynous characters are readily apparent in anime and manga, possibly due to the concept of beautifully feminine boys known as bishōnen. Also, transsexual or crossdressing characters are relatively common when compared to Western media.

• Birdo from Super Mario Bros. 2 and Bridget from Guilty Gear XX, both dress like girls but are said to actually be male.
• Raiden of Metal Gear Solid 2 was given an androgynous appearance on purpose so that both male and female players could relate to him and draw themselves deeper into the experience, though the character was later parodied in Metal Gear Solid 3 as Major Ivan Raidenovitch Raikov.
• Similar reasoning was behind the choice to make NiGHTS, the main character in the Sega Saturn game NiGHTS into Dreams..., androgynous.
• Seraph from Shin Megami Tensei: Digital Devil Saga is a literal androgyne, created from the fusing of a male and female character
• Doctor N. Gin during Crash Team Racing, where some players said that N. Gin appears with a androgyne appearance, N. Gin is actually male but appears effeminate.

• The character Desire from the graphic novel series The Sandman has physical characteristics of both sexes, and maintains the gender balance among the character's three brothers and three sisters. Furthermore, Desire is a hermaphrodite, shifting genders often.
• The elven wizard Vaarsuvius of the webcomic The Order of the Stick has never had his/her gender genuinely identified as a running gag.
• The Fool is a character from Robin Hobb's fantasy novels based in The Realm of the Elderlings. In the first and third trilogies The Fool is almost always referred to as a man. In the second, a woman named Amber. When asked his gender, The Fool says it doesn't matter.
• In A Series of Unfortunate Events by Lemony Snicket, one of Count Olaf's accomplices is described as looking "like neither a man nor a woman", being very fat, and having a very plain face. This character is only addressed twice in the series; once as "Orlando" by Sunny Baudelaire and as "Liza".

• The movie Orlando follows the young nobleman Orlando, who lives through four centuries in Britain and changes sex on the way, ending up as an androgynous being.
• In the episode of Star Trek: The Next Generation entitled The Outcast, the crew of Enterprise help an androgynous race.
• In the episode of Star Trek: Enterprise entitled Fight or Flight, the crew of Enterprise investigate the murder of a crew of an androgynous species.
• Saturday Night Live's popular character "Pat", played by Julia Sweeney, was deliberately portrayed with an indeterminate gender.
• In Constantine, the archangel Gabriel was depicted as being androgynous, although played by Tilda Swinton, wearing a suit in one scene while wearing genderless clothing in his/her next appearance.
• The figure of Satan in Mel Gibson's film The Passion of the Christ is presented as genderless. The character was portrayed by a woman, Rosalinda Celentano.
• In the Angel episode Orpheus, Willow Rosenberg calls the eponymous main character's son Connor androgynous, saying, "You must be Angel's handsome yet androgynous son."
• The movie Dogma directed by Kevin Smith features angels which appeared to be male (they are played by male actors, use the men's restroom, and are frequently mistaken for human men) but are anatomically neuter, and a muse played by Selma Hayek who appears female (and works as a performer in a strip bar) but is also anatomically neuter and makes it clear that she does not identify as a woman.
• The character Switch from The Matrix is described as an androgyne in the screenplay, and it is rumored that she was originally a man while still trapped in the Matrix and switched genders after being freed and finding out her true gender.
• The character Edward Wong Hau Pepelu Tivrusky IV from Cowboy Bebop.

• The Visual Kei movement often (but not always) includes an androgynous look in its style.
• For the cover of his Mechanical Animals LP, Marilyn Manson donned prosthetic breasts (without nipples) and a bulge where his penis would be, recalling both mannequins designed to display men's wear and those designed to display women's wear. He described this as being the only way to escape limits by genders.^{[citation needed]}
• The 1970s glam rock genre had artists such as Queen, David Bowie, Marc Bolan, Jonne Aaron, Alice Cooper (see cover of Easy Action) and Suzie Quatro who dressed in an androgynous manner.
• The song and subsequent video "Androgyny" by Garbage 2001
• The song "Be My Human Tonight" by Norman Iceberg talk about the concept.
• The song "Androgynous" by The Replacements, and covered by Crash Test Dummies and Joan Jett.
• The Japanese musician Yoshiki Hayashi had an androgynous appearance while his band X Japan still pertained to the visual kei movement, which often explores androgyny along with macabre or eccentric themes.
• The music video for the song Love Is A Stranger by Eurythmics plays with gender and androgyny
• Brian Molko of the alternative rock band Placebo is well known for his androgynous attire
• Mana_musician from former Visual Kei Band Malice Mizer is often mistaken for a woman, as his makeup and long dresses disguise his true male image.
• Bill Kaulitz of the German band Tokio Hotel draws his androgynous image from Visual Kei, manga and Nena.
• Holy Wood the 2000 album by Marilyn Manson is divided into chapters ADAM, A being in the shadow, D being the Androgyne, A being of red Earth and M being the fallen.

• Ageless
• Anime
• Ardhanareshvara, aka Ardhanari and Ardhanarishvara
• Asexuality
• Bisexuality
• Bishōnen
• Effeminate
• Feminine side
• Futanari
• Glam rock
• Pangender
• Postgenderism
• List of transgender-related topics

• Feldman, Stephe. Androgyne Online. Transgender Tapestry Issue 107 (Fall/Winter 2004), pp. 38-39.
• Sell, Ingrid M. Third gender: A Qualitative Study of the Experience of Individuals Who Identify as Being Neither Man nor Woman. Doctoral Dissertation, Institute of Transpersonal Psychology, 2001). UMI No. 3011299.

• Bem, Sandra L. (1974). The measurement of psychological androgyny. Journal of Consulting and Clinical Psychology. 42, 155-62
• Dynes, Wayne Androgyny Encyclopedia of Homosexuality. Dynes, Wayne R. (ed.), Garland Publishing, 1990. pp. 56-68.
• LIlar, Suzanne, Le couple (1963), Paris, Grasset; Translated as Aspects of Love in Western Society in 1965, with a foreword by Jonathan Griffin, New York, McGraw-Hill.

• What is Gender support forum WhatisGender.net Support forum for transgender and non-binary persons and their friends, allies, therapists and people who have questions
• Sandra Bem and androgyny
• Androgyne Online
• Androgyne Discussion group at Tribe.net
• Neutrois people who identify as being non-gendered
• Sphere gender as a sphere, where male and female are just two of a number of possible points
• The Two-Spirit Tradition
• A Different Da Vinci Code The missing pieces of Leonardo's puzzle point to plain and simple Hermeticism (altreligion.about.com article).

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Gender	Male · Female · Androgyny · Boi · Cisgender · Gender identity · Gender identity disorder · Genderqueer · Gender role · Intersex · Pangender · Third gender · Transgender · Transman · Transwoman · Transsexualism
Sexual orientations	Asexuality · Bisexuality · Celibacy · Heterosexuality · Homosexuality · Pansexuality · Technosexuality
Third genders	Fa'afafine · Fakaleiti · Hijra · Kathoey · Khanith · Mukhannathun · Muxe · Sworn virgin · Two-spirit
Other	Butch and femme · Castrato · Eunuch · Fetishist · Geesha girl · Homosexuality and transgender · Master (BDSM) · Pimp · Polyamory · Porn star · Prostitute · Sex offender · Swinging · Queer · Womyn · Switch · Same gender loving