Androgyny

Androgyny is the combination of masculine and feminine characteristics into an ambiguous form. Androgyny may be expressed with regard to biological sex, gender identity, gender expression, or sexual identity. Quotes thumb|right Androgyny comes from two Greek words meaning male and female. In a wider sense, this particular dichotomy is one of many possible expressions of all dichotomies, as the Greek philosophers have taught us - thesis and antitheses. To resolve a problem, an issue, or a war, it is necessary to bring together the opposites into a harmonious relationship, synthesis. It does not mean that the issues no longer exist, but that they exist as clearly defined and workable entities within a working system. Likewise, masculinity and femininity enter into a cooperative system under the rubric of androgyny. The idea, clearly is as old as philosophy and myth - and… It is an idea that is also so new, that it is only now being rediscovered. June Singer, Androgyny: The Opposites Within, (February 2000), Nicolas-Hays Press As at the close of the eighteenth century, with its emphasis on dualistic structures, androgyny - expressed as the desire for the expanded middle, where life is at its fullest and most beautiful - has seemed, in the eyes of certain gender theorists, to contain the potential to transcend or to subvert the reign of binaristic thought. Catriona MacLeod, Embodying Ambiguity: Androgyny and Aesthetics from Winckelmann to Keller, (1998), Wayne State University Press, p. 13 Androgyny, an ancient concept, is deeply rooted in both Western and Chinese philosophies. In the Symposium, Plato, through Aristophanes, mentions the existence of three primordial races, one of which is made of the union between men and women. Although the united body is later split by God into halves of different sexes, each seeks the other, yearning for the original whole. Zuyan Zhou, Androgyny in Late Ming and Early Qing Literature, (2003), University of Hawai'i Press (On the Plato's androgyn myth reported in the Symposium) Early humans belonged to three genders: the male, the female and the androgynous, provided with both reproductive organs. But the men angered the gods, and Jupiter decided to punish them by slicing them in two. Since then the androgyne has been wandering in search of his opposite-sex half. And the same thing is done by the halved male and female, who find peace only in reuniting with the missing half that is identical to them. The divine energy that moves the dance of all these halves is called love and is the same for everyone, straight and homosexual. As quoted in Massimo Gramellini, Io sto con Platone,La Stampa (December 21, 2012; in Italian) La prima creazione consisteva di spiriti, geni, demoni, usciti dalla bocca dell'essere increato come materializzazione del suo fiato vitale (prāṇa). Apparve dapprima Rudra, luminoso come il sole che sorge. Era androgino… L'immensità, vedendo quest'ermafrodito divino, gli disse: 'Dividiti'. Così, con il lato sinistro del dio, fu creata una dea che divenne la sua compagna. Ella si sarebbe poi incarnata nella figlia del re-sacerdote Dakṣa. Prendendo il nome di Satī (Fedeltà), divenne l'amante di Rudra. The first creation consisted of spirits, genies, demons, coming out of the mouth of the uncreated being as the materialization of his vital breath (prāṇa). Rudra appeared first, bright as the rising sun. He was androgynous...The immensity, seeing this divine hermaphrodite, said to him: 'Split up.' Thus, with the left side of the god, a goddess was created who became his companion. She would later incarnate in the daughter of the priest-king Dakṣa. Taking the name Satī (Fidelity), she became Rudra's lover. Liṅga Purāṇa, as quoted in Alain Daniélou, Śiva e Dioniso, translation into Italian by Augusto Menzio, Ubaldini Editore, 1980, Ch. 41, 41-42, and Ch. 99, 15-19. See also Gender bender Effeminacy External links Category:Gender