Female androgyny

The lack of female androgyny in the Goth community is a conspicuous absence noted by students of Goth like Dunja Brill, among others. This underrepresentation is especially significant because of the central role of femininity and male androgyny in the subculture. Revealingly, male androgyny has been sexualized with transgressive capital while female androgyny has been ignored or neglected, at best. Treated like it is in the mainstream culture: male androgyny is sexy; female androgyny is just gross. Men win again.

This empty space and the absurd negative assumptions revolving around it needs to be explored. And populated with a genuinely transgressive image of the sexy androgynous female. Sexy on her terms, that is. Now that would really challenge gender stereotypes. And heteronormative views of sexual attractiveness.

Aside from being ignored and neglected, female androgyny is also often dismissed. Women's dress codes are presumably so liberal that there really is no boundary to cross. At first glance, this makes the idea of the 'drag king' nowhere near as gender bending as the 'drag queen'. At first glance, that is.

When female androgyny is not ignored, neglected or dismissed, it is ridiculed. Because it presents a far greater challenge to male dominance and male sexuality. Witness the character of 'Pat' on Saturday Night Live. Pat is of ambiguous gender and that is the meta-joke behind this character. Pat is not a perfect example of an androgynous woman because her (she basically, kinda, sorta, turns out to be a 'she') sex is never clearly identified. That is the whole joke. But her female gender is implicit, if not acknowledged in some scenes. In any case, Pat's androgyny is the butt of the joke. It is meant to be funny, especially Pat's constant frustration of other people's attempts to find out which sex Pat really is. While not hostile or really offensive, the ambivalent (at best) response to Pat's ambiguous female-like gender tells us a lot about the threat female androgyny poses.



It's Pat!
Source: wikipedia

 While male androgyny is easily heterosexualized, female androgyny is far less digestible to mainstream culture. It is not glamorized because it is assumed to be 'ugly' (what is less attractive to 'straight' men than 'masculine' women in the eyes of the Kultur?); and is presented as abject, abnormal and unsettling. In a culture where women are commanded to be feminine and beautiful, any woman who deliberately chooses to be handsome and masculine is incomprehensible and disturbing. Hence, the underlying theme of Pat.

But this norm is being questioned. And British actress Tilda Swinton is one of the gender bending revolutionaries.



Source: Craig McDean

 The sex appeal of Tilda Swinton crosses gender boundaries, if not dimensional ones. Her supernatural beauty troubles, boils and bubbles "sex" as we know it. And we luuuv it. Why? Is she sexy because she is a boiish grrl? Or a grrlish boi? Both? Neither/nor? All? Genderqueer in shades of gorgeous transcendence...?



Source: soundonmars

 My answer could be summed up in her performance as the titular transgender character in Orlando, a wondrous and wonderful adaptation of Virginia Woolf's novel of the same name (if you need a good read, then seriously this is it!). The story follows Orlando as he transforms over history from an androgynous boi in Elizabethan England into an androgynous grrl in Edwardian times. If you haven't seen it, watch it. The movie is amazing. And Swinton is stunning in all her sexually ambiguous glory.

Tilda Swinton as Orlando

Witness, the picture above. Tilda's sex/gender is completely irrelevant. And arbitrarily masculine only because we arbitrarily assign 'masculine' meanings to it.

Quite plainly, gender is as gender does. And Tilda Swinton gives new meaning to both 'masculine' and 'handsome'.

But female androgyny isn't just handsome. It is unearthly. Otherworldly. In short, radical resistance.



Source: Time