Androgyny

What does Androgyny mean in American Law?

The definition of Androgyny in the law of the United States, as defined by the lexicographer Arthur Leff in his legal dictionary is:

May refer to the state of being a hermaphrodite, but much more commonly it is used to describe sexually ambiguous appearance or behavior. Of this use, there are two principal variations. Androgyny may refer to anbigious or variable sexual behavior, i.e., sexual activity with members of one’s own sex (homosexuality), or sexual activity with members of one’s own sex and with members of the other sex (bisexuality). See also AC-DC.

It may also refer to “masculine” appearance or behavior by a female, or “feminine” appearance or behavior by a male. This last usage is the most questionable. First, it is hard to know what “masculine” or “feminine” appearance or behavior might be when it’s not actual sexual behavior. Second, there is no established correlation between homosexuality and even the most caricatured examples of effeminacy or masculinity; only a very small percentage of male or female homosexuals show overtly any surface behavior of the other sex, and many people who do so, so-called “sissified” men, or “masculine” women, are thoroughly heterosexual.

Indeed, while an allegation of androgyny is still most likely meant most of the time to be pejorative and insulting, even that seems slowly to be changing, and there may come a time when the term would also refer to a person who is not so locked in a particular surface sex identify as to be unable to relax and take [on] some of the appearance and roles traditionally assigned to the other sex.

Definition of Androgyny

The Canada social science dictionary [1] provides the following meaning of Androgyny: A personality which holds a balance of feminine and masculine characteristics. An androgynous person would be one comfortable with displaying both characteristics and able to move back and forth between the two. Some feminists have advocated gender androgyny as a source of liberation from polarized cultural ideas of masculine and feminine.

Androgyny: Resources

Notes and References

• Drislane, R., & Parkinson, G. (2016). (Concept of) Androgyny. Online dictionary of the social sciences. Open University of Canada