Introduction
For many years, it has been believed that if a person is mentally and physiologically healthy, then his or her appearance and behavior patterns should conform to the gender stereotypes established in society. Thus, a man should have a brutal appearance, aggressive, belligerent behavior, and actively developing career. In other words, such a man should have masculinity peculiar to the whole male gender. On the contrary, a woman should be feminine: she should be characterized by tenderness, care for the family, economy, and weakness. The standard model of relationships was built on the connection between the two genders, where a defenseless woman hid behind a physically developed man.
Modern psychology claims that in the context of personal identification, there may be several gender roles, but, most interestingly, there are concepts of androgyny. Traditionally, androgynous is called a person who does not demonstrate significant differences between a man and a woman. Simply put, it is difficult to identify such a representative of society as one of the usual genders, and therefore, it is appropriate to talk about the formation of genderless self-identification. It should be clearly understood that androgyny and hermaphroditism, although similar concepts, describe different aspects of this question. While androgyny characterizes the psychological aspect of personal development, hermaphroditism explains the formation process of biologically both female and male genitals.
Despite the seemingly provocative nature of the phenomenon of androgyny and the desire of some members of society to ridicule such inadequate, in their opinion, behavior, the harmonious combination of male and female principles lies in a person at birth. In other words, each person is androgynous in their essence, although for the majority of people, the suppression of some traits under the anger of society is noticeable. The idea that each person, in terms of psychological development, does not have a distinct gender is the central thesis of this work. The essay is aimed at discussing the phenomenon of androgyny in the context of personal development and bringing evidence to support the thesis.
Psychological Theory of Androgyny
Scientific Development of the Issue
According to the central position of the androgynous theory, initially, the human psyche has no distinctions on standard genders: in other words, human consciousness is genderless. Much of the scientific literature studying the phenomenon of androgyny refers to Sandra Bem’s works, who founded this concept (Starr & Zurbriggen, 2017; Kark, 2020). Psychologist Bem argued that the apparent differences between male and female behavior are abstract and groundless and that the person has a harmonious combination of the two genders (Keener & Mehta, 2017). In support of her thoughts, the woman developed a universal questionnaire that allows to determine gender role models. According to the findings, feminine women have more female features and fewer male ones, while masculine men, on the contrary, have a higher number of male characteristics along with lower female features. The apparent result of this work, which has laid the foundation for all modern research on androgyny, is the fact that any gender includes traits of the other.
Although Sandra Bem is the founder of the theory of androgyny, such ideas met among thinkers long before her. It is worth admitting that myths about androgynous creatures without explicit sex were spread in the legends of ancient civilizations. Androgynous were considered to be first humans, combining the features of both genders: according to legends, the ancient Gods were angry with androgynous and divided them into two. An exciting version seems to be that a woman named Eve appeared from the rib of a man named Adam, which refers to the original unity of the two sexes. Subsequently, research on androgyny became rationalistic, which is especially noticeable in the works of Swiss psychiatrist Karl Jung. According to the analytical theory of personality, from the very beginning, the psyche of each person is androgynous, and only over time, it becomes separated, because upbringing builds specific psychological barriers, sharing what can be done by a man and what can be done by a woman. The idea of the unity of Jung’s Anima and Animus, in other words, the female in the male and the male in the female, was key in the archetypal view of psychological bisexuality (Rupavataram, 2017). This harmony of two seemingly opposite traits has a severe energy potential for the individual, not burdened by pressure from others.
Developing Gender Stereotypes at An Early Age
In Bem’s work, as in subsequent papers by researchers in the field of personality psychology, the recognition of the psychological unjustifiability of the gender division of roles was of paramount importance. In fact, the concept of male and female patterns of behavior, appearance, and expectations is of purely cultural significance to society but does not correspond to the natural state of affairs (Starr & Zurbriggen, 2017). In other words, a person is androgynous as long as there is no gender bias. The driving force making a child to choose one of the traditional behavioral patterns is society. According to Campbell (2019), which studied the relationship between fashion and androgyny, when a newly born girl is dressed by her parents in a pink color typical for this gender, there is a deformation of the objective worldview of the child. Thus, a girl from birth will already understand who she should be in order to arrange society and what colors she should wear. The same provisions are fair for boys, whose clothes, the color of wallpaper in the room, and toys are usually darker, “manly” colors.
As mentioned above, the main determinants of personal development from an early age are society’s influence. At this point, there is no doubt that the family environment in which a child is raised plays a decisive role in his or her development (Weigel et al., 2020). The views preached by parents, along with the models of father-mother relationships, determine how androgynous a child will grow up. Moreover, the child eventually enters new socialization stages that include kindergarten, school, and university: in all areas, there is a risk that gender balance will outweigh in one direction. It is not difficult to notice that this effect is confirmed by the behavioral theory of personality, created by B. F. Skinner, whose thoughts came down to reflecting social attitudes in the personality through learning. In other words, a child brought up from childhood by the established rules is most likely to demonstrate the expected behavior in the future.
Harmonious Combination of Male and Female Principles
Such a situation is very problematic because the views of most people replace the real equality of the two gender identities in a person. The masculinity and femininity initially embedded in a child under natural conditions do not confront each other, and consequently, choosing one model dictated by societal pressure is not appropriate (Kark, 2020). Nevertheless, it is worth recognizing that an increasing number of modern people understand the importance of this concept, and therefore, strive to raise children according to gender-neutral models (“Raising your children gender neutrally,” 2016). Apparently, androgyny makes a person more multi-faceted and free, as it gives advantages to two traditional genders at once.
It should be recognized that the probable confirmation of the natural lack of gender orientation of the human psyche is on the plane of future socialization of the personality. Most likely, high femininity and masculinity are not guaranteeing of mental well-being. On the contrary, according to Bem, a person who includes traits of two genders at once, or more correctly, is sexless, is more adaptive to the environment (Kark, 2020; Starr & Zurbriggen, 2017; Pauletti et al., 2017). This effect is justified by the unlimited possibilities of the androgynous person. Gender-specific male and female archetypes can coexist only within the framework of their models predetermined by society, while the androgynous due to the combination of features show better results. In particular, Kark (2020) has noted that such individuals are more likely to be stronger leaders because they can find an acceptable balance between pressure and care for their subordinates. At the same time, androgynous individuals show greater openness to the world and people. Particular attention should be paid to clarifying the sexual emancipation of such people. It is wrong to think that if they have two genders simultaneously, androgynous is bisexual. Although, in practice, any situation is possible, in most cases, such individuals do not find any patterns in sexual identification.
Emotional Androgynous Freedom
The discussion of emotional freedom, which is characteristic for androgynous, deserves more attention. In the conditions of standard models, where men have to take on belligerent roles, and women take care of the economy, for each of the parties, the emotions peculiar are fixed. This can be easily traced in gender stereotypes that have developed over generations in society: a man should not cry, and a woman should not show determination. Although society has changed, these concepts showed incredible viability. Even today, young children are often brought up so that their behavior corresponds to expectations. As a result, grown men are shy about showing their real feelings, while women, on the contrary, tend to hide behind men.
It is easy to see that this situation cannot be considered healthy because human feelings should not be gender-bound. Men and women must be free to express themselves, but society dictates the opposite. In this case, androgynous individuals are in a winning position because by combining both genders into one, they can afford more than others. Androgynous is not afraid to show their emotions in public or take leading professional roles, since, in their minds, there are no gender differences. For this reason, it is likely that androgyny is a natural part of the pure consciousness of the person, not burdened by external or internal factors.
Social Adaptability
It is wrong to think that psychological androgyny means only a set of qualities of femininity and masculinity, which a person can manifest in public behavior. Androgyny characterizes the incredible flexibility of a person in choosing behavioral patterns depending on the challenges, situations, and circumstances ahead. In this regard, the cognitive theory of personality developed by Kelly is recalled. According to the idea of a practicing psychologist, the personality is perceived as a researcher, and the mechanisms through which knowledge of the world is realized are constructs. In the context of androgyny, this theory is reflected in the relationship of such people with society. If one takes into account that personality, according to Kelly, is the way of cognizing and interpreting the world, then androgyny is an unwillingness to choose one of the existing gender aspects, but the desire to achieve greater objectivity. Moreover, the cognitive-complex personality described by the psychologist is, in most cases, characteristic of androgynous: this includes a higher level of adaptation and self-esteem, more excellent stress resistance, and mental well-being (Jones et al., 2016). In other words, the social adaptability characteristic is realized through constructs that allow a person to predict behavior. For example, if in childhood, a child encounters a social attitude that a man should help a woman, then the grown-up androgynous can offer their help to the female or male sex.
Difficulties of Relationships with People
Although the central thesis of this work is the acknowledgment of originality of the human androgynous psyche, this section will focus on the problem of social connections that such individuals have. It is safe to say that most of society exists according to predetermined principles and rules, deviation from which is unacceptable. Thus, if people are faced with something that is incomprehensible to them or does not contribute to their perception of the world, then, as a rule, an aggressive mechanism of communication will be activated. Androgynous individuals, despite the benefits of their social and emotional openness, may experience severe problems with interpersonal communication with people of “traditional views” (Stern & Rule, 2018). A “masculine” woman or a “feminine” man is unlikely to be highly attractive among standard gender representatives. This means they are less likely to have close relationships, marry, and start a family.
The author of this paper identifies two possible causes of this unhealthy relationship towards androgynes. First of all, it is necessary to recognize the potential of the power of social mechanisms that force individuals to live the way social rules, morality, and laws predetermine it. In other words, a child is brought up from childhood in such a way that it can be classified by a known gender: boy or girl. Literally, everything that is associated with a person in childhood speaks about gender: this includes the attitude of adults, the theme of toys, or colors. A person who grew up according to the established rules cannot accept alternative gender in a friendly way, and that is why he or she prefers to conduct aggressive or passive communication.
On the other hand, the mechanism of such relationships may lie in the plane of an individual’s own experiences. It should be admitted that this option does not exclude the first one, but rather complements it. The consciousness of each person has the characteristics of two genders, but for some members of society, the manifestation of “male” tears or “female” aggression is unacceptable, so there is a cognitive suppression. From this point of view, Freud’s theory of psychoanalysis applies to this concept, which showed the idea of suppressing internal motives due to the influence of external factors, society, and censorship. The results of such destruction will be direct aggression against the androgynous since they can be free from prejudice and open. Speaking differently, the phenomenon of androgynous causes in people unhealthy reaction as it shows the significant socio-psychological possibilities of the personality which are absent in society.
Conclusion
Summing up, first of all, it should be admitted that the author of this work perceives the phenomenon of androgynous as an absolutely healthy expression of human consciousness. The psyche of personality initially has no gender separation, which is manifested in a harmonious combination of male and female features in one person. It is rare when such an undivided consciousness remains unchanged in a person because society puts severe pressure on gender identity. In this paper, it was shown that children from birth receive expectations from parents about who they should become: this suppresses androgyny. However, if the androgynous person still manages to remain stable, they will have clear advantages over traditional gender. The range of such opportunities includes increased social adaptability, absence of prejudices, expanded personal horizons, and stress tolerance.
References
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