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androgyny| Having both male and female sex organs, or possessing characteristics and qualities of both sexes. The use of androgynous figures in mythology and art is widespread: in Greek mythology, for example, the minor god Hermaphroditus became both male and female after the nymph Salacis was united with him in one body. |
| The concept of androgyny was further developed by the feminist movement, which emphasized that human personality is made up of both masculine and feminine characteristics. If males develop their ‘feminine’ side, and females their ‘male’ side, it was argued, differences could be lessened, and rigid stereotyping avoided. |
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| In Tropical Breeze, sweat pouring off the gorgeous physique of a heavily muscled lady trucker is absorbed with tissues proffered by a gamine androgyne, then packaged, their moistness preserved and made a selling point. According to Tarot scholar Christine Payne-Towler, "The theme of the androgyne or double-sexed magical entity is a subset of Gnostic speculation which harks back to the old Greek idea that before the soul's 'fall from heaven' into a physical body, it had to split into halves, one male and one female, to accommodate the duality of the material plane. The king and his mignons were often portrayed as a mix of hermaphrodite, androgyne, transvestite, and bisexual, thereby blending even more gender boundaries, and fueling ambiguity in the political, cultural, and literary domains of his reign. |
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