Androgyny

Androgyny is the combination of masculine and feminine characteristics. Sexual ambiguity may be found in fashion, gender identity, sexual identity, or sexual lifestyle. It can also refer to biological intersex physicality, especially with regard to plant and human sexuality. It can also refer to one's singing or speaking voice.

Etymology

The term derives from the Latin: androgynus, derived from Ancient Greek: ἀνδρόγυνος, from ἀνήρ, stem ἀνδρ- (anér, andr-, meaning man) and γυνή (gunē, gyné, meaning woman).

History

Androgyny and homosexuality are seen in Plato’s Symposium in a myth that Aristophanes tells the audience. People used to be spherical creatures, with two bodies attached back to back who cartwheeled around. There were three sexes: the male-male people who descended from the sun, the female-female people who descended from the earth, and the male-female people who came from the moon. This last pairing represented the androgynous couple. These sphere people tried to take over the gods and failed. Zeus then decided to cut them in half and had Apollo stitch them back together leaving the navel as a reminder to not defy the gods again. If they did, he would cleave them in two again to hop around on one leg. Plato states in this work that homosexuality is not shameful. This is one of the earlier written references to androgyny. Other early references to androgyny include astronomy, where androgyn was a name given to planets that were sometimes warm and sometimes cold.

Plant reproductive morphology

Plant reproductive morphology is concerned with the physical form and structure (the morphology) of those parts of plants directly or indirectly concerned with sexual reproduction.

Among all living organisms, flowers, which are the reproductive structures of angiosperms, are the most varied physically and show a correspondingly great diversity in methods of reproduction. Plants that are not flowering plants (green algae, mosses, liverworts, hornworts, ferns and gymnosperms such as conifers) also have complex interplays between morphological adaptation and environmental factors in their sexual reproduction. The breeding system, or how the sperm from one plant fertilizes the ovum of another, depends on the reproductive morphology, and is the single most important determinant of the genetic structure of nonclonal plant populations. Christian Konrad Sprengel (1793) studied the reproduction of flowering plants and for the first time it was understood that the pollination process involved both biotic and abiotic interactions. Charles Darwin's theories of natural selection utilized this work to build his theory of evolution, which includes analysis of the coevolution of flowers and their insect pollinators.

Androgynous (song)

"Androgynous" is a song by The Replacements featured on their album Let It Be which came out in 1984.

The song was covered by Crash Test Dummies and released as the third and final single from their 1991 debut album The Ghosts That Haunt Me.

Joan Jett also covered the song on both her albums Sinner and Naked.

Jubilee also covered the song. Their version appeared as the B-side on their first single, "Rebel Hiss".

In 2015, the song was covered by Joan Jett again, along with Laura Jane Grace of Against Me! and Miley Cyrus, for Cyrus's Backyard Sessions video series to support The Happy Hippie Foundation, an organization founded by Cyrus to support homeless LGBT youth.

Towards the end of the song, you can hear Paul Westerberg sing the words "Jefferson's Cock". Occasionally, The Replacements would play gigs in Minneapolis under this name, with the band members wearing dresses.

Music videos

Crash Test Dummies' music video for "Androgynous" features the band performing at a fair attended by many gender queer individuals. Joan Jett's music video features Jett singing the song as a story from a book in a library in front of a class, with the characters and details of the song portrayed in video.