QuoteAndrogyny is the middle ground of male/female appearance, a blend that could be either (or neither). The combination and presentation of 'definitely male' and 'definitely female' (beard+dress, breasts+penis, or a pinup girl in military combat attire) are not examples of androgyny, not androgynous. They are examples of male/female contrast.
True, the pin-up girl in combat dress isn't expressing androgyny. She is giving the message, "I am so strongly feminine that I can wear stong masculine cues and still appear more femme than girls in lace." One might say that the greatest camp icon, Tim Curry as Dr. Frankenfurter, has the
apposite (there is no opposite gender) presentation -- so masculine that he looks unmistakably manly in women's undergarments. This presentation may be the goal of most 'camp' presentations.
As it happens, I think that Freddie Mercury, no matter that he always looked quite male, was edging off 'camp' and into an attempt at an androgynous expression. He seemed to be using feminine cues to express femininity, not to contrast his masculinity and emphasize it. And he
did sometimes sing in a 'both or neither' sort of way, as well as the distinctly masculine and distinctly feminine voices.
When I think of Annie Lennox, this image comes to mind:
Here Annie's hair is neutral -- it's not a masculine short cut, it's just clipped short and actually serves to emphasize her feminine features. Her clothing is strongly masculine. Her makeup is strongly feminine. Her
additude seems to express androgyny, but otherwise? This is a bi-gendered presentation. If she'd struck a feminine pose and affected a coquettish expression for the photo, it would result in a presentation similar to that of the pin-up girl in combat fatigues.
I am not sure why a combonation of lipstick and a suit-and-tie should be read as 'androgyny' while a combonation of beard and dress should not. It seems to me that a male in a dress who wears a mustache or allows his stubble to show might be expressing androgyny Lennox-style, or he might be expressing camp masculinity, or he might be expressing femininity without bothering to shave. In an encounter, a good photo or a video-recording one could tell, making accomodations for 'eye of the beholder' readings, but if that person was dead you'd never have a clue.
Likewise for somebody who has breasts and a penis, and wears clothing that displays both cleavage and 'basket'.
I appear androgynous, an effect I achieve by wearing masculine styles that de-emphasize the fact that I am tiny and delicate. I have no visible secondary sex characteristics unless I am naked. I am read as female based solely on bone-structure. Yet even people who have no interest in gender-studies will (sometimes with embarrassment and apology) describe me as 'disconnected from gender' and a 'not-woman.' When I was younger and my skin less weather-beaten, my masculine dress was frequently read as an emphasising contrast to my feminine features and I was often hit on by clueless visually-oriented but detail-blind heterosexual males who mistook my presentation for one similar to that of the pin-up girl in fatigues. It seems to me that male-bodied people who wish to present as androgynes have that problem (as demonstrated by this portion of the thread) but even more so.
