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From: cheryl@lasspvax.UUCP (Cheryl Stewart)
Newsgroups: net.women
Subject: Re: what makes you feel feminine/masculine?
Message-ID: <587@lasspvax.UUCP>
Date: Mon, 7-Oct-85 19:36:09 EDT
Article-I.D.: lasspvax.587
Posted: Mon Oct  7 19:36:09 1985
Date-Received: Thu, 10-Oct-85 07:00:03 EDT
References: <248@ssc-vax.UUCP> <1944@reed.UUCP> <32@ubc-cs.UUCP> <1201@ihuxn.UUCP>
Reply-To: cheryl@lasspvax.UUCP (Cheryl Stewart)
Distribution: net
Organization: LASSP, Cornell University
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Summary: 


Wait, I thought "Jamie" was a she.  Now I'm curious (yellow).
"Jamie" is a name that anybody can have -- like "Sandy" or "Jan"
or even "Colin".    What makes people feel ANDROGYNOUS?  Hmm?
I feel androgynous when I'm grading exams and don't look at the
names to tell whether the person under examination is male or female.

I feel androgynous when I get along with a man in two ways at the
same time -- one because he's masculine and I'm feminine and two because
he's masculine & part of me is masculine.  I feel doubly androgynous
when three, because part of him is feminine & a complementary part
of me is masculine, while my feminine side corresponds to his feminine
side.   I can cry & have long close talks with my brother, while
at the same time wanting to guide & protect him (because he's naive)
yet admire his carpentry and mechanical expertise, and still feel
like "one of the boys".  I feel even more androgynous when all four
complementary & corresponding  relationships are in effect with another
woman, my sister or aunt, for example. 

I first picked the example of a brother-sister relationship, because it 
excludes the explicit sexual posturing of most male-female relationships.
This allows a more "pure" examination of the interaction of masculine
& feminine personality traits and character attributes.  I'm anything but
Christian, but maybe this is one of the benefits of a religious community
(I'm referring to some idealized monastic order where men are allowed to
be gentle, retiring and contemplative while women are allowed to write
books, make policy,  run universities) -- an asexual androgyny which
allows more "real" relationships between PEOPLE in a manner unrelated
to who's got what kind of body.

Now sexual androgyny doesn't exclude the emotional, intellectual and
social interactions of asexual androgyny, it only adds a physical
dimension to a relationship (use your imagination).  I would put
frills, lace, denim & steel discussions in the Prince-Lou Reed-
Village People-Boy George category of androgynous sexual posturing.
Oh, and don't forget Annie Lenox, Patti Smith and Lola.  (See?  Even
I am capable of politely ignoring the contribution of women).
I think that Mo Tucker (Drummer for the Velvet Underground) does
not do this androgynous sexual posturing thing -- she just plays
the drums & gets her name misspelled as "Moe" a lot (even on liner notes)
just because people are unaware (and can barely tell that) she is
a she.  

I gotta go.

                    Cheryl Stewart

"Before they made me, they broke the mold."