This article considers Beauvoir’s gesture towards fraternité at the end of The Second Sex (1949) by focusing on her fleeting characterisation of this future as ‘an androgynous world’. Generally, either Beauvoir’s call for fraternité is dismissed as an erasure of sexual difference and is thus seen to be politically bankrupt, or fraternité is understood to realise sexual difference. This latter reading suggests that androgyny plays no role in Beauvoir’s solution to women’s oppression, while the other view often sees it as (...) one effect of fraternité. This article takes a different position by arguing that Beauvoir affirms sexual difference and commits to an androgynous future. The article argues that androgyny is an affective mood that is constitutive of an openness in the field of possibility for living sexual difference. Consequently, androgyny plays not only a central role in fraternité, but also gestures to a future beyond dimorphic sexual difference. (shrink)

Although previous studies have acknowledged the connections between gender and emotional competences, more research is needed on how gender and emotion interact to influence psychosocial risks at work. This paper addresses how gender stereotypes and emotions simultaneously act as psychosocial antecedents of organizational stress. Following the principles of psychological androgyny, we propose that a combination of communion and agency can serve as a preventive factor at work and lead to healthier responses by providing a wider range of emotional competences to (...) deal with organizational demands. Following previous methodological approaches, we include a quantitative review about scientific research on occupational health in the PsycINFO database during the period 1980–2017 from a multidimensional gender perspective that differentiates between studies addressing the topic from either sex, gender or gender identity dimensions. Finally, we propose new analytical directions to deal with psychosocial hazards at work by underscoring some of the complex ways in which gender and emotional competences influence psychosocial risks at work. (shrink)

Dans "L'un est l'autre. Des relations entre hommes et femmes", Élisabeth Badinter découpe l'histoire de l'humanité, du point de vue des rapports entre les sexes, en trois périodes, les deux premières inscrites sous le signe de la complémentarité, la troisième inaugurant l'ère de la ressemblance. Or, les deux modèles sous-jacents à cette évolution de l'humanité sont susceptibles de deux évaluations, l'une positive, l'autre négative, ce qui permet d'engendrer quatre types de civilisation: complémentarité positive ; complémentarité négative ; ressemblance positive ; (...) ressemblance négative. Ce dernier type n'a pas été identifié par l'auteure, d'où son absence de nom et d'ancrage historique. L'article soutient que le non-lieu et le non-temps de cette option renvoient à un imaginaire qui commande également la description du premier et du troisième modèles :seule réalité attestable, le patriarcat s'insère entre un mythe de l'âge d'or et une gémellité hétéropolitique dont la reconnaissance confère à l'ouvrage de Badinter une nouvelle dimension: au lieu d'enter l'androgynie sur un socle scientifique vacillant la concevoir comme une nouvelle façon de vivre la condition humaine dans une société meilleure. (shrink)

Research on leadership has either ignored women or focused on sex differences. This paper illustrates how both of these strategies have been detrimental to women. An alternative conception based on sex-role orientation is presented and the research relating androgyny to leadership style and managerial effectiveness is reviewed. It is proposed that adopting an androgynous management style may help women to overcome the negative effects of sex-stereotyping in the workplace.

Purpose of the article is to highlight the peculiarities of the androgyny presentation in current visual culture, in particular in fashion and its philosophical and culturological comprehension. Determination of the leading trends associated with the offset of gender stereotypes and denial of the established separation into the feminine and masculine beginnings is due to the attention to the latest theories, such as transfeminism. Theoretical basis is the works of contemporary authors who develop such concepts as "gender", "gender identity", "androgyne" and (...) move within the limits of the theories of transfeminism and transgenderism. The leading French thinker J. Baudrillard outlines philosophical measurements related to the justification of fashion. The interaction issues of the feminist theory, aesthetics of gender and androgyny, which are manifested in visual images, are presented in the writings of P. Auslander, R. Crepax. Transformation of the androgyny idea is considered in the works of B. Řiháková, F. J. Galarte. S. Stryker, T. Bettcher and J. Halberstam also address the problem of transgenderism and transfeminism in their writings. Originality is to highlight the main aspects associated with actualization of androgyny, its visual presentations in fashion, and the connections with contemporary theoretical discourse. A number of concepts related to the transformation of gender stereotypes have been identified. It was revealed that the logical continuation of changes in society, science and technical development is the actualization of androgyny as an individual’s freedom in self-presentation and self-identification. It was emphasized that during the last century androgyny also serves as the basis for forming new trends in theoretical discourse, in particular, transfeminism, as well as it finds many visual manifestations in fashion and fashion industry. Conclusions contain the results of the study that describes the role of androgyny in the context of today’s culture as a measurement of personal freedom, aimed at avoiding gender stereotypes and the usual dichotomy of masculinity and femininity, which manifests itself in contemporary visual practices. (shrink)

Androgynia jako idea jedności i całości pojawia się w myśli Gastona Bachelarda w kontekście marzenia poetyckiego. To w nim bowiem – o czym dowiadujemy się z Poetyki marzenia - dochodzi do pojednania animy i animusa, żeńskiego i męskiego w jednej psyche. Marzenie będące spod znaku anima francuski filozof nazywa filozofią bytu androgynicznego, która ukazuje nam podwójną idealizację człowieczeństwa. Anima i animus, potwierdzające androgynię psyche, są momentami Ja. Ta dualna natura bytu psychicznego wyraża się poprzez dwa antagonizmy przedstawione za pomocą funkcji (...) realności (adaptacja do rzeczywistości i życia społecznego) i funkcji irrealności (samotność marzenia); myśli nadzorowanej (krytyka, cenzura) i wolnego marzenia (sympatia, przyjęcie, przyłączenie); pracy (wysiłek) i odpoczynku (rozluźnienie); niepokoju (projekt, antycypacja) i spokoju (obecność w sobie) - a zwłaszcza wokół dualności, która krystalizuje się w odróżnieniu umysłu naukowego (l’esprit scientifique) spod znaku animusa (pojęcia, wiedza) od umysłu poetyckiego (l’esprit poetique) spod znaku animy (obrazy, komunia dusz). Androgynia rozumiana jako życie integralne psyche dla Bachelarda jest perspektywiczna i wartościowa a próby jej poszukiwania utożsamia z pytaniem o sens ludzkiej egzystencji. Studia nad marzeniem ukazują jego fundamentalne znaczenie dla równowagi psyche. Tak rozumiana siła obrazów kreuje wówczas sztukę życia. W tym sensie, Bachelard staje się prekursorem nowego spojrzenia w dziedzinie refleksji nad problematyką obrazu – okazuje się, że to obraz odpowiada za relację, która zachodzi między człowiekiem a światem. (shrink)

Androgyny has more than one meaning. It may refer to the anatomical coexistence of two sorts of sex organs in the same body; or else to the allegory of a form of spiritual perfection. In other cases, it is related to the explicit coexistence of male and female qualities in the same entity. From a study of the various expressions used in the Hebrew of the Bible to evoke the dual nature of the first human, an attempt is made here (...) to show how this theme has been treated in certain theosophicotheurgical schools of Kabbalah, and more particularly with regard to the question of equality between men and women in Jewish tradition. (shrink)

Historically, the concept of androgyny has been as problematic as it has been appealing to Western progressives. The appeal clearly includes, inter alia, the opportunity to abandon or ameliorate certain identities. As for the problematic dimension, the central problem seems to be the reduction of otherness to the norms of straight white middle/upper-class Western cismen, particularly because of the consequent worsening of actual others’ marginalization and exclusion from social institutions. Despite these problems, I wish to suggest that androgyny—as evidenced by (...) the enthusiasm felt for it by many Westerners—bespeaks something larger and more important than the concept itself, and that modified conception of it might be helpful in pursuit of social justice. (shrink)

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Entre meados do século XI e meados do XVI circularam no Ocidente cristão vários relatos sobre uma suposta papisa Joana, cuja condição feminina foi revelada ao parir em plena procissão pelas ruas de Roma. História à primeira vista anti-eclesiástica, contudo aceita pela Igreja medieval. Por quê? A hipótese aqui defendida é de que o mito de Joana expressava a androginia simbólica dos papas, daí ter sido censurado só com o advento do Protestantismo e sua constestação à própria existência da instituição (...) papal. (shrink)

Jewish mysticism, in its classical period, is replete with images and theories that employ a mythic view of gender. This article will review a motif that has not been the subject of particular scholarly attention, that of the nesirah. The motif of the nesirah clearly has its origins in the most ancient understandings on the proclivities of the feminine aspects of Divinity. That a mythic motif that encompassed such a brazen sexuality was retained and worked into the core of classical (...) Kabbalah is indicative of the resonance of the myth, and the reluctance of the creators of the mystical canon to relinquish a tradition that they clearly viewed as essential, notwithstanding its challenges to the monotheistic ideal of classical, exoteric Judaism. (shrink)

Le concept d'androgynie a occupé une position stratégique dans les discussions féministes sur l'identité humaine, mais il est tout aussi ambigu que les notions de masculinité et de féminité dont il tente de subvertir l'opposition tranchée. Pour y voir plus clair, l'article construit un "champ définitionnel de l'androgynie" à partir de l'analyse de 15 définitions dont les éléments génériques et spécifiques, dissociés puis combinés systématiquement, permettent d'engendrer 56 conceptions distinctes et de préciser les enjeux qu'elles recouvrent. Après une (...) discussion des critiques de l'androgynie liées à ces enjeux, l'auteur dégage quatre type de valorisation affectant les concepts de masculinité et de féminité: l'androcentrisme, le gynocentrisme, l'androgynie et la "négandrogynie", celle-ci visant à contrer l'impact négatifs des critiques de l'androgynie tout en conservant son intuition essentielle. (shrink)

Of all Wagner's operas, the Tetralogy has a special status. Indeed, beyond the myth related by the plot, the four operas it comprises also contain the presentation of a myth of the origin of music and the total work of art. The latter is based on an androgynous myth uniting poetry and music, seen respectively as the incarnation of male and female principles, symbolized by the different characters – Siegfried, Brünnhilde, Fafner, Mime – who are all tied up with androgyny. (...) The theme appears both in Wagner's theoretical writing penned around 1850 and between the lines of the libretto of the Ring, which concludes with the impossible reunification of the sexes on the Platonic model. Nevertheless, even if biological androgyny belongs to the world of utopia, the creative artist does have the opportunity to bring together the opera's two sexualized components, music and poetry, and thus produce the total work of art that Wagner aspired to. (shrink)

In probably the earliest Upanisad text, one learns that at the beginning of the world there was only Ātman in the form of a person. Discovering that only he existed, he declared ‘I am’. After losing his fear of being alone, he found that he did not have pleasure because of his solitary condition. Thereupon, he divided himself and became a man and a woman. When the two beings copulated other beings and forms of life were produced. Thus the original (...) universal principle is androgynous. By knowing itself, it became all that there is in the universe. The philosophical implication of this myth is that he who knows that he is Brahman becomes the All. It is unclear, however, whether or not the author of this section of the text means to imply that the one who knows becomes androgynous. (shrink)

This book argues for allyship masculinity as an open-ended, intersectional model for feminist men. It provides a roadmap for navigating between toxic masculinity on one side, and feminist androgyny on the other. Normative visions for what men should be take many forms. For some it is love and mindfulness; for others, wildness and heroic virtue. For still others the desire to separate a healthy manhood from toxic masculinity is a mistake: better to refuse to be men and salvage our humanity. (...) Though I challenge the visions that Mary Wollstonecraft, bell hooks, and others have offered, I share their belief that masculinity can be grounded in feminist values and practices. I argue that we can make sense of relational allyship as practices of feminist masculinity, such that men can make distinctive and constructive contributions to gender justice in the unjust meantime. (shrink)

Purpose. The purpose of the article is to understand the issue of gender strategies of political leadership. Theoretical basis. The works of Ukrainian and foreign scholars helped to find out the specifics of male and female leadership. The article applied the latest methodology of androgyny-analysis. According to this methodology, sex has not only a biological, psychological and social, but also an existential dimension. So, the existential dimension of gender is soulfulness as an existential femininity and spirituality as an existential masculinity. (...) These two beginnings may conflict and may be in harmony. Depending on this, we have constructive or destructive strategies for the development of both the personality and the relations between individuals. Constructiveness here means not only gender equality, but also gender partnership. Originality. In the context of modern gender anthropology and androgyny-analysis, it is found that as a result of the implementation of the strategy of existential sexism and existential hermaphroditism, political leadership becomes authoritarian, and sometimes also totalitarian, while the strategy of androgynism associated with gender partnership gives rise to constructive political leadership. Conclusions. Androgynous personality of a political leader, which balances the existential and psychological qualities of men and women, is able to reform the society and change the country for better. (shrink)

In this paper, I explain what I take to be one of the most significant contributions made by feminism to Western understandings of social justice. This is feminism’s disclosure of objects of justice ignored by most other mainstream philosophers. I also consider whether a feminist approach to social justice is usefully described as a way of fleshing out the ideal of androgyny.

In this article, I channel the autobiography of Black Panther cofounder Huey P. Newton, entitled Revolutionary Suicide, against the misogyny of the alt-right movement today. Both Newton and the alt-right have been powerfully influenced by Nietzsche, but one way of grasping the central difference between them is by comparing their conceptions of Dionysus. While the alt-right sticks closer to Nietzsche’s conception, which minimizes the god’s androgyny, Newton’s thought resonates with that androgyny, thereby bringing him closer to the most influential Dionysus (...) scholar since Nietzsche, Walter Otto. I therefore turn to the latter’s Dionysus: Myth and Cult, whose analyses I synthesize into the following image inspired by the god’s closest animal familiar: the dancingly-graceful panther as aqueous-androgynous soul-hunter. Reimagining Newton’s Black Panther in this way, finally, can help us overcome the alt-right. (shrink)

In this unique work, James P. Sterba argues that traditional ethics has yet to confront the three significant challenges posed by environmentalism, feminism, and multiculturalism. He maintains that while traditional ethics has been quite successful at dealing with the problems it faces, it has not addressed the possibility that its solutions to these problems are biased in favor of humans, men, and Western culture. In Three Challenges to Ethics: Environmentalism, Feminism, and Multiculturalism, Sterba examines each of these challenges. In the (...) case of environmentalism, he argues that traditional ethics must incorporate conflict resolution principles that favor nonhumans over humans in a significant range of cases. In terms of feminism, he maintains that traditional ethics should rule out gendered family structures and implement an ideal of androgyny. In regard to multiculturalism, he contends that traditional ethics must endorse an ethics that is secular in character and that can survive an extensive comparative evaluation of both Western and non-Western moral ideals and cultures. The only textbook devoted to this topic, Three Challenges to Ethics is an engaging text for introductory courses in ethics and moral problems and is also interesting and provocative reading for scholars and general readers. (shrink)

La période du « sacre de l’écrivain » (P. Bénichou) a vu s’imposer une théorie de l’écriture inspirée qui converge autour du thème de l’androgynie du créateur. Dans ce contexte la métaphore, chez les écrivains hommes, d’une « conception », d’une « gestation » et d’un « engendrement » de l’œuvre prend une force nouvelle. Cette production de l’androgyne en soi-même s’est appuyée sur des expériences et des parcours capables de favoriser une telle métamorphose. L’article définit quatre « figures (...) biographiques », formant une sorte de matrice logique, qui, de 1800 à 1930, sont venues offrir une médiation imaginaire vers l’androgynat créateur : la relation frère-soeur, l’hystérie masculine, l’homosexualité, l’amour fou. En conclusion est posée la question du rapport des femmes écrivains à ces modèles de vie et d’écriture « inspirées ». (shrink)

Grand relecteur des mythes, Michel Tournier revient régulièrement, dans son oeuvre, sur la Genèse. Ses grands héros pervers, particulièrement Abel Tiffauges du Roi des Aulnes, soumettent le texte à une herméneutique du détournement et de l’inversion. Ils font ainsi apparaître dans le texte biblique la figure de l’androgyne primitif dont ils tirent des considérations éthiques et esthétiques sur la relation de l’homme et de la femme. Quant à Caïn et Abel, ils deviennent les supports d’un système binaire qui est une (...) des grandes caractéristiques de l’herméneutique tournérienne. Négligeant la dimension instauratrice et fondatrice du mythe biblique, Tournier rappelle plutôt, dans ses interprétations, le monde de la mystique juive occupée à scruter ce qui était avant la création. Mais chez le romancier, elles sont toutes affectées par le grand détournement pervers. As a great re-reader of myths, Michel Tournier regularly returns to Genesis in his work. His great, depraved heroes, especially Abel Tiffauges from Rois des Aulnes, subject the text to a hermeneutic of corruption and inversion. In this way, they bring forth from the biblical text the figure of primitive androgyny, from which they draw ethical and aesthetic considerations on the male-female relationship. As for Cain and Abel, they become the basis of a binary system that is one of the great characteristics of Tournier’s hermeneutic. By neglecting the founding dimension of the biblical myth, Tournier evokes, in his interpretations, the world of Jewish mysticism, which seeks to peer into that which existed before creation. For the novelist, however, these interpretations are all affected by the great, depraved, corruption. (shrink)

Pregnancy leave and comparable worth deal with differences between female and male employees. In each case feminists are divided as to whether special treatment for women will promote equality or reinforce sex stereotypes and gender based segregation in the workplace. A radical restructuring of the workplace is necessary, to make possible a more human life for men and women. This restructuring is articulated in terms of the concepts of equality as "participation" or "incorporation" of all individuals into a community, and (...) androgyny. (shrink)