Gender is a fluid construct that shifts over time. As such, terminology and definitions are constantly evolving. For example, wigs and make up were once masculine signifiers, but have now come to represent femininity.
Similarly, the term andro lesbian may mean different things to different people. In general, it is a term for nonbinary women and gender-fluid individuals who are attracted to male anatomy or gender expressions.
Gender Aesthetics
Feminist approaches to art often examine the influence of gender on the development of ideas about art. Gender is especially relevant to feminist artistic practice because of its impact on the social construction of women and femininity.
Sexual minority women have been subject to cultural pressure to conform to a masculine lesbian aesthetic, which has led to femme and feminine-presenting lesbians being seen as inauthentic within queer communities. In contrast, butch women are perceived as being ‘authentic’ lesbians. This asymmetrical understanding of the androgynous identity has relegated femme and feminine-presenting sexual minority women to the margins of their LGBTQ+ community.
This study sought to redress the imbalance by asking participants to map their gender aesthetic using SCT diagrams, and complete measures of outness and internalized homophobia. The heat maps created for gender strength (i.e., how important gender style is to their self-defined sexual minority identity) provide evidence of a shift towards androgyny amongst our female sample.
Gender Symbolism
Gender symbols are pictograms used to represent sex and gender in biology and medicine, genealogy (including kinship in anthropology and pedigrees in animal husbandry), LGBT subculture and identity politics, and other fields. Gender symbols often combine elements of male and female symbolism with the equality sign ().
People can use gender symbols to communicate their sexual orientation, gender identity, or both. They can also wear a flag, t-shirt, or other clothing item with the gender symbol to show support for the LGBTQ community.
Some LGBTQIA people express their gender through drag. This can include a look that is feminine, masculine, or neutral and can be used to challenge stereotypes about femininity. Others may choose to be androgynous for aesthetic or sensual reasons.
Gender Identity
Gender identity is a person’s internal sense of their own gender, which may or not match their assigned sex at birth. For example, a transgender woman who was assigned male at birth may identify as feminine at times or use gender neutral pronouns such as they/them/their.
People with androgynous identities may also identify as intersex, omnigender, nonbinary or genderqueer. Others who choose not to fit into one of these categories might call themselves two-spirits or third-gender.
While many labels for sexual orientation—including straight, gay and bisexual—reinforce the binary of male and female, andro lesbians embrace masculine traits while remaining gender neutral. They may also opt for a gender-neutral style, choosing clothing and accessories that don’t give away their sex. This is often known as androgyny, a style popularized by music icon Davie Bowie and later adopted by the likes of Kristen Stewart. The LGBTQ acronym has expanded to include the addition of queer (or sometimes questioning) and intersex, which is reflected in the inclusion of a plus sign to the acronym.
Gender Expression
Gender expression is a person’s way of dressing, appearing and behaving that signals gender — whether feminine or masculine. There are many different terms for gender expression, including butch, drag, femme and bigender. Gender expression can differ from sex identity, which is a sense of oneself as a man or woman and can be gender fluid, transgender or non-binary.
Although research has found that sexual minority women’s gender expression is more masculine than the societal norm, it’s unclear whether this is due to deliberate identity concealment or simply a result of culture. As with other forms of androgyny, masculine leaning androgynous lesbian aesthetics often eschew any clear indications of femininity that may discredit a claim to the LGBT community. This is particularly true for agender and gender queer persons, whose gender expression often falls outside the traditional expectations of their assigned sex. Bottom surgery is a common type of gender expression for this population, which involves reconstructing the genitals with phalloplasty or other surgeries.