If you have ever seen an androgynous person, you might be a little bit confused when you are trying to categorize them as male or female. Which is completely fine, because androgynous is defined, according to the dictionary, as “having the same physical characteristics of both sexes.” This means that androgynous individuals can go between looking masculine, feminine, or even somewhere in between because it is ultimately up to them what gender that want to express. For some people, this might make them frustrated, because they are used to a male dressing and looking a particular way and the same for women. Some people are really bent on knowing what you identify as, and with androgynous people, they completely challenge this way of thinking. In high school, I had an androgynous friend and she mostly dressed in masculine clothing; when people were meeting her for the first time, they were not sure if she was a girl or boy. For some androgynous individuals, they are not too strict on what people try to categorize them as because their gender expression is pretty fluid.

Of course, we have some people who gravitate toward one spectrum than the other. Some examples of androgynous individuals are Bill Kaulitz, who is the lead singer of the German rock band, "Tokio Hotel," and Ari Fitz, who was known for being on MTV's Real World and launching her TOMBOYISH series on youtube (that you guys should really check out). The pictures below are Bill Kaulitz.

Now, you might argue that he cut his hair and is wearing less makeup, but he still has fluidity and expressions of both sexes.

Now, we jump over to Ari Fitz who is fabulously androgynous.

(Ari is on the right)

She can jump from wearing a tuxedo one day to donning some heels the next. On her TOMBOYISH series on youtube, where she does LookBooks and talks with other individuals who identify with androgyny and dressing in a tomboyish fashion, and she talked about accepting her androgynous nature. I love androgyny in that it forces you to question what you think a women or man should look like, and how much this influences our interaction with other individuals. If a person’s physical appearance is not straightforward on whether they are a male or female, how much does that influence your communication with them?

Society is so conditioned to place everything in a box that it forgets about the people who are in the middle or defy the rules. And, if you exhibit something that many people are not accustomed to, like androgyny, some people may make fun of you and or force you to conform to either looking or dressing like a female or male. Slowly, our society is getting out of these constricting boundaries, but we have a long way. But for all of my androgynous people out there, stay flawless and androgynous! Till next time, Tschüss.