Frida Kahlo, La Andrógynista (Andy Jean Heroes Series)

Being androgynous is a hard thing in today's world. It's not like being intersex, where at least you can see proof of being caught between genders in your own body. In some ways, it's seen as even more strange by society—being born XY or XX, but feeling like your behavior is really from both ends of the cultural spectrum. You can't be just masculine or feminine. You're a perpetual mixture in your heart, something your body does not express in a way obvious to the world. People don't get you. You don't even get yourself half the time.

So to help out all the little Andy Jeans who are just figuring out what you are, I'm compiling a series of profiles of famous androgynous people. Like I've said before, it helps to have some role models. And I'm here to help you find some.

Let's start with Frida Kahlo, the legendary Mexican artist known as The Dove.

Frida was a troublemaker from the start. She played pranks, got expelled from school (but managed to fix it before her family found out), and dressed in a suit for a family portrait, for pete's sake! She was a fiery person, who seduced both men and women. (Yeeeeeeeah, Frida fulfilled the androgyny stereotype of also being bisexual. Whatever.) She married Diego Rivera, a firecracker artist in his own right. In the age of flappers and ladies, Frida smoke, drank, swore, and did whatever she wanted.

More than just being an awesome dresser, Frida pushed the direction in a way that no one could have imagined a woman ever attempting. She didn't paint fluffy bunnies and succulent flowers. She painted blood, death, gore and truth. She didn't shy away from painting about the most painful aspects of being a woman. In fact, she threw them in people's faces. In the 20's and 30's, that was considered, well, ballsy.

That was the crux of Frida's heroic androgyny—she was ballsy. She said what she wanted and did what she desired in a world where that wasn't always expected of women. Frida took on the characteristics of men for her time period, and it worked for her. And it paid off! She ended up becoming one of the endearing symbols of Mexican culture, like the legendary figure La Llorona.

What can we learn from Frida? Life gets easier once you start to not give a frick about what people think about you. Frida loved Diego, but her life and career genuinely didn't start to get better until she stopped doing what was acceptable for women at the time. Once Frida stopped following Diego Rivera around, stopped putting his career above hers, and no longer tolerated his extramarital affairs, things really took off for her. Paintings started selling, museums started creating exhibits of her work.

That's truly the life of the Andy Jean—whatever we ourselves want it to be. Whether we wear trousers, dresses, or some combination or the two, androgynous people are blessed with the ability to pick and choose the attitudes and lifestyles that will make us happy, if we have the strength to go against the grain. Frida did. Y que una andróginista inspiradora.