On Ivan Coyote

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I think I have a new role model. And for the purpose of bragging rights, see her right hand? Yeah? I shook it. I touched a famous person's hand and it was awesome. 

Why Facebook Doesn't Have Gender Neutral Pronouns

Ok, first let's get one thing straight so that this post doesn't appear as a rant to any newcomers out there amongst you.

Hello. For those of you who don't know me, my name is Patrick and I'm a gay, cis-gender male. I'm not genderqueer, but what I'm about to talk about still annoys me a bit.

I'm going to be talking about there being no 'Other' option when choosing your sex or gender on the world's largest social networking site, Facebook.

A Small Book Review

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There's no doubt the self-help section in book stores are growing rapidly. No one has time to visit a specialist, they want to do everything on their own, so why not use a book to help yourself. What is becoming more and more popular are books on the individual. How to be the real you. How to not care what others think of you. With a growing demand and acknowledgement of different sexuality and genders, it's no wonder there are self-help books about the individual finding their true sexuality and gender.

More real than thou

Sometimes drag queens are told they're "not fooling
anyone" (S)

“Real men” and “real women” – I bet every one of you has heard these two phrases. But, what is a real man or woman? From time to time you can hear the phrase “real men do this” or “real women are like that”, sometimes with the intention to shame a man that is too effeminate, or a woman that is not feminine enough, sometimes with the intention to put down a transgender or gay person. Also, it seems like the criteria that you need to meet to be considered real never actually ends… You’re never good enough! So, what’s this all about? Where does it all stem from and what do people mean when they talk about those mythical “real men/women”?

A Surprisingly Gay Children's Film (That Technically Isn't)

I like animated films, even ones that might be targeted at a... younger demographic than myself. And I've always found it kind of unfortunate that pretty much no children's films feature gay romance. There's quite a lack of LGBT representation in most media, but it's particularly absent (and depressingly so) in children's media. I think it's actually a huge roadblock against LGBT people realising and coming to accept who they are - I know that I personally spent the first many years of my life believing people came exclusively in guy/gal pairs, in no small part due to Disney's repeated insistence of such. That's why, just last year, I was pleasantly surprised to find an animated film that can be considered both a children's movie, and a gay one. It's a Japanese film called Arashi no Yoru Ni (commonly known in English as One Stormy Night).

I don't really expect you to have heard of it, seeing as it's never officially been released in English, although some fans were given permission to make a dub, which can be found on YouTube here (it's split into 8 parts).

Two-spirit people

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Ever heard of the two spirit people of the native American culture? For hundreds of years people who've identified as two-spirit are pepole who identify with both man and woman characteristics. Two-spirits have been recorded in over 130 native American tribes throughout history. In some cultures like the Zuni people, children we not assigned a gender at birth, instead they were left to grow into their own gender. It was only from the age of five that they were referred to as boy or girl, before that they were just called "child", or "cha'le". In some communities, two-spirits at the age of puberty were given the "basket and bow" choice, which meant that if a male-bodied two-spirit picked up the bow they would live their life as a "man" but if they picked up the basket they would continue living as two-spirit.

Why Satan Is (Apparently) Androgynous

Looking up the history of the classical music composition "Satan and the She-Devil" (don't ask), I came upon an interesting image. It was from the movie Passion of the Christ, a controversial but nonetheless meaningful movie depicting the period directly before and directly after the crucifixion of Jesus Christ. It was supposedly groundbreaking on various levels, ranging from the care taken to film in languages authentic to the period to the sheer amount of violence shown on screen. Lots of Christians watched it around Easter, to commemorate the event so key to their faith that took place on that day.

But the image I saw from The Passion wasn't of Jesus, or any of the disciples. It was of an androgynous woman leering out at Jesus. I was drawn to her— who was she?

She was Satan.

Woody Allen, The Maker of Modern Androgyny

Scrawnier men. Women in trousers. Snark as sex appeal. Intelligence as an asexual quality.

This would be the legacy of iconic film director Woody Allen (in addition to his films themselves, of course). In addition to creating what may be some of the most sarcastic films ever created (they include phrases like 'the gallery of the overrated,' for Pete's sake), Allen was a pioneer of androgynous culture from the 1970s onward. The works he wrote and directed introduced the idea that androgyny can not only be acceptable in modern society, but sexually desirous. For a community just coming out of the gender-queering days of the '60s, Allen's works gave androgyny a fresh new appeal.

Twiggy Made Androgyny HOT (Andy Jean Heroes Series)

Androgyny is finally starting to develop a general identity. A collective outlook, like how gay men can look to Neil Patrick Harris for a out-and-proud attitude and lesbians can look to Ellen DeGeneres for a so-what-I'm-happy attitude. We don't have that yet, but we Andy Jeans want one. We're looking for heroes to emulate, and a general attitude to use as their own.

That's partly why I'm doing this Andy Jean Heroes series: To point out people whose cultural contributions are helping to create the modern Andy Jean attitude. One of those people was Twiggy, the legendary model of the 1960s. She was 31-23-32, had eyelashes out to there (fake, by the way), and a shortly-cropped haircut that every little boy dreams of...

Marilyn Manson, Androgynous Bada*s (Andy Jean Heroes Series)

Anyone from the 1970s knows Marilyn Manson. The darkest of the dark rockers, who scandalizes people to this day. People petition to keep him away from having concerts in their town. He was one of the societal forces that were blamed for the Columbine massacre.

He screams. He croaks. He's openly blasphemous. He destroys hotel rooms and is then sued for thousands of dollars.

But  the man can rock makeup like no one else.

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.

"Wear All Their Clothes": Coming Out As Androgynous

We were just meeting up for our first date. I was wearing the dress, the tights and the heels. Perfectly girly, except for my shagged-out hair. Better I not tell the guy on our first date that I identified as partly masculine inside. Not as a tomboy, but genuinely half male in my heart. We had been set up, and the poor guy would probably be scared by hearing this revelation about me on the first real date.

We met up, and it went really well. Nice guy-fellow psychology student, serious foodie, as big a Japanophile as I was an Indophile. He was nice, and it was going really well.

I mentioned at one point that I had a tattoo-a black compass rose, on the outside of one of my thighs at garter/shorts level. I could rock it as sexy or tough, depending on how I felt that day.

"Oh, like it's androgynous?" He asked with a smile.

My jaw dropped. I started stammering. "You-you know what that word means?"

The Power of Pictures, Or Androgyny Explained

Her face was blank. “What’s ‘androgynous’?”

This was the millionth time I’d had to explain my identity. It still kinda bugged me. “It’s like I’m both a guy and a girl inside.”

“Huh? Are you bi?"

"No, I'm straight."

The lady I was talking to in the bar continued looking confused. So I pulled my go-to example.

"Have you ever seen the movie Manhattan?"

"Yeah."

"Diane Keaton in that. That's how I am."

"Oooooooh, okay!" Bingo.

Understanding Sexuality, Asexuality, Sex and Gender

Before going into an explanation about the differences between sexuality and asexuality, sex and gender, I would like to say that labels are not exclusive. You don't have to label yourself at all if you don't feel like any existing word can define your orientation, or you can pick the closest existing word to how you feel and add to it or mix up different terms. Who is to tell you how you feel? No one. You alone know who you are. The spectrums of sexuality and gender are spectrums of infinity, no one fits perfectly into any box. Some people are against labeling all together. However, labels can be useful in some circumstances such as when you’re questioning or coming out. They can help explain to people how you feel and who you are.