Warning: The following post is rather nerdy. Enter at your own risk.
We've been talking lots of androgyny in Prof. Marcus' Hemingway's class. That of course, meaning a mixture of feminine and masculine traits or lack of either sex. I've never dwelled (dwelt?) much on the subject and I'm not sure I've thought it all through, but I'm interested in sharing and see what you think.
I'm working on Hemingway's The Garden of Eden which goes against all the macho images we have of the author: big and hairy and standing on a boat holding the biggest fish ever seen and damn proud of it. Oh, and he was rather stinky... quite known for it too! But I digress.... 
So why write a story like The Garden about a woman who cuts her hair short and begins to play sexual role reversals with her husband? Hhhhhmmm.... suspicious!
What really caught my attention was the following excerpt Prof. Marcus shared with us from Virginia Woolf's "A Room of One's Own": The normal and comfortable state of being is that when the two live in harmony together, spiritually cooperating. If one is a man, still the woman part of the brain must have effect; and a woman also must have intercourse with the man in her. Coleridge perhaps meant this when he said that a great mind is androgynous. It is when this fusion takes place that the mind is fully fertilised and uses all its faculties. ... The androgynous mind is resonant and porous; ... it transmits emotion without impediment; ... it is naturally creative, incandescent and undivided.
So the wheels are turning and I have to tell you: I ABSOLUTELY agree. I don't think you can be complete in any way without an androgynous mind. It defies all logic, the yin and the yang, the animus and anima, Cher and Sonny Bono, and who knows what else! (The latter being of course irrefutable proof of this theory.) In a simple Jungian way, Prof. Marcus explained that it's imperative we develop this in order to achieve individuation or completeness and reconciliation of the conscious and unconscious.What?! So much pyschobabble! I'm confusing myself. But anymus, the basic principle being that we must embrace the masculine and feminine in every one of us. The honest triple wholehearted truth with a juicy cherry on top is that all of my really great guy friends are VERY in tune with their X chromosome. (Some would argue that we all begin as female with two Xs... but most would agree we're neutral in the womb for a while before developing our nether regions... but I digress... AGAIN.) And of course, my girlfriends exhibit plenty of masculinity in their own lip-gloss-wearing daily lives.
So what do we do with all of this? I don't even know if I made much sense, but it's a juicy topic worth of much more than a short entry on my page. I really want to think about this. What about babies born with both sexes and the parents choosing one at birth? Does that just condition you to be one way or the other? What about feeling like you're seriously in the wrong body? I can't even begin to pretend to understand the pain and confusion that could create. (I know that is all well beyond the scope of this entry....)The androgynous mind.... undivided... let me marinate on this some more. So much we don't know, huh? And how incredibly powerful is all of this coming from Hemingway!? I love it when a story has nothing to do with the actual words on a page, but everything between the lines instead.
I love literature.
I'm just one hell of a lucky X chromosome.
{all pics via vi.sualize.com}
Its interesting that you'd have to pick this up. cause Sigmund Freud theorized that every person has the ability to become bisexual at some time in his or her life. and it is true. every person has the capacity , mentally to assume either role. there is no such this as the wrong body. there is only the programming in the mind that matters. and the mind isn't perfect. so its natural to have both. i have some guy friends of mine who try to show off excessive maleness to an unnatural degree. being a guy myself i find it strange cause i feel they are putting a lot of effort in trying to react and be in that way. but then that sort of behavior has become the definitive male stereotype. what i would like to see is people accepting both those characteristics without labeling them as male and female characteristic. cause the in the very act of tagging/labeling them you are essentially separating the two and subconsciously starting to judge them thru your bias on the matter. hope you find more treasure chests in unravelling the mystery of the androgynous mind. :)
Hi Nitin! Thanks for your comment! I wasn't sure if this would strike a chord with anyone. You're right... born in the wrong body I guess was just the first way I thought of saying the wires were actually crossed. I agree that's the programming upstairs. I wonder if we'll ever get to the point where we could wake up one day and be a boy and go to work as a girl and then switch back as necessary or as wanted. It's not even a sexual thing, but mostly to do with our ABSOLUTELY inability to even conceive of such notion. Now you see why I confused myself. At any rate... Good food for thought!
“Androgyny is not trying to manage the relationship between the opposites; it is simply flowing between them.” Dr. June Singer
Although I am secure in my masculinity I do recognize that there are certain things in which the lines are skewed. I have always thought that someone who could feel deeper and understand with compassion is a more in tuned being. It is possible to be soft and firm at the same time. It is possible to desire emotions and physicality at the same time. My grandmother has referred to me several times as an "old soul" someone who feels beyond their age. I think that this could be translated into androgyny. Living while not being encumbered by the trappings of sexuality and its prerequisites.
P.S. The picture of the baby made me laugh!!
I really like that quote Papa Shane! I think it goes very nicely with Woolf's. It's not about defining one, the other, or neither- it's really about flowing back and forth without any fears as naturally as we swim in the ocean. Hhhmmm... What would the world be like.... Such grand thoughts! Then I wonder why I can't fall asleep at a decent hour. Grandma is definitely right, you know... You probably are very old. If you weren't, we probably would be BBs.
And I KNEW you'd like the picture!!! :)))
I read your post (and a bit more of Virginia Woolf's rhetoric) and I thought to myself: "I recognize this." I couldn't put my finger on it and then I realized what I was looking at.
I won't bore you with existentialism except to remind you of arguably the greatest lesson that Bertie Russel and Kurt_Gödel left us with: Logic is merely a tool and not a proof for truth.
Ooh, this is SUCH a great topic! Too cerebral to wrap my head around right now as I'm at work but I hope to respond later.
As for your last comment on my 'Released' poem, I would truly love to see you write something like this. I know you have it in you Cindy, you have a very passionate soul. Discard any notions of adhering to formal structure and just write what you feel. You'll be surprised what flows through your fingers when your mind is free to soar untethered.
I know what you mean... I'm still trying to figure out my own post. It's just a bit too dense of a subject and with a plethora of books written on the subject, I'll doubt we'll have it all figure out. BUT, I'm happy to see you guys are responding to it!
Love RELEASED!
Great, great post! My androgynous brain is taking its time to process it.
I'm more apt to think that women have accepted, over the years, both the masculine and feminine parts of their brain. Men, however, have been a little behind in that regard, or perhaps in revolt of the notion.
Cindy-have you read Orlando? In that novel Wolff explores and develops all her ideas about transferring gender.