Page 11 - No Labels Final Presentation

makeup, paint their nails and dress themselves in prints and pieces of clothing that

are considered traditionally feminine to express their identity. Although
conversations encompassing gender transgression have been created thanks to

many influential icons such as Bowie, there is still controversy and men are largely

left out of the scope of androgyny. When you google androgyny, for instance, the
pictures that pop up and women wearing tuxedos and leather jackets, looking

straight into the camera with a James Dean-esque dreaminess. However, if you

advocate for women to have access to masculinity but not for men to have access to
femininity, you are reinforcing patriarchy. You are putting masculinity on a

pedestal and encouraging women to be more like men as if masculinity is a

benchmark against which our worth is supposedly measured. Androgyny is not just

women wearing suits and pants. It isn’t just women in their male partners’ clothes

being depicted as cute or goals. Androgyny is allowing every gender to express
themselves the way they wish to. It is erasing the historical line between the gender

binary.​ ​It​ ​is​ ​being​ ​free.