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The Concept Of Androgyny In Literature

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The concept of androgyny has been introduced to literature due to the work of Sandra Bem (1974). She believes that androgyny is the simultaneous possession by an individual of an equivalent number of characteristics recognized in our culture as strongly masculine and strongly feminine. Feminist psychologists were interested in this concept of androgyny because it allowed them to understand the healthy individual as someone who possessed traits considered stereotypically suitable for both sexes (Bem, 1974). The word androgyny comes from the Latin andro that means male and Latin gyne that means female (Hoffman and Borders, 2001). For Spence (1980) the concept of psychological androgyny and its theories rest on three interrelated propositions: (1) masculine and feminine characteristics, attributes and behaviors; (2) masculinity and femininity as an unidimensional phenomena each, meaning that individuals display or admit into their self-concept a certain degree of masculinity and of femininity in all other domains; and (3) having a high degree of both masculine and feminine qualities (androgyny) is more advantageous to the individual than possessing only a high degree of masculine or feminine attributes, or even a low degree of both.
Regarding the concept of psychological androgyny it is possible for an individual to be as assertive and compassionate, as instrumental and expressive and as masculine and feminine, conditional to the situation of which they apply.

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