Gender blender
androgynous adj., having an ambiguous sexual identity.
Some would associate androgyny with being gay, or having the opposite gender's genitals, or basically boys who look like girls and vice-versa.
Petra Magno (II BS CTM) debunks these notions. "Androgyny is taking in the best of both genders," she says. "[That is], the part of [your] personality that fits you the most."
A U-turn from 'girly girl'
Parts of Petra's ensemble are a fedora&em;slightly lopsided&em;and a loose neon green shirt with folded sleeves. Is she channeling Frank Sinatra with the fedora? Or is it really Tim Yap with the neon shirt? As Petra puts it, though, it's just "dress-like-a-little-boy day."
Petra was never a girly girl, and she had no plans of being so. She considers male fashion to be "kinder" and "more forgiving." "I'd look like a hotdog if I wear a tube top," she says. "Spaghetti straps are out of the question!"
Although tube tops and spaghetti straps are considered "sexy," Petra sees it differently. "Androgyny is sexy," she says. "It's a very obvious declaration of sexuality, as 'ambiguous' as it is."
Petra adds that androgyny is bigger than the fashion statement. "It has got to do with [one's] mindset," she says. "It doesn't have much to do with your sexual orientation as it is about your personality."
Boys will always be...
Mykee Alvero (II AB Philo) also believes that his donning the opposite gender's clothing doesn't necessarily have anything to do with his sexual orientation. "I just think that sometimes, [girl's clothes] fit better."
For Mykee, it started with the rock band Placebo. "They dress up totally different, against everything that I thought of what a man was supposed to be," he says. "And that got me questioning and open to that possibility."
Mykee thought that if these guys don't really fit in, then why should he? For him, androgyny means "blurring the lines a little bit, in terms of the rules of sexuality."
In one instance, Mykee was even asked to participate in a film by the Loyola Film Circle, where he would be part of a montage of female characters. After that, some would call him the "hot lesbian."
But Mykee is not gay. "And [there are] people who can attest to that," he says.
As one of Placebo's songs "Burger Queen" goes, "Things aren't what they seem." Apparently, Mykee is staying true to the lyrics.
FPJ vs. Piolo
"There are times when I like dressing up in girl's clothing," says Mykee. "I guess I do it because I never fit in that typical 'man' role."
The chiseled specs, the thick sideburns, the sufficient facial hair, and the odd, sometimes mind-boggling swagger—the typical man, indeed, is nowhere to be found in Mykee. And when asked about the Filipino male archetype, Mykee says, "Maybe we're trying so hard to suit these roles, and we're not really living the lives we want."
In the article "The (D)Evolution of the Pinoy Male" published in the Sunday Inquirer Magazine, Eric Caruncho says the Filipino male ideal is best gauged by the country's matinee idols. With the rise of the SNAG, or the "sensitive new-age guy," role reversal and considerable softening from previous male archetypes becomes apparent. Case in point, Caruncho says, is the metrosexual Piolo Pascual.
Petra says that this apparent "devolutionizing" is good, since it does away with the FPJ-hero archetype. "It's admitting that men are human after all," she says. "They can't shoot down twenty guys in one sweep with [just] a bullet."
Free your mind
In "Sex Role Identity and Adjustment during Adolesence" from the Journal of Child Development, Christopher Massad says that the relationship between sex role identity and adjustment differ between the sexes. "A model of the value of sex role differentiation during adolescence must [be recognized]," he says. "Males and females experience dif-ferential pressure to conform to sex role stereotypes."
However, for Petra and Mykee, more than the differences, androgyny is about dismissing the need to adhere to the conventional conceptions of masculinity and feminity.
"It's [about] breaking stereotypes," says Petra. "There's a difference between outward rebellion and speaking your mind and saying what you want to say." And Mykee agrees. "I think it's a rebellion in a sense that you're going against [the norm]," he says. "[But] I don't go out of my way to express myself."
Finally, when asked about people who are not at peace with the idea of androgyny, Petra says, "[They] are probably insecure with their own sexual orientation."
To this, Mykee hunches his back slightly and pauses for a short while. Without batting an eyelash, he says, "I don't see myself as having to fit with whatever is supposed to be," says Mykee. "I'm just doing what I feel like doing, without minding whatever people say of that. I'm just living my life."
Androgyny, in this case, is anything but ambiguous.
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