androgynous model pejic

Beyond Gender

Most people agree that there is male and there is female, and with the exception of a precious few folks on this planet, everyone is either one gender or the other.

Then came Andrej Pejic, called by New York Magazine “The Prettiest Boy in the World. (http://nymag.com/fashion/11/fall/andrej-pejic/ )” His androgyny is well-known, being that he models high fashion for both genders, but what’s more interesting is that he says that his gender is entirely a matter of perception and, that professionally, he has left his gender open to artistic interpretation.

“It’s not like, ‘Okay, today I want to look like a man, or today I want to look like a woman,’ ” he says. “I want to look like me. It just so happens that some of the things I like are feminine.”

You will find a much more scientific, if less captivating argument on the point in an article called “Billions of Sexes.” (http://ieet.org/index.php/IEET/more/5434 ). And, an interesting discussion in an article called Andrej Pejic – Androgynous Model – heralding a post-gender future? (http://ieet.org/index.php/IEET/more/pellissier20120601 )

These articles are consistent with what I have been thinking lately about myself.

Rather than say that I am a man or I am a woman, or I am both a man and a woman or partly one and the other, why not this: I am a person who can be more or less masculine and more or less feminine as my mood and circumstances dictate.

I think that is true of everyone, but some people have a greater range than others.

More on this next time.