Androgynes Can Be "Tranny" and "Trannychaser" at the Same Time

The transgender community's common nickname for transgender individuals is "tranny," which mostly refers to TVs (TransVestites) and TSs (TransSexuals), yet also applies to transgenderists and androgynes. The community's (largely derisive) term for those who are attracted to trannies is "trannychaser," and it is indeed a problematic term in that it seems to imply something akin to "skirtchaser," "ladykiller," "ladies' man," or other such "womanizer," but it has been euphemized as "admirer." The trouble is, there is no term as yet for those who have romantic feelings for transgender people. That said, a partner of a transgender individual is referred to as a TGSO (TransGender's Significant Other).

Interestingly, the lack of a gender opposite frees androgynes to be both "tranny" and "trannychaser" (aka "admirer") simultaneously. For example, when a male androgyne who doesn't know that sie is androgyne finds hirself attracted to drag queens and/or transsexuals and yet daydreams of dressing like a woman hirself, the nature of this attraction can be very frustrating because drag queens and transsexuals are generally attracted to single-gendered straight males. The androgyne mistakenly thought that sie was attracted to TG (transgendered) males when, in reality, sie is not attracted to TG males per se but to androgynes like hirself. In many such cases, it turns out that an androgyne male is more attracted to androgyne females than to TG males and/or androgyne males. Some androgyne males are attracted to bisexual women and identify as "male lesbian" (or "guydyke"). Likewise, there are androgyne females attracted to bisexual men who identify as "female gay man" (or "girlfag").

Some Transsexuals are Not Really Transsexual, but Androgyne

In truth, there are quite a few transsexuals who are androgyne but don't realize it due to pressure from within themselves and from without -- in the transsexual community -- that after SRS (Sex Reassignment Surgery, formerly called a "sex change operation") they are "supposed to be" heterosexual for the first time in their lives -- since they are now presumably the sex into which should have been born in the first place. The fact that some people use the term GRS (Gender Reassignment Surgery) only complicates matters. (Genital Reassignment Surgery would be a better use of the three letters). It is important to note that transsexuals tend to buy into the "binary" categories of man and woman even more than straight, non-gender-conflicted people do, and that should serve as a warning to androgynes.

Gender is a Spectrum or Continuum

In the transgender community, a lot of lip service is given to gender being a spectrum or a continuum, but in reality, it is little more than a politically correct thing to say. This is because most transsexuals (and some transvestites as well) try to avoid contact with and otherwise invalidate androgynes since they view androgyny as an intermediate stage in transsexual transitioning and have a dislike for it. The irony is that androgyny might well be numerically the largest component of a gender spectrum or continuum (or sphere).

Basically, transgenderists are those who choose to live cross-sex full time without body modification (SRS or hormones), transsexuals are those who choose to live cross-sex full time with body modification, and androgynes are those who choose to live in the "in between" world rather than "cross-sex" -- and body modification (or lack of body modification) is irrelevant to the definition. Some androgynes do opt for HRT (Hormone Replacement Therapy) in order to enhance their otherwise not-as-androgynous appearance, but they are in the minority.

If You Think You Are Androgyne, You May Well Be

How does one ascertain whether or not one is androgyne? It really boils down to what you yourself think. Do you consider yourself to have masculine character traits and feelings as well as female character traits and feelings to the extent that you feel repressed if you deny either of these for any extended period of time? If so, you may well be androgyne. It is a common truism that no one is entirely masculine or entirely feminine, yet androgynes' feelings of identity run deeper than this. For them, it is not a vestigial or incidental overlap of traits, but an inherent, vital component of their being. There are several online tests for gauging gender identity, but this site does not endorse them because it has been argued rather convincingly that the tests are skewed and deeply flawed. Nevertheless, these tests can be helpful in giving people at least something to go on in their quest to find themselves.

For female androgynes, it is often difficult to distinguish between "tomboy," "androgyne," "butch," and "F2M" because society's proscriptions against relatively masculine presentation and/or traits have relaxed over the years, as have injunctions against wearing clothing of the opposite sex. When a gender variant female does not think of hirself as being androgyne, sie may nevertheless be androgyne; hir reference points and nomenclature come from a different place. In truth, androgynes of any sex often do not know of the term androgyne and so settle for the terms transgender, genderqueer and/or gender variant.

Androgynes May Be the Invisible Majority of the Transgender World

There are many, many androgyne people in the world -- many more than anyone currently realizes -- because they are not easily quantified due to the fact of the vagueness of their nomenclature: no one seems to be able to agree on what to call them. Although androgynes may prove to be the invisible majority of the transgender world, they are not acknowledged as such. Not only are the talk shows unaware of them, but most androgynes themselves are not aware of who or what they are. Much has been written and said about people who want to change their clothes or change their sex now, but very little research has been conducted on androgynes, who really don't want to change anything except how they are perceived by the single-gendered majority.

In a way, androgyny is a double-edged sword. Those born with androgynous looks -- especially if they are not androgynes -- often wish that their gender presentation was unambiguous so as to not be teased, harassed or mistaken for the opposite sex, while androgynes born without androgynous looks (i.e. psychological androgynes) often wish that their gender presentation was markedly ambiguous so as to convey outwardly what they feel inwardly. It amounts to a case of the metaphorical grass being greener on the other side of the fence, where psychological androgynes and mono-gendered androgynous folk envy each other for attributes they do not share. Some fortunate souls, however, both look and feel androgynous.

Androgynes Are Not Men -- Nor Are They Women

It has been argued 1) that androgynes are not transgender(ed) in that they do not change their gender but remain the gender they were born with, 2) that they are not transvestites nor crossdressers in that they do not dress like the opposite sex but sometimes dress like both sexes at the same time, and 3) that if one defines androgyne as someone who identifies as being half man and half woman, that could be interpreted as meaning that the person is neither man nor woman since 50% is an insufficient percentage to define something either way. Curiously, if one were to combine these three contexts, an androgyne would not be a man, woman, TV (TransVestite), CD (CrossDresser), TG (TransGender and/or TransGenderist), nor TS (TransSexual). What they are, however, is uniquely unified human beings of a sort that has been revered in many cultures for many centuries. More than 100 Native American tribes consider(ed) them to be shamans and call them two-spirits.

Are Genderqueers Androgyne?

There is the possibility that the term genderqueer might replace androgyne. Like transgender (TG), genderqueer (GQ) can be an umbrella term or it can refer to something more specific. Generally, TG can be said to encompass gender variants from TV to TS, or else it can be used as a synonym for TS. Similarly, GQ can be said to encompass everything from TV to TS, or else it can be used to describe non-binary gender variants specifically. In contrast, androgyne paradoxically plays off the gender binary by both affirming and refuting it simultaneously. That is why androgynes can be both man and woman or neither. Genderqueer -- as a term -- however, cannot "have its cake and eat it, too" in such a fashion.

What other non-binary gender variants are out there besides androgyne, hijra and neutrois? That's a hard question to answer. Some GQ and gender variant folk argue that there are as many genders as there are people. In the not-so-distant future, androgyne could come to be seen as an antiquated term insofar as it incorporates the Greek and Latin roots for man and woman while genderqueer is an overtly political term which strives to transcend and dismantle the gender binary both in concept and practice. And yet, androgyne has an inherent specificity that genderqueer does not because it directly addresses the man/woman dialectic and could therefore prove to be more durable in the long run.