ABSTRACT

Body image is typically studied through the framework of internalising gender binary standards of attractiveness. However, not all individuals adhere to traditional appearance norms. This study aimed to understand the meaning of cis (non-trans) individuals’ androgynous or non-stereotypical body ideals and the actions they engage in to achieve these ideals. We recruited an online sample of 78 participants (42 cis women and 36 nonbinary individuals who also identified as cis). Participants responded to two open-ended prompts: 1) What does your androgynous or nonstereoypical body mean to you? and 2) What actions have you taken to achieve this ideal? Authors identified three overarching themes of what an androgynous body ideal meant to our participants. An androgynous appearance was central to participants’ beauty standards, authenticity, and gender expression. To achieve or maintain an androgynous body ideal, participants described actions that altered their gender expression, primary and secondary sex characteristics, and body. Our findings underscore the way androgynous appearance ideals function to transgress binary gender in affirming ways to cis individuals. Further, recruiting on the basis of androgyny yielded a wider understanding of cis identity, as our participants were diverse across both sexuality (queer and heterosexual) and gender (women and nonbinary individuals).

摘要

身体形象通常是通过内化性别二元吸引力标准的框架来研究的。然而，并不是所有的人都遵守传统的外表规范。本研究旨在了解顺式（非反式）个体的雌雄同体或非陈规定型身体理想的含义以及他们为实现这些理想所采取的行动。我们招募了 78 名参与者的在线样本（42 名顺式女性和 36 名也被确定为顺式的非二元个体）。参与者回答了两个开放式提示：1）你的雌雄同体或非立体的身体对你意味着什么？2）您采取了哪些行动来实现这一理想？作者确定了雌雄同体的身体理想对我们的参与者意味着什么的三个首要主题。雌雄同体的外表是参与者的美容标准、真实性和性别表达的核心。为了实现或维持雌雄同体的身体理想，参与者描述了改变其性别表达、主要和次要性特征以及身体的行为。我们的研究结果强调了雌雄同体的外表理想在肯定顺性个体的方式中超越二元性别的方式。此外，基于雌雄同体的招募产生了对顺式身份更广泛的理解，因为我们的参与者在性取向（酷儿和异性恋）和性别（女性和非二元个体）方面都是多样化的。