Virginia Woolf and Androgyny

I'll admit it. My first glance at Virgina Woolf's text "A Room of One's Own" left me skeptical. However, I emerged from the text sharing many-- if not all-- of Woolf's opinions.

Woolf advocates an awareness of the individual's androgyny, which appears bizarre on the surface but makes sense once examined. Essentially, she declares that every person has man-womanliness or woman-manliness, or that we have a mixture of the masculine and the feminine in us. I don't find this statement far-fetched at all, but perhaps I can accept it because of my situatedness as a supposedly "liberated" 21st-century woman. In my opinion, masculinity and femininity lies on a spectrum; maleness or femaleness is not a clear, black-and-white issue.

I believe this perspective gives us considerable flexibility in our pursuits without fear of receiving labels. For example, a boy can enjoy ballet without being called "queer," and a girl can dream of becoming a construction worker without being denigrated as a "tomboy." However, women pursuing traditionally male gender roles has become more accepted than the reverse, men in female gender roles. While the women's liberation movement brought both bane and blessing, women have benefited in terms of occupational opportunities and other societal expectations. Perhaps we need a men's liberation movement in order to make it more socially acceptable for men to show strength mingled with gentleness and beauty. Women have, in general, managed to balance femininity with masculine assertiveness, and I wonder whether such a balance is possible for men.

Another facet of Woolf's argument that intrigued me concerned the implications of affirming both the female and the male within the individual. Woolf implies a respect for the masculine by stating that women must embrace their repressed manliness. I wonder whether contemporary feminists would condemn all masculinity-- even that which Woolf claims exists in women-- as a representation of the male oppressor. It appears to me that many contemporary feminists have argued for female supremacy, and it seems that these women would find Woolf's thoughts unsettling because of their recognition of our mutual need for masculinity. Can women live on the feminine alone? Similarly, can men live on the masculine alone?