A Very Androgynous Christmas

[Dave Monroe]

A Very Androgynous Christmas
Posted by Amanda Hess on Dec. 29, 2008, at 1:11 pm

First, my English major mea culpa: I hadn't been exposed to Thomas
Pynchon until this winter, when I finally took the time to read the
Crying of Lot 49—all 150 pages of it. I found myself completely
consumed by Oedipa, Pynchon's adulterous estate executor turned
clandestine postal service detective protagonist. After a little bit
of research on the character, I discovered one reason I was so taken
by Oedipa: In the Winter 1977 issue of Contemporary Literature, Cathy
N. Davidson argues that Oedipa is an androgen:

"Androgyny, the perfect union in one person of characteristics
conventionally designated as either male or female, can never, in a
sexist society, be perfect. Moreover, because our culture has
traditionally insisted that women are less capable than men and that
their lives are more determined by biology, the female hero must find
the road to any approximation of androgyny more difficult and more
distant than does her male counterpart."

There, my life's pursuit rolled out in front of me, like a red carpet
on the road to any approximation of androgyny: Androgynous female
heroism shall be mine....

http://www.washingtoncitypaper.com/blogs/sexist/2008/12/29/a-very-androgynous-christmas/