| Summary: | 碩士 === 國立成功大學 === 創意產業設計研究所 === 103 === Nowadays, there is a whole new female image appearing in mass media and in public—the androgynous female. This research is aimed toward an exploration of the identity of androgynous females through their cultural consumption behavior. The participants are asked to describe a photo they took prior to assuming their androgynous identities and lifestyle. The field data are analyzed based on the intersubjectivity approach and the activity focus research method.
The research findings show that their cultural consumption reinforces their identity. Androgynous females understand expectations of females as a social norm, so they subconsciously modify their consumption, including media text and commodities, to make themselves acceptable in society. They decode text meanings based on their backgrounds and social position and then articulate this with their gender identity. Also, style of dress is one of the most significant ways one expresses the sense of self. How these women dress says who they want to be. However, we can observe the dynamic process by which they negotiate social norms, where they need to strike a balance between what they want and others’ perspectives of them. Furthermore, we can see the consumption dilemma caused by the intersubjectivity of social norm.
Finally, it is concluded that being an androgynous female is not only an identity but also an ‘anti-identity,’ rejecting a restriction to monotonous sexuality as well as a rigid gender stereotype, always doubting the binary gender social norm. Cultural consumption is an important method by which to gain identity. Androgynous females try to use their cultural consumption to spontaneously re-interpret masculinity, suggesting that masculinity does not exclusively belong to men, which is what we call “female masculinity.” This research questions the way people see the world and is helpful in regard to leading to a greater understanding of androgynous females as well as gender culture.
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