THE “ANDRO(I)GYNE” THAT, THERE-FORE, (I) AM A DERRIDEAN COMMENTARY

NORMAN K. SWAZO

ABSTRACT

Te concept of androgyny is contested in its meaning and in the hegemonic governance
of medico-legal judgments of individuals who identify as androgyne or transsexual.
Te fact is that the androgyne continues to be misunderstood and marginalized in
Western society. Te same contestation occurs in South Asia, where the misunderstood
hijra lives as a social outcast. Although anthropologists, psychologists, sociologists,
lawyers, etc., describe the androgyne and hijra, they also dispense normative claims as
to the androgyne and hijra’s sociopolitical status. Notwithstanding, those who afrm
their personhood as manifestly androgyne/hijra are quite capable of auto-bio-graphy

—“a writing of self”—as philosopher Jacques Derrida would say. It is essential that
such self-afrming auto-bio-graph-y be encouraged, thus reducing the confusion of
concepts. It is with this goal of conceptual clarifcation that the formulation ‘andro(I)
gyne’ is introduced here.