Gender variant Final Fantasy characters

Sorceress Adel from FFVIII, has a masculine form whilst using female pronouns.

Kuja from FFIX - a sexy female character? Look again.

Quina Quen from FFIX is an 'it' - the whole Qu race are genderless.

Tar Gibbons

The Tar is a character from the children's book series 'Aliens ate my Homework' by Bruce Coville, who insists on being called an 'it.' It is described by the main character as "my special teacher. It (you don’t call the Tar “he” or “she”-that’s offensive) has a lemon shaped body, four legs, and enormous eyes. … it had taught me amazing things. I loved the Tar very much. There is nothing better than having a true teacher."

http://wewalkamongyou.wordpress.com/2012/03/16/tar-gibbons-a-gender-neutral-character-in-a-childs-book/

Dino Valls

http://www.dinovalls.com/

Valls creates traditional style oil paintings that portray the psycho-surgical enigma of the human figure. Many of Valls' subjects have a 'natural balance' of male and female characteristics.. They are often given a physical sex, but their gender remains ambiguous. This is both challenging and inspiring. 

From an interview with Combustus magazine...

Deanna Elaine Piowaty: In Jungian psychology there is an acknowledgement that men and women possess aspects of each other’s gender ~ that men have an anima, or feminine awareness that comes out in dreams and creative efforts. What is your own connection with anima? How does it manifest itself in your life and in your work?

Dino Valls: One of the basic themes in my work is the duality in conflict, the struggle for the integration of the opposites, as a process of totalization of the human being.

Simultaneously, my painting is to me the mystic process that I follow to achieve my own integration.

http://www.combustus.com/13/dino-valls/ 

 

Little Silver Bones

Noteworthy Deviantart dweller, whose work, both photographic and illustration-based, embodies the genderless/androgynous experience...
http://littlesilverbones.deviantart.com/gallery/

New androgynous models

Following in the footsteps of classic genderbenders like David Bowie and Annie Lennox, yet also paving a way to a more 'serious' view of androgyny and embracing it as a way of life and being, as well as just a fashion statement. There are so many! Here are some that particularly stand out.  

Elliott Sailors...
http://thehairpin.com/2013/10/interview-with-elliott-sailors-a-woman-working-as-a-male-model/?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+thehairpin%2FBdYj+%28The+Hairpin%29

Saskia de Brauw...

Andrej Pejic...

And a whole list of them here : http://www.buzzfeed.com/saeedjones/8-stunningly-beautiful-androgynous-models

Simeon Solomon

English Pre-Raphaelite painter (1840-1905) whose paintings often depicted androgynous or gender-ambiguous characters and could be interpreted as homo-romantic.

Gender Neutralising due to Reversed Puberty

Hypopituitarism - "Deficiency of luteinizing hormone (LH) and follicle-stimulating hormone (FSH), together referred to as the gonadotropins, leads to different symptoms in men and women. Women experience oligo- or amenorrhea (infrequent/light or absent menstrual periods respectively) and infertility. Men lose facial, scrotal and trunk hair, as well as suffering decreased muscle mass and anemia. Both sexes may experience a decrease in libido and loss of sexual function, and have an increased risk of osteoporosis (bone fragility). Lack of LH/FSH in children is associated with delayed puberty." http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hypopituitarism 

Survive a bite from the Russel's Pit Viper - http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sciencetech/article-2091250/The-snake-bite-reverse-effects-puberty.html

Atsushi Fukui - Botanist

This piece seems to balance the masculine and feminine aspects of the subject beautifully.

http://www.samadhisound.com/artfile/atsushi_fukui.html

Frida Kahlo

Mexican painter from 1907-1954, Kahlo was an expressive and open-minded individual who embraced deviant gender roles and bisexuality.

Illustrator Steven Appleby

"I have various obsessions, such as about secrecy – people keep secrets. The idea that no-one tells you everything about themselves. The last exhibition I had was called “Icebergs”. I like the idea that nine tenths of us is submerged. Personal things like my gender confusion issues that I kept secret for a long time."
http://www.onionmag.com/2009/03/11/steven-appleby-interview/

Desire of The Endless

A character created by Neil Gaiman for the DC comic book series 'The Sandman,' Desire is the embodiment of desire, becoming male, female, both, or neither as the situation warrants.

Anima & Animus

Carl Jung proposed that every female being has an analogous "animus" within her psyche, representing a set of unconscious masculine attributes and potentials. Similarly, every male possesses an unconscious "anima," representing his feminine perception and empathetic values.

Levels of anima development
1) EVE - dealing with the emergence of a male's object of desire.
2) HELEN - an allusion to Helen of Troy. In this phase, women are viewed as capable of worldly success and of being self-reliant, intelligent and insightful, even if not altogether virtuous. This second phase is meant to show a strong schism in external talents (cultivated business and conventional skills) with lacking internal qualities (inability for virtue, lacking faith or imagination).
3) MARY - named after the Christian theological understanding of the Virgin Mary. At this level, females can now seem to possess virtue by the perceiving male (even if in an esoteric and dogmatic way), in as much as certain activities deemed consciously unvirtuous cannot be applied to her.
4) SOPHIA - named after the Greek word for wisdom. Complete integration has now occurred, which allows females to be seen and related to as particular individuals who possess both positive and negative qualities. The most important aspect of this final level is that, as the personification "Wisdom" suggests, the anima is now developed enough that no single object can fully and permanently contain the images to which it is related.

Levels of animus development
1) A personification of mere PHYSICAL POWER - for instance as an athletic champion or muscle man such as Tarzan.
2) The initiative and capacity for planned action...the ROMANTIC man - the 19th century British poet Shelley; or the MAN OF ACTION - America's Ernest Hemingway, war hero, hunter, etc.
3) The animus becomes the word, often appearing as a professor or clergyman...the bearer of the word - Lloyd George, the great political orator.
4) In his fourth manifestation, the animus is the incarnation of MEANING. On this highest level he becomes (like the anima) a mediator of...spiritual profundity. Jung noted that "in mythology, this aspect of the animus appears as Hermes, messenger of the gods; in dreams he is a helpful guide." Like Sophia this is the highest level of mediation between the unconscious and conscious mind.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anima_and_animus

Gender swapping for life - Burneshas and Hijras

Sworn Virgins or "Burnesha" are biological females in the Balkans who choose to take on the social identity of a man, usually to avoid social rites and traditional obligations assigned to women such as marriage and child bearing. They change their appearances, mannerisms and names for life, and take a vow of celibacy.

The "Hijra" are a number of biological males in South Asia who have feminine gender identity, adopt female gender roles and wear women's clothing. They are often perceived as a 'third sex', and some identify and live completely as women, although few have had genital modifications. Some Hijra renounce sexuality altogether, but many are employed as prostitutes.

Kemal Shahin

Kemal was a contestant on UK Big Brother 6 who entered the house in a sari and stilettos. S/he had an open-minded approach to gender and sexuality and has since released a single under the name of Zuleyka.

Hedwig and the Angry Inch

Musical about a transgender rock star.

In the 2001 film Hedwig (left) was played by actor John Cameron Mitchell and Yitzhak (right) by actress Miriam Shor. 

Artistic Interpretation of the Gender Ambiguous Body

Anna Varney

Marilyn Manson

Famous Sopranists

Sopranists are male singers able to reach the vocal range of a female soprano.

Examples include...

Thomas Otten

Vitas

Klaus Nomi

Arve Henriksen

Devil Girl in Ninth Gate

The Girl played by Emmanuelle Seigner is an androgynous character, alluded to as a version of Lucifer. Often she can seem like a male character in a female form, and in the final seduction scene alternates between expressing masculine and feminine sexual traits.

Tipping the Velvet

A novel by Sarah Waters about lesbianism and male impersonation in Victorian England.

Kainé from Nier

Nier is a video game brought out by Square Enix. It includes the character Kainé, who is a beautiful hermaphrodite.

Angels

Angels are often portrayed as androgynous or genderless creatures.


Weeping Angel from Dr Who

Peter Capaldi as The Angel Islington

Tilda Swinton as Angel Gabriel



Lucifer by Jason Epstein

Jacob Wrestling with the Angel by Gustav Dore



Antony & The Johnsons

Lead singer Antony Hegarty identifies as transgender, but as a constant state rather than transitioning from one gender to another. In personality and appearance, he seems to embody a feminine vulnerability and creative energy. In interviews, he seems very comfortable with this state of gender deviance, and suggests transgendered people simply have a different 'spirit' to people who identify as strongly male or female. This spirit fuels many of his songs, where he is able to sing from the points of view of people from many genders.

"I made a choice to, sort of, really spell it out for people, especially since I’m not someone that is transitioned to—towards anything, really. I’m just sort of in a process of embracing myself as a transgender person and presenting myself, you know, as I am…"
http://curate.tumblr.com/post/338805207/an-interview-with-antony-hegarty

Orlando

Gender swapping novel by Virginia Woolf, adapted into a movie starring Tilda Swinton and a character from the DC comic series League of Extraordinary Gentlemen.

Grayson Perry - "Hardcore Femininity"

"If we are relaxed about our own uniqueness, then so will other people be."

Yoshitaka Amano artwork

Lots of androgynous-looking fantasy characters and artwork. Effeminacy seems to be a style choice for Amano rather than a gender signifer.

Richard O' Brien

First post! Here's a fantastic article from Richard O'Brien...
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/magazine-21788238

"It's my belief that we are on a continuum between male and female. There are people who are hardwired male and there are people who are hardwired female, but most of us are on that continuum and I believe myself probably to be about 70% male, 30% female."