Art and Androgyny

      Somehow over the years my favorite artist in literature have been depressed, often bi-polar (in both  the clinical and somewhat less medical use of the term). The women who wrote from an emotional, psychological place have been those most dear to me. Virginia Woolf comes to mind almost instantly. I used her works and influence in both of my senior capstone projects. I feel at home in her pages. Silvia Plath comes to mind next. Pages can be, and have been, written about these women. The topic I come to is this: Should a female artist seek to be androgenous as Woolf suggests, or should their loyalty be only to their sex. Also, what does loyalty to our sex mean.
      In my own work, I have felt the pull to be masculine and logical. I feel the need to be linear in my writing. I remember taking my first formal creative writing class. I sheepishly handed over a half mutilated text a month or so into class. The work was not wonderful, it needed more time to bloom and grow into what it needed to be. The first words out of the professors mouth was this: "Don't use flash back, tell a story beginning to end." (Note: this professor became my advisor and ended up giving me an A on a piece of "stream of consciousness" fiction, so it pays to be stubborn and argumentative.) Why not use flashback? Why do we pick up the character at one point in their life and ignore them as people? Woolf wrote entire novels which covered only a few hours linearly, but covered thirty or forty years of a characters life through “flashbacks.” Male authors have used stream of consciousness as well, so it is not a strictly female dominated art form. However, the use of a non-linear timeline in a story seems to contradict a masculine “logic driven” approach.

      Growing up in Western society we are taught that emotions are "bad," depression needs instant removal through the means of medication, and we must (particularly as women) always show a happy, contented face. Often feminist (yes, I am stooping to the level of using a generalization) will take up arms with what I have to say next, but I have failed to care for this long and do not intend to spare my gender now. The feminine, in its emotional complexity has something to offer. Rather than looking on the part it can play in our lives, women have been urged to “man up.” While emotional whims should not toss us to and fro like a banner in the wind, it should be a balanced part of ourselves. Writing should reflect this balance. Balance is loyalty to our sex. The flip side of the coin is the question of whether or not men should learn to incorporate feminine aspects to their art. Androgeny, as presented by Woolf, seems to suggest this. It is not women trying to destroy their attributes. It is far from that idea. The ideal writer comes from a standpoint a close to androgyny as possible. Logic and emotion weaved together. Female authors also can recognize the strengths femininity can bring to art.