Gynandromorph

Gynandromorph (pronounced ji-nan-druh-mawrf, gahy-nan-druh-mawrf or jahy-nan-druh-mawrf)

(1) In biology, an organism exhibiting both male and female morphological characteristics.

(2) An insect, crustacean or bird literally having physical characteristics of both sexes, usually displaying a bilateral difference.

(3) A person having certain physical characteristics of both sexes (use now rare).

1895–1900: The construct was the Ancient Greek gýnandro(s) (gynandrous) + -morph.  It deconstructs as gyn- (from the Ancient Greek gynē (γυνή) (woman; female organism) + -andro- (from the Ancient Greek ἀνήρ & ἀνδρός (anēr & andros) (man; male organism) + -morph (from the Ancient Greek μορφή (morphē) (form; shape).  The word cab thus be understood as “female-male form”, an individual organism with a mix of both male and female physical traits, such exhibit such characteristics due typically to genetic or developmental anomalies.  Gynandromorph, gynandromorphism & gynandromorphy are nouns and gynandrous, gynandromorphic & gynandromorphous are adjectives; the noun plural is gynandromorphs.

In biological science, the terms cosexual, dichogamic and gynandromorph are all to describe states where the binaries “male” and “female” in some way co-exist and each is a distinct phenomenon: (1) Cosexual refers to organisms which simultaneously possess and can function as both male and female.  The state is best known in botany (hermaphroditic plants) but there are also such animals, the common earthworm a cosexual as they have both male and female reproductive organs and can mate with any other earthworm.  (2) A dichogamic is an organism which at different points in its life-cycle have male and female reproductive functions at different times in their lifecycle.  Dichogamy ensures self-fertilization is minimized and biologists distinguish between protandry (male phase precedes the female phase (best documented in the ways of the clownfish)) and protogyny (female phase precedes the male phase (noted in some wrasses).  (3) In zoology (prevalent particularly in entomology), a gynandromorph is an organism (insect, crustacean, bird etc) with both male and female physical characteristics, typically split across the body (ie one side male, one female), manifesting often in a distinctive and often dramatic “two-tone” body of different color left & right.  Although visually the creatures appear in this aspect usually to be exactly (ie 50/50) symmetrical, a gynandromorph’s expression of genitalia can vary greatly between instances of the phenomenon.

In the context of humans, the noun hermaphrodite (plural hermaphrodites) used to be the accepted technical term in human physiology to describe an individual in which both male and female reproductive organs (and sometimes also all or some of the secondary sex characteristics) were present (ie a cosexual), or in which the chromosomal patterns did not fall under typical definitions of male and female.  It’s no longer in general use to describe people (although it does still appear in technical publications (medicine or pathology) and is now considered offensive, “intersex” now the preferred term).  In the past, “hermaphrodite” was used even of some military platforms (including warships and tanks) because the labels “male” & “female” had been used of certain designs so “hermaphrodite” was applied to hybrid designs which combined features from both.  The noun androgyne refers to a person who expresses a combination of male and female characteristics, often in the context of gender identity or presentation; it is used of behavior, not biology.

True bibateral gynandromorphs: A tarantula (left), lobster (centre) and cardinal (right).  The physiology of the cardinal is typical of the phenomenon, a functional ovary on its left side, one functioning testis on its right; the mechanism which created the genetic anomaly was that inside its egg were two yokes which combined to give life to one bird, half male, half female.

Let That Be Your Last Battlefield: Star Trek (1969).

While there was nothing to suggest gynandromorphism was part of the plot-line, the visual device was used in “Let That Be Your Last Battlefield”, an episode in the third season (1969) of the US science fiction television show Star Trek.  The two central characters in the tale are to survivors of a war-torn planet, each half black and half white, the only difference between them being their colors were on different sides.  The script was an earnest (if unsubtle) critique of racism (then, as now, the central fault-line in US society) but, ominously (though realistically), the episode concludes with the pair still at each other’s throats.

Lindsay Lohan, SLS Hotel, Los Angeles, April 2009.

Although humans use all sorts of colors for body-detailing (lipstick, hair dyes, eye shadow etc), the “half one color, half another” motif has never been a thing.  It can though be achieved inadvertently.  In April 2009, photographs circulated of Lindsay Lohan in Los Angeles, attending the launch of A|X (Armani Xchange) Watches at the SLS Hotel, Beverley Hills, her strapless Balmain mini-dress much admired, the white fabric accenting her skin’s golden tan.  Next day however, a shot appeared of her from behind, suggesting the fake tan had been applied only to the front half.  It was a bit of a cheat shot because of the way the color-saturation was set but it seems, on the night, things had looked a bit gynandromorphic.