Perceptions of Masculinity, Femininity, and Androgyny among a Select Cohort of Gifted Adolescent Males

Abstract

This qualitative study explored the gender schemata of a select cohort of 13 gifted adolescent males. It revealed these adolescents as having an androgynous sex-role identity. However, the findings identified among the adolescents three distinct constructions of androgyny. The data also pointed out some of the intrapsychic problems encountered by the boys in their sex-role identity development—most notably anxieties about femininity and women stemming from demands placed upon the boys by their awakening sexualities. Finally, the study examined the role of their intellectual giftedness in the negotiation of their sex-role identities. Most of the adolescents employed a sophisticated critical rationalism to construct their gender schemata. However, several of the subjects acknowledged the limits of this rationalism to achieve a complete understanding of these complex issues and expressed an awareness of an asynchrony between their emotional and intellectual development.