2011年1月，Jean Paul Gaultier的高级定制时装秀以一种透明的礼服形象结束。新娘是男人，是**个为男人和女人的收藏品而走秀的模特。这一事件标志着一种趋势的开始。

爱德华伯恩-琼斯和莫罗的艺术，奥斯卡王尔德的作品，以及神秘的佩拉当证明了上世纪的转变是由男主角所推动的。从19世纪末到21世纪初，男女性别混合了：从20世纪20年代的柏林到20世纪30年代的好莱坞的嘉宝和迪特里希，从上世纪40年代的明亮的年轻人到70年代的雌雄同体的流行明星及更多。

Patrick Mauries展示了一种男性化的文化历史--从19世纪的绘画到当代的时尚摄影，有超过120张的图片可供选择，利用艺术和文学的世界，让我们更深入地了解这一奇怪但永恒的人类驱离已定义的类别。

‘This ad is gender neutral’, proclaimed a 2016 poster for the fashion brand Diesel; ‘I resist definitions’, announced a Calvin Klein ad in the same year, while a Louis Vuitton shoot featured Jaden Smith, son of actor Will Smith, wearing a skirt like a natural. Fashion magazines have printed countless features on the blurring of gender barriers, while brands including Yves Saint-Laurent, Gucci, Burberry, Givenchy and Dolce & Gabbana have all interpreted the concept ‘girls will be boys and boys will be girls’ in their own individual style. The previous turn of the century was as obsessed with androgyny as this one, as seen in the art of Edward Burne-Jones and Gustave Moreau, and the writings of Oscar Wilde and the mystic Joséphin Péladan. From the late 19th to the early 21st century, the genders have blended: from Berlin in the 1920s to Hollywood of the 1930s with Garbo to Dietrich; from the 1940s Bright Young Things to the androgynous pop stars of the 1970s, and beyond.

What do these variations on a theme have in common? What has caused the dizzying rise of androgyny? Why has this concept, a staple of ancient myth that was first discussed in Plato’sSymposium, been revived today? Accompanied by a striking selection of contemporary photographs, Patrick Mauriès presents a condensed cultural history of androgyny, drawing on the worlds of art and literature to give us a deeper understanding of the strange but timeless human drive to escape from defined categories.