Androgyny-Based Gender Theory (ABGT)

SUMMARY
ABGT aims to take a deeper look at the concepts of gender and sexuality, emphasizing their interconnectedness. ABGT views reality as a manifestation of androgynous consciousness and outlines the framework through which consciousness is formed and developed. Drawing on insights from psychoanalysis, relational sociology and evolutionary biology, ABGT suggests that gender identity encompasses three facets. Primary gender identity (PGI) refers to one’s physical body (male, female or neutral), secondary gender identity (SGI) refers to masculine and feminine traits in personality, and tertiary gender identity (TGI) deals with masculinity and femininity in social roles. The SGI is often overlooked, but its profound connection to consciousness opens up an intriguing new perspective on gender identity. By integrating the masculine and feminine aspects of consciousness, individuals can cultivate powerful androgynous traits that affect both personal psychology and social dynamics. ABGT proposes a reinterpretation of Jungian “shadow work,” allowing people to “switch” from patriarchal to matriarchal socialization. This shift aims to redirect libidinal energy in relationships and promote horizontal societies with androgynous gender roles, free of patriarchal hierarchies. Ultimately, ABGT seeks to provide a practical framework to lead humanity away from 12,800 years of patriarchal domination.

Androgyny-Based Gender Theory
in more detail

Androgyny-Based Gender Theory (ABGT) starts from the concept of gender identity. To give this concept more substance and scientific rigor, ABGT distinguishes between three aspects of gender identity: primary gender identity (PGI), secondary gender identity (SGI) and tertiary gender identity (TGI).

• The primary gender identity (PGI) is primarily biological: it arises in the relationship between the self and the body, giving an individual a sense of gender embodiment (“I am male,” “I am female,” or “I am neutral”). See also AGTRT-BF48.
• The secondary gender identity (SGI) is primarily psychological: it arises in the relationship between the self and consciousness, providing the individual with one of three androgynous personality types (“I have a male-androgynous personality,” “I have a female-androgynous personality,” or “I have a neutral-androgynous personality”). AGTRT-BA24.
• The tertiary gender identity (TGI) is primarily sociological: it arises in the relationship between the self and the Other, and allows the individual to develop social gender roles (“I behave masculine,” “I behave feminine,” or “I behave androgynous”).

The SGI is often forgotten when conceptualizing gender identity, but is actually central to ABGT. By analyzing how the androgynous personality types of the SGI can integrate the masculine and feminine aspects of consciousness, ABGT aims to chart how human societies can be transformed from patriarchal to matriarchal modes of social organization.

ABGT is strongly inspired by the work of Carl Jung, and aspires to make Jungian thought compatible with the modern science of the 21st century. This is done in the following ways:

1. The concept of “shadow work” is reviewed in ABGT and adapted to modern understandings of the process of individuation and the role of anger and compassion in it.
2. The concept of “collective unconscious” is honed in ABGT, distinguishing between a patriarchal and matriarchal position regarding this fundamental part of consciousness.
3. Secondary gender identity (SGI) is linked in ABGT to modern insights from evolutionary biology, and in particular “sexual selection.”
4. In a general sense, Jungian thinking within ABGT is adapted to modern understandings of gender and sexuality, including as formulated in Formal Gender Theory (FGT).
5. Jungian thought is also linked to the interdisciplinary field of Science & Technology Studies through the concept of TGI, with the aim of being able to analyze the relational and institutional aspects of the transition of consciousness from patriarchy to matriarchy.

In ABGT, the following hypotheses are stated:

1. Humanity evolved as a matriarchal species.
2. Patriarchy emerged about 12,800 years ago with the Neolithic revolution as a mechanism for short-term survival.
3. The transition from matriarchy to patriarchy was accompanied by the transition from tribe to nuclear family as the main living arrangement. Growing up in a heteronormative nuclear family is intrinsically traumatizing because the masculine and feminine aspects of consciousness then become split, resulting in the Shadow.
4. The Younger Dryas Impact Hypothesis (YDIH) is a possible explanation for the sudden emergence of patriarchal human societies.
5. The primary function of sexual selection is the social function; the secondary function of sexual selection is the reproductive function. The energetic connection of male and female SGIs through the principle of polarity is central to this.
6. The SGIs are formed through interaction with the masculine and feminine core qualities of consciousness, which can be seen as two different modes of knowledge production: cognitive-rational (masculine) and emotional-intuitive (feminine).
7. Most people have a masculine or feminine SGI; a few have a neutral SGI.
8. The SGI is related to sexual orientation in the sense that discrepancy between the PGI and the SGI occurs only in parts of the LGBA group.
9. Through doing shadow work, individuals can switch from patriarchal to matriarchal socialization mode of the SGI.
10. In matriarchal socialization mode, androgynous personal characteristics are developed through the dialectical mechanism of transformation and adaptation.
11. Patriarchy and matriarchy should not be defined in terms of sex (where men would lead in patriarchy and women in matriarchy), but in terms of gender, and in terms of the SGI to be precise. In patriarchy, individuals have a split SGI, with masculine knowledge dominating over feminine knowledge; in a matriarchy, individuals have integrated both masculine and feminine knowledge into the SGI (in the personality).
12. Humanity, after 12,800 years of patriarchal culture is now in the “late-patriarchy”, an era characterized by exponentially rapid high-tech development, and in the period 2020-2040 there is an opportunity for humanity to switch from “high-tech patriarchy” to “high-tech matriarchy.”
13. Sexual orientation has two axes: one is about the sex one is attracted to (male or female) and can be expressed in terms of the PGI, the other is about the power role one is attracted to in sexual play (masculine or feminine, either dominant or submissive), and can be expressed in terms of the SGI.
14. The masculine, feminine and androgynous personal characteristics of the SGI are used by the individual to produce masculine, feminine or androgynous gender roles of the TGI. In this way, the SGI serves the purpose of establishing social relationships.
15. Patriarchal and matriarchal social relationships can be distinguished based on how libidinal energy balances in these relationships.
16. Transformation from patriarchal to matriarchal ways of living together requires a sexual revolution that recognizes both sides of sexual orientation.

ABGT explicitly challenges the object/subject and body/mind duality characteristic of many Western philosophies. By conceptualizing reality as a manifestation of androgynous consciousness, and by integrating both the body (PGI) and the mind (SGI) in how gender identity is socially expressed (TGI), ABGT enables nuanced interpretations of relational patterns of gender and sexuality in a wide variety of social situations and cultural contexts.

The conceptual framework aims to provide reliable and unbiased tools for the analysis of gender and sex in Western societies, as well as in non-Western contexts, such as Asian and African cultures, societies in the Global South, and many indigenous traditions around the world with more holistic views of gender and sexuality.