I've got a genderqueer character who looks extremely androgynous. I realise that can be a stereotype but the character is a shapeshifter and consciously chooses to look like that. Part of their reason is that while they come from a culture that recognises 3rd gender the culture they're currently in doesn't. Mixing visual ques is a small way of asserting their identity when the people around them don't have a frame work for discussing 3rd gender. Does this work?
Personally I feel like this totally works as your character is not representing themselves this way to make them seem more appealing or sexually desirable, but as a gentle way of thumbing their nose at a group who refuses to see past their own norms. Normally this androgyny becomes an issue in fiction when people characterize it as attractiveness rather than just allowing the character to be who/what they are.
Snarky and rebellious may, or may not, be a way into my heart.
Ironically I actually happen to do this myself to a lesser extent. While I can’t change my physical structure on an urge I do regularly mix clothing styles, wearing both “men’s” and “women’s” fashions. I’ll also wear makeup to enhance culturally typed female features on some days and on other days use it to enhance culturally typed male features, while on even more common days not wearing any at all.
- Reese