Tomboy
A tomboy is a girl who exhibits characteristics or behaviors considered typical of a boy,[1][2] including wearing masculine clothing and engaging in games and activities that are physical in nature and are considered in many cultures to be unfeminine or the domain of boys.[2] Existence of tomboy facilitates people reflecting about the definition of gender and sex in traditional ideas and values, that there are not just girls or boys, but maybe another type of gender who identified themselves as having characteristics of both gender.[3]
History and society
Tomboy, according to the Oxford English Dictionary (OED), "has been connected with connotations of rudeness and impropriety" throughout its use.[4] The OED dates the first use of the term to 1592,[4] but an earlier use is recorded in Ralph Roister Doister, which is believed to date from 1553, and was published in 1567. In nineteenth-century American culture, the usage of the word "tomboy" came to refer to a specific code of conduct that permitted young girls to exercise, wear "sensible clothing", and to eat a "wholesome diet". Because of the emphasis on a healthier lifestyle, tomboyism quickly grew in popularity during this time period as an alternative to the dominant feminine code of conduct that had limited women's physical movement.[5] In her 1898 book Women and Economics, feminist writer Charlotte Perkins Gilman lauds the health benefits of being a tomboy as well as the freedom for gender exploration: "not feminine till it is time to be".[6] Joseph Lee, a playground advocate, believed the tomboy phase crucial to physical development between the ages of eight and thirteen in 1915.[7] Tomboyism remained popular through World War I and World War II in society, literature, and then film.
During the twentieth century, Freudian psychology and backlash against LGBT social movements resulted in societal fears about the sexualities of tomboys, and this caused some to question if tomboyism leads to lesbianism.[5] Throughout history, there has been a perceived correlation between tomboyishness and lesbianism.[4][8] For instance, Hollywood films would stereotype the adult tomboy as a "predatory butch dyke".[8] Lynne Yamaguchi and Karen Barber, editors of Tomboys! Tales of Dyke Derring-Do, argue that "tomboyhood is much more than a phase for many lesbians", it "seems to remain a part of the foundation of who we are as adults".[4][9] Many contributors to Tomboys! linked their self-identification as tomboys and lesbians to both labels positioning them outside "cultural and gender boundaries".[4] Psychoanalyst Dianne Elise's essay reported that more lesbians noted being a tomboy than straight women.[10] However, while some tomboys later reveal a lesbian identity in their adolescent or adult years, behavior typical of boys but displayed by girls is not a true indicator of one's sexual orientation.[11]
Gender scholar Judith Halberstam states that while the defying of gender roles is often tolerated in young girls, adolescent girls who display masculine traits are often repressed or punished.[12] However, the ubiquity of traditionally female clothing such as skirts and dresses has declined in the Western world, where it is generally no longer considered a male trait for girls and women not to wear such clothing. An increase in the popularity of women's sporting events (see Title IX) and other activities that were traditionally male-dominated has broadened tolerance and lessened the impact of tomboy as a pejorative term.[2] Instead, as sociologist Barrie Thorne suggested, some "adult women tell with a hint of pride as if to suggest: I was (and am) independent and active; I held (and hold) my own with boys and men and have earned their respect and friendship; I resisted (and continue to resist) gender stereotypes".[13]
Studies
There have been few studies of the causality of women's behavior and interests, when they do not match the female gender role. One report from the Avon Longitudinal Study of Parents and Children suggests that preschool girls engaging in masculine-typical gender-role behavior, such as playing with toys typically preferred by boys, is influenced by genetic and prenatal factors.[14] Tomboys have also been noted to demonstrate a stronger interest in science and technology.[2]
Studies suggest that a significant minority, or even a majority, of American women identified themselves as tomboys during their childhood.[15] As women start to enter into their teenage years, peer pressure from parents and society lead them into changing their public behavior into generic one for adolescent girls.[15] Although, most women are encouraged to stop acting like a tomboy when they reach adolescence, research shows that many of them just do this in the eye of society and subtly keep their tomboy traits. [15]
A study performed by professionals from the University of Wisconsin - La Crosse, collected answers from fifty undergraduate students from a public Midwestern university in which 67% of the respondents described themselves as tomboys during most of their childhood.[16] Additionally, to that, students had to provide an address for their mothers and grandmothers to gather data from three generations and compare the results.[16] With an open-ended response section in a survey passed out to the focus group, researchers were able to collect the reasons or who the influencers were for why they changed their behavior.[16] The survey collected the five top categories for changes in behavior (family, growing up, interest in boys, peers, and change in school) and noticed that different reasons were the most popular for different ages.[16] Peers were more popular for the undergraduates, while interest in boys was more common for their mothers.[16] Researchers also noted that answers regularly didn't vary from those who played in team sports and those that didn't.[16] Another part of the study asked participants on what they thought constituted tomboy behavior, and after receiving answers referring to over 75 different activities, researchers labeled them into seven categories (toys, role-playing, sports, rough and tumble play, companions, and mannerisms).[16] In their analysis of the study, professionals concluded that this group of people surveyed appeared to be boy-related activities but did not completely neglect girl-related activities.[16] Finally, the study asked respondents for the mean age when they stopped behaving as a tomboy and while mothers and grandmothers both answered with a mean age of 13, undergraduates said that their mean age was a full year younger at age 12.[16] Professionals believe this is the case because of increasing pressures for women to act mature in society.[16]
Fiction
See also
References
- ^ Tomboy in the Online Etymology Dictionary
- ^ a b c d Who Are Tomboys and Why Should We Study Them?, SpringerLink, Archives of Sexual Behavior, Volume 31, Number 4
- ^ King, Elizabeth (2017). "A Short History of the Tomboy". The Altantic.
- ^ a b c d e Brown, Jayne Relaford (1999). "Tomboy". In B. Zimmerman (ed.). Encyclopedia of Lesbian Histories and Cultures. Routledge. pp. 771–772. ISBN 0815319207. Retrieved 21 August 2012.
The word [tomboy] also has a history of sexual, even lesbian, connotations. [ ... ] The connection between tomboyism and lesbianism continued, in a more positive way, as a frequent theme in twentieth-century lesbian literature and nonfiction coming out stories.
- ^ a b Abate, Michelle Ann (2008). Tomboys: A Literary and Cultural History. Temple University Press. ISBN 978-1-59213-722-0.
- ^ Gilman, Charlotte Perkins (1898). Women and Economics. Boston: Small, Maynard & Company. p. 56.
- ^ Lee, Joseph (1915). Play in Education. pp. 392–393.
- ^ a b Halberstam, Judith (1998). Female Masculinity. Duke University Press. pp. 193–196. ISBN 0822322439.
Hollywood film offers us a vision of the adult tomboy as the predatory butch dyke: in this particular category, we find some of the best and worst of Hollywood stereotyping.
- ^ Yamaguchi, Lynne and Karen Barber, ed. (1995). Tomboys! Tales of Dyke Derring-Do. Los Angeles: Alysson.
- ^ King, Elizabeth. "A Short History of the Tomboy". The Atlantic.
- ^ Gabriel Phillips; Ray Over (1995). "Differences between heterosexual, bisexual, and lesbian women in recalled childhood experiences". Archives of Sexual Behavior. 24 (1): 1–20. doi:10.1007/BF01541985.
{{cite journal}}: Unknown parameter|lastauthoramp=ignored (|name-list-style=suggested) (help) - ^ Halberstam, Judith: Female Masculinity, Durham: Duke University Press, 1998.
- ^ Thorne, Barrie (1993). Gender play: boys and girls in school. Rutgers University Press. p. 114. ISBN 0-8135-1923-3.
- ^ Hines, Melissa; Golombok, Susan; Rust, John; Johnston, Katie J.; Golding, Jean; Avon Longitudinal Study of Parents and Children Study Team (1 November 2002). "Testosterone during Pregnancy and Gender Role Behavior of Preschool Children: A Longitudinal, Population Study". Child Development. 73 (6): 1678–1687. doi:10.1111/1467-8624.00498. JSTOR 3696409.
{{cite journal}}: CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link) - ^ a b c Carr, C Lynn (1998). "Tomboy Resistance and Conformity Agency in Social Psychological Gender Theory".
{{cite journal}}: Cite journal requires|journal=(help) - ^ a b c d e f g h i j Morgan, Betsy Levonian (1998-11-01). "A Three Generational Study of Tomboy Behavior". Sex Roles. 39 (9–10): 787–800. doi:10.1023/A:1018816319376. ISSN 0360-0025.
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