On the tomboy

[highlyeccentric]

a rather interesting article on gender stereotyping in childhood

And what about children’s clothes? Strangely, until I started shopping with Miranda in tow, it had never struck me how absurd the clothes marketed at little girls are. We’d go into a shop like Gap or Next and Miranda would instantly turn to the boys’ section, and I’d realise that, in fact, most of the clothes she wanted were quite similar to the clothes I wear, and the clothes most adult women wear when they’re not in an office: jeans, T-shirts, trainers. What was really bizarre was the clothes in the girls’ section: all pink, fluffy waistcoats, ra-ra skirts and frilly, beaded tops. Lots of the little girls’ clothes were more like dressing-up gear than streetwear, and they certainly bore little resemblance to adult women’s clothing. In the book store, the conspiracy continues. Despite the fact that we are living through what is widely heralded as a golden age of children’s literature, tomboy heroines are depressingly thin on the ground. We are forced back to the Forties, into the pages of Enid Blyton, for a kindred literary spirit. George, one of the Famous Five, is really called Georgina, but she hates people calling her that and will only answer to George; she has her hair cut short, always wears trousers, and is brave and go-getting. Her cousins, when they are introduced to her, find her refreshingly different and rather exciting, and she remains the most interesting and exciting character throughout their many adventures.
Joanna Morehead, Times of London, Aug. 4 07

Comments

[sea-of-tethys.livejournal.com]

she shouts loudly at the telly during rugby matches with her dad, while swigging her Ribena from a beer bottle for maximum masculine effect.

That's brilliant! :D

Really interesting article. Actually when I was six I got my hair cut like a boy and I was thrilled when a stranger thought I was one... and I can remember being jealous of how much better boys' toys were.

[highlyeccentric.livejournal.com]

I can remember being jealous of how much better boys' toys were

see, i had the solution for that- it's called Nicking Your Little Brother's Stuff. A reciprocal arrangement, to be sure- he enjoyed stealing my stuffed rabbit, biting the heads off my Ken dolls, and, much to Mum's horror, chewing on Barbie's crotch.
Meanwhile, under the guise of sisterly devotion, I got to take charge of the setting-up of his car tracks, taking over captaincy of the lego pirate boat he had painstakingly built... we seeing a pattern here?

We always had very low-tech toys in our house, though. Perhaps that had something to do with it? Joel had cars and lego and mechano, but never gameboys or transformers. Remote control cars were about the only things in his toybox which ran on batteries. And I was never allowed a peeing dolly. No toy weapons, either, aside from equal-opportunity water guns. The only exception being that when I was about ten Dad made me a bow and blunt arrows, so that I could pretend to be Maid Marion.

Hmmm... anyway. I wonder if birth order has anything to do with it, for that matter? The article did mention that a tomboy is likely to have older brothers. I'm the oldest, so when we were little it was Joel who wanted to be allowed to do whatever I did, rather than the other way around. As he got older I was always welcome to try anything he did, but usually lacked the aptitude!

[daiskmeliadorn.livejournal.com]

Another interesting finding from Paechter’s study is that, although adults tend to see girls as “tomboys” or “girlie”, children themselves have a more fluid approach to categorisation. Some of the girls she interviewed thought of themselves as being tomboyish some of the time and girlie at other times. It was adults who seemed to feel the need to attach rigid labels.

The truth is that tomboyishness, like most things in life, comes on a spectrum. At the very end of the spectrum it’s actually a disorder, a condition known as gender identity dysfunction in which little girls refuse to believe they really are female, or little boys refuse to believe they’re male. But that disorder is rare: far more common is what Miranda has, which is a deep-seated – and often entirely rational – belief that life for boys just seems like a lot more fun.

hnmm. this bit is interesting. it's interesting that kids have a "fluid approach", are comfortable not putting each other in these gender-types; interesting as well that the author goes on from praising that to reinforcing the idea that transgendered people are "dysfunctional" (it's implied here that the dysfunction is that they "refuse to believe" they are the gender we tell them they are, when i would say the dysfunction is that we refuse to accept that they are the gender they insist they are)