This has bothered me for a long time, and now that I have my own little girl, I can't take it anymore!
The concept of the "tomboy."
I swear, every mom I talk to who has girls says "oh my little McKaila/Kirsten/Calee, she's a tomboy, she likes to play outside...run around...climb trees."
Yeah? So she likes to play? Like a kid?
What are people expecting from little girls? A strong innate desire to practice ballet formations and arrange flowers?
(If a boy likes bunnies and gymnastics, do we call him a sallygirl?)
Just because a girl plays basketball or wears pants or picks up bugs, that shouldn't make her weird. I think most little girls do those things and it doesn't make them less of a girl.
Tomboy is an ugly word. No more!!
3 comments:
actually, I was a tomboy before it was probably even a word! I loved being a tomboy...it meant that I could ride my horse, chasing mean little boys down the road behind our house..wear what I wanted (well, more or less) and tease my little sister..who was, of course, just a little lady who wounldn't get her hands dirty like me...So I say hurray for the tomboy girls of the world! S
Well, I think Tomboy is kinda lame as a adjective myself. I mean seriously, my sister in law is probably more like an aaronboy or a steveboy...
In all reality, it drives me NUTS when parents put their kids into a neat little box. This is bobby, our "blah blah blah". I will admit I sometimes do this, but I'm pretty much constantly looking for creative ways to describe my kids that doesn't shoehorn them. I'm sure it gets harder the older kids get too.
agree
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