Home & Garden2 mins ago
Tomboy
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No best answer has yet been selected by *ALFIE*. Once a best answer has been selected, it will be shown here.
For more on marking an answer as the "Best Answer", please visit our FAQ.In some cases i dont think its necessarily being manly as you put it... but more a case of being interested in activities etc which are seen by society as male in nature, such as football, cars etc. Being labelled a tomboy is what people do in order to categorise and make sense of being interested in these stereotypically `male` activities.
I dont think its a fascination of becoming like a guy but just what the girl is interested in.
One of my school friends was a bit of a tomboy but i think it was more to do with the fact that she grew up with older brothers .... and i guess as a kid you are influenced by what your older siblings are interested in and doing, therefore becoming interested in these things too. Also, im sure anyone who has younger siblings will agree that they always wanted to follow you around when you were younger.
Maybe this copying of siblings is an explanation of why some girls are `tomboys`.
Btw - not meaning to generalise but in some instances what i have said may occur.
Alfie , I use the term tomboy to describe young girls - like my eldest daughter (8) - who play with traditionally boys toys and prefer the company of boys to girls. I have heard the term 'ladette' used to describe women who drink pints , watch football , sit with their legs crossed 'like men' are sexually dominant and can be quite forward but to I believe that it's their prerogitive to do so if they wish . I don't believe that they wake up one morning and make a conscious decision to start being 'a man' - more likely that it is their preference to watch football and drink pints. It may not be my preferred choice but each to their own and it's their right to do so if they wish.
I have two daughters and a baby son and my girls couldn't be more opposite from each other. My eldest daughter is the ultimate tomboy and always has been. Her dress up outfits were always pirate costumes , buzz lightyear outfit , star wars etc and she played with guns , swords and fottballs - no matter how many little dollies and pink things I bought her. She always wrinkled her nose in displeasure. My hubby and I love her to bits and wouldn't change her for the world - although admittedly , my heart sank a little when she bounced down the street towards our house with her best friend (male) - her dressed as Batman ! Our two year old daughter however tells us that she is a fairy princess , wants to live in a castle (she should be so lucky!) and adores everything pink , sparkly , girly and wants to go to bed with new clothes on - especially her ballet tutu. My point is that you can't make sweeping generalisations about how girls/women should behave because not everyone is the same. I believe in giving my children freedom (within reason of course) to express themselves as they wish and if they choose to watch football , then so be it. Whatever makes them happy being the key issue.
Labelling a girl a tomboy is a victorian type attitude that girls should sit still and do embroidery all day or play with dolls and boys should be out learning to hunt.
It is society that puts these stereotypes on our gender not nature. if it was, then women would be an endangered species - women are stronger than they are often given credit for.
A more even balance is natural - girls shouldn't be delicate flowers who are helpless and giggly and men shouldn't be wide-necked butch macho men - we are naturally neither of those things
overly macho or overly girly is too much either way, but it mostly occurs because people have an ingrained idea of how they should be.