Girls Who Play with Boys

Kathy Kohner, the real life Gidget

{Tomboy Style}

There has to be a paper written about the cultural significance of labels tweens are given today somewhere out there, right?  This post is going to keep it pretty surface level for now, just making some observations.

Ginger Rogers

Sometimes it's an identity a tween girl takes on by herself, or sometimes she finds herself labeled this cliche, or sometimes she just gets stuck with a bunch of boys- a lot.  You can't help it if you have brothers and rather play sports with the boys at recess because all that catch you played in the yard for years really shouldn't go to waste.  Not that having lots of male relatives is a prerequisite for being a tomboy, but there is a certain attitude many times taken by girls without sisters.  We look over the fence to households filled with girls and wonder what we're missing out on.  Articles like this one don't help, either.

Lee Miller, hanging out in Hitler's bathtub

Though, there's something to be said for tomboys.   A certain sixth grade girl with a bunch of boy cousins who frequent the library quite often comes to mind.  She is the exception when it comes to the double standard that tween boys are allowed to wander free of adult supervision in this neighborhood, but girls are always accompanied by an adult.  Instead, she gets a pack of boys.  She's quite fierce in a beautiful way; in her t-shirt and jeans, never a dress, since it's be harder to keep up with the pack.  She stands up a little straighter, speaks a little louder, and never giggles, but she will laugh out loud when one of her cousins tells a joke and be the first to tell them when they're being stupid.  She also likes to come up to the reference desk for girl talk, or just to sit and hang out while I work, cause you know, us tomboys need to stick together.

Chan Marshall being sassy on the Tomboy Style blog:

Cat Power Profile from WACO on Vimeo.