My Time as a Tomboy

So, after reading "Little Butches: Tomboys in Hollywood Film", I got to thinking about my own Tomboy phase which occurred through the second and third grades.

Hatch discusses a few possibilities in which the Tomboy phase was used in film through the 50s and the 70s. It seems to me that Tomboys were mostly used as a means of symbolizing prepubescence and girlhood innocence as well as a face for feminism.

Personally, my phase was a little different. I clearly remember wearing black turtle necks with my short haircut (similar to my style now) and playing cops and robbers with the boys in my class on the jungle gym along side my girlfriends. But the moment that any of the boys paid more attention to one of my girlfriends, I was super duper jealous. This means that my Tomboy phase was simply a means of meeting boys and flirting with them without seeming like I actually like-liked them (cause we all know that was icky).

This made me think further.

My favorite quote from this reading is this: "gender is not a product of clothing and hair style alone but is predicated on a set of behaviors that bolsters a system of male dominance and female submission" (79). Which got me thinking about my Tomboy phase in general. Could the Tomboy phase be a normal, socially constructed part of femininity? It seems like it definitely could be.

Here are my reasons. We discussed gender as a social construct, an act that is performed based on our desire to be normal. Yes, the Tomboy phase, according to Hatch, is a part of growing up for young girls before they understand sexual desire, but that wasn't the case for me or my girlfriends in elementary school. No, we didn't understand what sex was yet but the reason we played cops and robbers with the boys was because we inherently wanted their attention. We had crushes. So for me and my friends, and I understand that it wasn't the case for everyone else, our Tomboy phase was the beginning of our desire.

Does this make the Tomboy phase a necessary part of our performed femininity? Let's Discuss.

Also....I understand my experience in terms of Hatch's theory that the Tomboy phase was simply a phase before young women discover heterosexual desire but I do not understand its connection to masculine domesticity. That is something that I would like to discuss further with the class.

Jenna Marbles Tomboy?

Hatch presents a lot of really good information in her article "Little Butches" However I found myself constantly searching for some current movie or T.V. show examples and I constantly found myself coming up short. Maybe it's because I'm usually watching Romantic Comedies or my definition of Tomboy is incredibly skewed...but the more I thought about it. The more I became frustrated.

Then it hit me! While trying to come up with an idea for a new YouTube video for my weekly channel, my mind thought WWJMD aka What Would Jenna Marbles Do? Now if you don't know who Jenna Marbles is you should basically go find a rock and live under it because that's where you've been for the past 6 months of your life. Anyways I'm posting a video so watch it fall in love, subscribe all that fun stuff.

So back to my main point. Jenna Marbles is basically a tomboy. She is well represented in mainstream media. She's vulgar, hilarious, doesn't give a crap about what people say about her and she totally gives off that forever young vibe that Hatch talked about that was such a big theme for tomboys in the 70's. Even though it's obvious that Jenna is a woman and looks totally smoking hot in like almost every video she makes. She is able to connect with both the male and female audiences because of her unusual tomboy attitude towards life and her "understanding" of both male and female culture.

Ok I'm going to stop now because I'm probably rambling. What do you guys think?


p.s. I realize that this post almost has to do with nothing we read...but I just had to get it out. Sorry Erin!

Tomboys in Media Through the Decades

The way that tomboys are represented in Hollywood films has changed over time, just as this article brings up.  In the 1950's, the tomboy narrative involved a young, immature girl who would eventually make the transformation into a woman not through her clothes are style, but through her behavior when it comes to men.  During this time, the tomboy narrative demonstrated that the most important way for a tomboy to become a woman was by pursuing a love interest in a man and by being submissive to men.  Just as is seen in the movie Gidget where a young girl disappoints her friends with her tomboy actions because they think it ruins their chances of attracting men.  Eventually, the tomboy transforms into a more feminine character by falling in love with a surfer man who rescues her multiple times.
When I thought of Hatch's idea that the 1950's tomboy narrative "demonstrates that gender is not a product of clothing an hairstyle alone but is predicated on a set of behaviors that bolsters a system of male dominance and female submission...", a few films in which I remember seeing tomboys represented came to mind.  A good example of a modern day 'tomboy' film that challenges this 1950's ideal is the movie Miss Congeniality, in which a woman who has been more 'masculine' and a tomboy all of her life enters a beauty pageant in order to complete a secret FBI mission.  The main character is transformed into a feminine woman by being taught certain 'lady-like' behavior, but the transformation into a woman mainly involves her physical makeover--she has makeup put on her, has her hair done, has a lot of waxing done and finally puts on a short sexy dress and a pair of heels to top off the look.  Her tomboy character at the beginning of the film is seen as negative and her transformation into a more typically feminine woman is meant to be a positive thing.  She also ends up having a romantic interest in one of her co-workers, who now finds her irresistible because of her sexy new look.
I think that the representation of tomboys in films today is much more complex, and there isn't one specific 'tomboy narrative', though I would argue that the tomboy narrative still almost always includes the tomboy having a romantic interest in a male character.  An example I thought of in which a tomboy is portrayed in a very positive light is the Disney movie Mulan.  Mulan wants to be able to fight in her father's place, so she runs away from home and portrays herself as a man so that she can fight.  Mulan's character is very story and independent, yet of course toward the middle of the film, her character falls in love with a strong, masculine man, and her femininity is brought out through her actions toward this man as well as the way she appears physically at the end of the movie. 

Tommy Boy(s)-Without Chris Farley and David Spade

The discussion of tomboys have gone from being common topic to a sort of taboo. The transformation of how the tomboy image from the 1950s to 2012 is viewed by society is intriguing. Hatch describes how over time the views of tomboys changed from (post-war era) someone wanting to simply blend in with society to a lesbian outsider who wants to stick it to the people who don't support them. This is a direct result to how media has portrayed tomboys in their narratives. When tomboys were initially introduced in media to the public, they were seen as people who wanted to be a part of a group or activity that would not normally sanction their participation. Today, a tomboy is seen as nothing but a future lesbian or radical chick; even if most end up trading in their dirty, ripped blue jeans for a dress and heels at some point in their adolescence period.

We can owe this change of perception to specific media pieces such as the films: Bad News Bears, Paper Moon, and Freaky Friday because they pointed society towards believing that becoming a tomboy is not a fruitful endeavor. If the initial perception of a tomboy was carried over through the decades to our present time, then I believe that the topic of tomboys would not be a form of taboo. A girl who can throw harder than a guy should have the opportunity to pitch on the guys team even if she has to dress up like a guy. Believe it or not, but it happened back in the day-and I was afraid during the ages of 10-12 that one day I would maybe strike out swinging to one of these boy/girl pitchers. But, I'm glad that it is safe to say that those sorts of experiences are unheard of in 2012.

The gender inequalities such as men over women, straights over gays, and whites over other races that are apparent in our society have put a pressure on these types of touchy social subjects. They are the components that fuel the transformation of how the tomboy image is viewed by the public. The growing fear of these sort of queer topics will only worsen the acceptance of tomboys across the population and force the actual tomboys to choose their lifestyles at a quicker pace. People should not be influenced by media on their decision whether a certain type of personality should be judged as moral or immoral. And then again, I don't think that it is too important to worry about these types of things. It is probably just a phase that these people go through. By the time a solution can be drawn up, the person will have already turned in her boy clothes for women lingerie.