Who is the ‘girly’ girl? Tomboys, hyper-femininity and gender

Abstract

This study is based on research which focused on tomboy girls and their shared leisure time with their mothers. The research was a small-scale exploratory study of 20 women in the UK; data were collected in Yorkshire in the north of England and London in the south-east. The focus of the research was on the topic of tomboy identities. In this study, we explore the nuances and ambiguities around what a tomboy is by using an indirect (and perhaps unexpected) but nonetheless illuminating route: asking what constitutes a ‘girly-girl’, the polar opposite of the tomboy. We are interested in how she compares with the tomboy, and how the tomboy participants talked about her. We conclude that the girly-girl is a powerful cultural figure, part of a narrative in which women are sexualised and objectified but she is also a form of polemic; she is contrived to be a marker of the worst excesses of hegemonic ‘femininity’. It is through this lens that we can view and understand the tomboy, and the anxieties about the tomboy experienced by those around her.

Keywords::

• gender
• tomboys
• femininity
• generations
• leisure

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Samantha Holland

Samantha Holland is a Research Fellow at Leeds Metropolitan University, UK, where her work is mostly around gender, ageing, and non-mainstream leisure and subcultures. Previous publications include Alternative Femininities: Body, Age and Identity (Berg, 2004); Remote Relationships in a Small World (edited, Peter Lang, 2008) and Pole Dancing, Empowerment and Embodiment (Palgrave Macmillan, 2010). She has just finished writing a book about women's roller derby (SUNY Press, 2013) and has just begun a study of the leisure lives of women who live alone.

Julie Harpin

Julie Harpin was until 2012 a Senior Lecturer at Leeds Metropolitan University, UK, where she taught in the areas of sport, leisure and culture. Her research interests include sexualities, tomboys and the history of feminism. She is now a Ph.D. candidate at Goldsmiths University, London, researching class, gender and same-sex marriage.