Tomboy here. As a child I had my own Tonka (Orange Dump truck, my brother had the yellow Front-End Loader) and used it for some major dirt-moving in the backyard. I was one of two girls in my (theoretically) co-ed Little League. I despised dolls although I liked stuffed animals. To this day I positively detest the color pink. At my high school graduation (from a specialized Math/Science high school) I got several “holy cow, it’s a girl!” comments. I absolutely detest shopping, and wear jeans to work 99% of the time.
When I was in college I had to get Remedial Eyeliner Application Lessons from a (male) gay friend of mine because I was so hopeless at it.
Say amen, sister. Dyed in the wool tomboy as a kid. Highly confused as a young woman-liked men (a whole lot) but didn’t necessarily want to do the giggily girly girl schtick that I watched so many of my peers play. Now that I’m “'a woman of a certain age” I live in funky T shirts but also wear sexy sun dresses when I want to. My hair stays in a baseball cap most of the time but I can spray and curl with the best of them when I want to. I can squish my own scorpions or be all soft and tender when I want to.. It’s wonderful.
Can I join? As a kid I loved playing with cars (my one and only Barbie was only ever used to set new records for my drivers to make ever more spectactular jumps …anyway), climb trees play in the mud etc I begged at a local stables to let me help out with the horses so while my friends were doing the girly bit with make up and boys I was up to my eyeballs in mud and horseshit in all weathers. I still throw a mean snowball thanks to my dad ( my mam gave up on me and my sister becoming ladies a looong time ago). I was athletic at school played field hockey and ran, at university I played mixed hockey and now I play Women’s Rugby. I also work in the offshore oil industry. I was never a make up person so while my friends at home can’t leave the house without it when I make the effort for nights out I normally get “Holy shit you didn’t look like that this afternoon!” Very effective.
Count me in.
I was a huge tomboy as a child. My mom would buy me Barbies, but I’d take them down to the stream and play with the boys and their GI Joes.
Somehow I convinced her to let me switch from ballet to tap lessons. Ballet was sooooo boring, standing there at the bar, doing the positions, while tap was noisy and fun.
I never played with baby dolls.
I prefered cars and trucks.
With three older very girly-girl sisters, my mother was really thrown for a loop with this tomboy child in her house.
I am a bit more girly now, but the hair and makeup is minimal, I own 2 pairs of heels (not over 2 inches), I hate to carry a purse, and . . . the ultimate grown-up tomboy pursuit . . . I’m a volunteer firefighter! It’s so cool. And it horrifies my mother!
I’m a tomboy, more or less. The girly sort. No makeup or fancy clothes, though I do mess with my hair (occasionally…as long as it doesn’t require hair dryers or curlers, because I’m hopeless with those) and I like pretty dresses because they’re more like costumes than anything. I really like costumes. They amuse me.
When I was a kid, I had a nice collection of Matchbox cars I played with. I did have Barbies that I liked to play with, though I ended up giving one of them a very nice spiked haircut (and it was the nice Totally Hair Barbie and everything. All it had was hair and I cut it all off. Mom was not happy.)
I didn’t play games with the guys much because I wasn’t that athletic and all they ever did was play kickball or basketball.
I feel more like a tomboy now than I ever did when I was little. At least when I was little, my female friends would occasionally play kickball. Now those same people check their makeup every five minutes and talk about their clothes. Bleh.
On the other hand, I feel much more like a girl. I have lots of guy friends and they do like to go out of their way to remind me I’m a girl. They apologize for cursing! Jeez…
I guess I’m still a tomboy. All my life I’ve had hair shorter than most of the boys I played with. I never had dolls, I had dogs and stuffed animals. I now have the horse I always wanted. I can wear skirts and dresses, but I’ll always be tailored, not frilly.
I guess the best illustration is one day when I was probably about 25-26 and a visiting priest came up to me after Mass and asked if I’d ever thought about becoming a priest. :eek: I hadn’t realized that I was that androgynous.
