A âTomboyâ is defined as â a girl who enjoys rough, noisy activities associated with boysâ what a load of bulls*it. Iâve been a âtomboyâ for the majority of my life, I hate that word itâs as if children and adults around me had put me in box, hoping that I would grow out on this âphaseâ. As if wearing pants made me less of a girl, they didnât but this was the early 2000s I had to wear a skirt, I would cry and beg my mom to let me wear pants. I eventually wore her down and got the pants. Womenâs clothing has always made me uncomfortable. As a child I didn’t want to shop in the girlâs section, I would slowly drag my mom to the boyâs section, girlâs clothing didnât have superheroes on them at the time. Now as an adult I still donât entirely shop in the women’s section I feel uncomfortable in womenâs clothing jackets accentuate the waist, the shirts have smaller sleeves itâs just not my thing.Â
Mcdonaldâs happy meal toys, what a nightmare for my early anxiety. I didnât want the girl toy, the boy toys sparked more of my interest. I remember being next to my dad as he ordered my happy meal and I asked if I could get the boy toy the cashier said but sheâs not a boy, my face must have completely dropped, I donât remember if I got the boy toy or not Iâve repressed a lot of my childhood because I was âtoo boyishâ I wasnât âgirlyâ enough. What surprises me after years of getting used to being called a boy, it still hurts it seems as though my inner child is still in pain. Now I know someone must be thinking, it isnât that deep and yeah sure it wasnât to you but to me I felt that something was wrong with me, why didnât I want to wear dresses or play with barbies why couldnât I have been normal. I would always ask myself why I couldnât be a normal little girl, what hurt more was hearing it from my own family. Itâs interesting that I chose a word that made me feel small. It’s important to me now because I have suppressed those emotions from when I was a child and now I would really like to work on it and heal. The âTomboyâ phase didnât go away for me but I also feel frustrated. Why should I or any young girl be labeled as a tomboy when I’m simply a girl who isnât necessarily feminine thatâs it, the term isnât necessary. I always felt guilty for not being the âgirlyâ girl that my mom wanted or at least I thought she wanted. I think after a while I wanted to be that for her and other people. I would let my hair down although I didnât like it, clearly having long hair isnât a girl thing but youâll be surprised at how many times I was called a boy or asked if I was a boy which made everything much more confusing. It wasnât only children asking me this it was adults too. I wanted to get a pixie cut and would constantly beg my mom to let me cut my hair months past and she said no. Until she finally said yes I cut my hair the day before my 14th birthday I never felt so free or confident in myself, but It gave me away to people, or at least people now felt that it was okay to call me a lesbian in a derogatory way. I had been called a lesbian my whole life, itâs still painful to be constantly told by other people who you are especially as a child when I didnât know what a lesbian was. I just knew that people found it weird so I couldnât be one. I denied my sexuality for years because i was told who I apparently already was, i didnât want to be a lesbian because that would mean they were right, all of them. Eventually, I did come to terms with my sexuality, Iâm a bi woman, my boyishness didnât define my sexuality what did was my attraction to women at a young age. I wanted to make that clear, also if you are a tomboy do not discourage other women who enjoy traditionally feminine activities, because thatâs just internalized misogyny. Iâm not a tomboy and I donât want to label myself as one I hope that the âtomboyâ trope continues to fade away, so that little boys and girls donât have to feel the way I did as a kid. Just let children like what they like, donât make little boys and girls feel shameful of what they enjoy.
Julia, so much amazing stuff here. I think one thing you could work on is paragraphs. I’m not sure you need to think about the PIE stuff we talked about in class, so much as separating each paragraph into one major point–every (great) idea is all crammed together here.
Imagine this: Paragraph one starts: “Women’s clothing has always made me uncomfortable”
(write about that for a while)
Paragraph 2: “I was never ‘girly’ enough” (write about that for a while).
Paragraph 3: “I’ve always hated the word “Tomboy” (write about that for a while).
4: “I denied my sexuality for years because everyone told me who I was” (write about this for a while)
5: “I hope the tomboy trope continues to fade away” (write about this for a while)
To be clear, essays don’t have to be five paragraphs– I’m just seeing five main points here. I think some organization would make this extremely strong group of ideas into a strong, coherent essay.
Also– you definitely do not have to use the outline I’ve described above. This is just a potential example of how you might organize it in a way that would make your points more clear for readers.