New Word for Tomboy

Over at Shameless Magazine they're talking about an article in the Toronto Star called "Why 'tomboy' remains a loaded word."

The article quotes a description in the NY Times of actress Ellen Page as "a tomboy – her on-screen persona is sharp, clear-eyed, determined and self-consciously original."

Apparently a Sarah Lawrence professor wrote a response saying:

“It is unfortunate that we have no other word available to describe this strong, independent young woman than to refer to her as a tomboy. This continues to convey to girls that growing up clear-eyed and courageous is being like a boy.”

Well said!

I was the only girl on my baseball team when I was younger and have often been mistaken for a boy when I have short hair. But I can't think of an instance where I was directly called a tomboy. I definitely identified with boys when I was little and even wished to become one, but I never liked the word tomboy.

Were you ever called a tomboy? How do you feel about the term? What are other words we can use to describe strong girls? Does even having any word assume that it's unusual or unnatural for girls to be strong?

Marathon winner can't run away from sexism

I was watching the LA marathon on TV last weekend with my girlfriend because she's training for the San Francisco marathon in August. My first time watching a marathon and I got to see a woman win! Very cool.

But it was not cool what William Burke, co-founder and president of the City of Los Angeles Marathon, said about it. We're sitting enjoying the excitement of watching Tatiana Aryasova cross the finish line first and the station goes to Burke for a comment. "You can't keep those women down," he says. "You can't get them back in the kitchen." What?!?

There was so much shrieking coming from my house I didn't even hear the rest of the interview. For a few days I wasn't sure if I had dreamt that moment or if it really happened. Unfortunately, later in the week, Feministing (by way of the LA Times) verified that my ears hadn't deceived me. People commenting on Feministing have asked if maybe he was joking. It's possible, but I definitely didn't get that impression. He didn't smile, or wink, or laugh, or give any other clue that he was attempting to make a joke.

All I can say is keep running and let's leave this sexism in the dust!

More Girls Fighting?

So I'm driving to work this morning listening to Day to Day on NPR and I hear the host proclaiming,"'Fight like a girl' used to be an expression that meant you didn't fight all that hard or all that violently. Well things have changed."

My ears perk up. Did I miss something? Is this cause for celebration? Are people not using "like a girl" as an insult anymore? Welllll...not quite. The story is about videos posted on YouTube showing girls fighting each other. They say in it that girls are getting in physical fights with each other more often than in the past. Not sure what the past is to them, but I definitely remember fights among girls when I was in middle and high school. But maybe it is getting more common. What do you think?

There was one part of the story that was especially annoying. Dr. Louis Kraus at Rush University says, "We see more girls interacting in competitive sports. We've seen girls get into more fights." Are we supposed to draw some connection between girls being more involved in sports and getting in more fights? What happened to sports being so good for girls?

And then they talk to a thirteen-year-old who says, "Guys aren't better than girls. Girls can fight too." Ah equality at last. But seriously let's strive for no fighting.

Oh but the Dr. Kraus guy brings up a good point at the end about how schools are less likely to take fights among girls as seriously as fights among guys. Teachers and administrators often see girls' fights as "skirmishes" and are less likely to intervene. Hopefully awareness will do a little something to help people not diminish girls' activities and expressions (however unacceptable).