So far, I have not noticed a loss of subscribers due to my writing. These days, I try not to court controversy so much because my skin still burns, and I’m fresh out of bandaids. Plus, therapy has become too expensive. This post may change all that. If you find yourself disappointed with me, I’m sorry.
Back in the heady days of late 2021, when Covid was over/not over, I was freshly banned from Twitter because I #stoodwith Maya Forstater and Jo Rowling, my friends had cancelled me because I believed that the term “non-binary” was/is nothing more than a rejection of misogynist stereotyping—which it actually reinforced by insisting that the only way to be rid of the patriarchy was to simply opt out—and there was a lot of confusion over the words man and woman, I decided to do some investigating for my podcast Say What, which was all about the words we use and why we use them.
This week, with the POTUS making a royal decree announcing there are only two sexes, I thought it high time to revisit the episode to remind myself that girls can be masculine but still call themselves girls. Whatever you think of Trump and his bros, this feels like a minor turning point for—let’s face it—mostly women.
I hope you enjoy this lighthearted, potted history of the Tomboy.
What is up with the word Tomboy? Is it even politically correct to say it anymore? Without turning this into a gender studies episode, we’re going to learn where the word comes from, how it came to mean what it did, if it even does mean the same thing today, and the various translations because, yes, tomboys are everywhere and every country has its own nuanced definition and you may be surprised to learn that well, it’s a little more complex than sex, gender constructs and whether you wear skirts and climb trees.
So let’s deconstruct this!
Today's episode features Freud's Masculinity Complex, Calamity Jane, The Marvellous Mrs Maisel's Suzie Myerson, and I completely butcher some foreign languages. Sorry.
Sound engineering and original music by Jeff Willis. You can find his tunes on Spotify and iTunes
Produced by Jo Vraca. You can find my books on Amazon.
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