Is The Tomboy Dead?

This morning’s Minneapolis Star Tribune has an article “Tomboys in Tutus” asking where have the Tomboy’s gone? On the surface the story is about the dubious transformation of Dora the Explorer, the new version which will launch this fall. Gone are her shorts, backpack, sensible walking shoes, and thirst for exploring. The “classic Dora” is cited as one the few role models for girls not teetering on high heels, wearing too much make-up, and she’s marketed to pre-schooler’s of both genders. Dora is what used to be called a Tomboy.

Asking if the tomboy is an endangered species, the piece cites classic tomboys (and wonderful role models) like Scout Finch, Amelia Earhart, Katharine Hepburn, Althea Gibson, and another staple of preteen fiction, Harriet the Spy. The new, “improved” Dora is older, wears make-up, heels, and is no longer interested in learning about the world around her but rather in shopping. Is this an evil marketing ploy to turn girls from being bilingual adventurers to vapid shopaholics? Young girls don’t need the marketing driven pressure to wonder whether they’re pretty enough, stylish enough, and God forbid, thin enough at increasingly earlier ages.

Having recently read To Kill a Mockingbird, I loved the depth, sense of adventure, and thirst for knowledge of Scout, who many say author Harper Lee based on herself. That led to me to consider my own eight nieces ranging in age from 23 to four. While some took the “girly route” focusing on clothes, make-up, and hair color, most are a combination of tomboy and girly-girl. Like Scout, Em punched more than a few boys in the nose when they dared tease her, and Hollynn gives her three older brothers a run for their money in intelligence and standing up for herself, thank you very much. But they both loved dolls and dress up.

I then thought of my youngest brothers three daughters 11, 8, and 4. My sister-in-law wondered if Katrina (their middle child) would be her “girly-girl”, not that there’s anything wrong with pink tutus and frills. But my “girly-girl” niece surprised both her parents at her first soccer game, by growling at the opposing team prior to game time. I still think marketers need to seriously back off with the warped images of what girls should aspire to, but my nieces give me faith the tomboy is far from dead.

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