History of Feminism

It <"tomboy"> *can* be a slur

And for reasons which aren't immediately obvious.

When I was little, I was often called a tomboy and it was meant as a compliment.

The problem with that is, for "tomboy" to be a compliment, that means that being a "girly girl" is a bad thing.

I later realized that the compliment to me was a slur against "girly girls". (I was raised by parents who taught me that acting like a girl was a bad thing.)

Like many other words and phrases, it depends on context and intent.

Who said it, and what did they mean by it?

exactly


Masculine is good, feminine is bad. That's why, and slightly different from what Warren Stupidity was saying but maybe to clarify it, girls being masculine is not as bad as boys being feminine.

But it leaves girls in the conflict that if they want social approval, they do have to adhere to the feminine stereotype. Tomboys are cute for a while, but they have to grow out of it.

And also exactly:


Just as I did back around 1970 and I intuitively didn't like being told I was "not like other chicks": basically, I didn't play gender-role games, I guess, and I spoke my mind. I decided I was une femme comme les autres -- an ordinary woman. The problem was the stereotype, and the pressure on women to conform to it. I was different in that I didn't, but the problem was still there for all women. And still is.