Editing Tomboy (section)

===Gender roles===
[[File:Skater Girl - Park Spoor Noord (2967515870).jpg|thumb|Girl riding a [[skateboard]]]]
The idea that there are girl activities and clothing, and that there are boy activities and clothing, is often reinforced by the tomboy concept. Tomboyism can be seen as both refusing [[gender role]]s and traditional gender conventions, but also conforming to gender stereotypes.<ref name="Halberstam">{{cite book |last=Halberstam |first=Judith |url=https://archive.org/details/femalemasculinit00judi |title=Female Masculinity |publisher=Duke University Press |year=1998 |isbn=0822322439 |pages=[https://archive.org/details/femalemasculinit00judi/page/193 193]–196 |quote=Hollywood film offers us a vision of the adult tomboy as the predatory butch dyke: in this particular category, we find some of the best and worst of Hollywood stereotyping. |access-date=2019-12-18 |url-access=registration |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180429121018/https://archive.org/details/femalemasculinit00judi |archive-date=2018-04-29 |url-status=live}}</ref> The concept may be considered outdated or looked at from a positive viewpoint.<ref name="Halberstam-1988">{{Cite book|last=Halberstam|first=Judith|date=1988|title=Female Masculinity|doi=10.1215/9780822378112|isbn=978-0-8223-2226-9|url-access=registration|url=https://archive.org/details/femalemasculinit00judi|access-date=2019-12-18|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180429121018/https://archive.org/details/femalemasculinit00judi|archive-date=2018-04-29|url-status=live}}</ref> [[Feminine]] traits are often devalued and unwanted, and tomboys often respond to this viewpoint. This can be due in part to an environment that desires and only values [[masculinity]], depending on the decade and geographical region. Idealized masculinity is atop the hegemony and sets the traditional standard, and is often upheld and spread by young children playing with one another. Tomboys may view femininity as having been pushed on them, which results in negative feelings toward femininity and those who embrace it.<ref name="Jennings">{{Cite book|last=Jennings |first=Nancy |chapter=One Choice, Many Petals: Reading the Female Voice of Tris in the Divergent Series |edition=1st |year=2016 |chapter-url=https://www.taylorfrancis.com/chapters/edit/10.4324/9781315691633-11/one-choice-many-petals-nancy-jennings |title=Gender(ed) Identities |doi=10.4324/9781315691633-11 |isbn=9781315691633 |access-date=2022-12-03}}</ref> In this case, masculinity may be seen as a defense mechanism against the harsh push toward femininity, and a reclaiming of agency that is often lost due to [[sexist]] ideas of what girls are and are not able to do.<ref>{{Cite journal|last=Harris|first=Adrienne|date=2000-07-15|title=Gender as a Sort Assembly Tomboys' Stories|journal=Studies in Gender and Sexuality|volume=1|issue=3|pages=223–250|doi=10.1080/15240650109349157|s2cid=144985570|issn=1524-0657}}</ref>

In western culture, tomboys are expected to one day cease their masculine behavior, usually during or right before puberty, return to feminine behavior, and are expected to embrace [[heteronormativity]]. Tomboys who do not do such are occasionally stigmatized, usually due to [[homophobia]]. Barbara Creed argues that the tomboy's "image undermines patriarchal gender boundaries that separate the sexes", and thus is a "threatening figure".<ref name="Creed-2017">{{Citation|last=Creed|first=Barbara|chapter=Lesbian Bodies: Tribades, Tomboys and Tarst|date=2017-09-25|pages=111–124|publisher=Routledge|isbn=978-1-315-09410-6|doi=10.4324/9781315094106-13|title=Feminist Theory and the Body}}</ref> This "threat" affects and challenges the idea of what a family must look like, generally nuclear independent heterosexual couplings with two children.<ref name="Proehl">{{Cite thesis |year=2011 |title=Battling girlhood: sympathy, race and the tomboy narrative in American literature |last=Proehl |first=Kristen Beth |oclc=724578046 |doi=10.21220/s2-3741-jk05 }}</ref>

Gender scholar [[Jack Halberstam]]<!-- NOTE: Both names are included because although the author prefers to be called Jack, the author is better known as "Judith", especially with regard to women's topics, and allows the use of both names.-->  argues that while the defying of gender roles is often tolerated in young girls, [[adolescence|adolescent]] girls who show masculine traits are often repressed or punished.<ref name="Halberstam" /> However, the ubiquity of traditionally female clothing such as skirts and dresses has declined in the [[Western world]] since the 1960s, where it is generally no longer considered a male trait for girls and women not to wear such clothing. An increase in the popularity of women's sporting events (see [[Title IX]]) and other activities that were traditionally male-dominated has broadened tolerance and lessened the impact of "tomboy" as a [[pejorative]] term.<ref name="Bailey" /> Sociologist [[Barrie Thorne]] suggested that some adult women take pride in describing their childhood selves as tomboys, "as if to suggest: I was (and am) independent and active; I held (and hold) my own with boys and men and have earned their respect and friendship; I resisted (and continue to resist) gender stereotypes".<ref>{{Cite book|title=Gender play: boys and girls in school|last=Thorne|first=Barrie|publisher=Rutgers University Press|year=1993|isbn=0-8135-1923-3|page=[https://archive.org/details/genderplaygirlsb00thor/page/114 114]|url=https://archive.org/details/genderplaygirlsb00thor/page/114}}</ref>

In the Philippines, tomboys are masculine-presenting women who have relations with other women, with the other women tending to be more feminine, although not exclusively, or [[transmasculine]] people who have relationships with women; the former appears more common than the latter.<ref name="Fajardo-2008">{{Cite journal |last=Fajardo |first=K. B. |date=2008-01-01 |title=TRANSPORTATION: Translating Filipino and Filipino American Tomboy Masculinities through Global Migration and Seafaring |journal=GLQ: A Journal of Lesbian and Gay Studies |volume=14 |issue=2–3 |pages=403–424 |doi=10.1215/10642684-2007-039 |issn=1064-2684 |s2cid=142268960}}</ref> Women who engage in romantic relationships with other women, but who are not masculine, are often still deemed heterosexual. This leads to more invisibility for those that are lesbian and feminine.<ref>{{Cite journal |last1=Nadal |first1=Kevin L. |last2=Corpus |first2=Melissa J. H. |date=September 2013 |title="Tomboys" and "baklas": Experiences of lesbian and gay Filipino Americans. |journal=Asian American Journal of Psychology |volume=4 |issue=3 |pages=166–175 |doi=10.1037/a0030168 |issn=1948-1993}}</ref> Scholar Kale Bantigue Fajardo argues for the similarity between "tomboy" in the Philippines and "[[Homosexuality in Indonesia#LGBT in Indonesia|tombois in Indonesia]]", and "[[Gender identities in Thailand#Tom identity|toms in Thailand]]" all as various forms of female masculinity.<ref name="Fajardo-2008" /> In China, tomboys are called "假小子" ([[Pinyin]]: jiáxiǎozi), which literally translates as "pseudo-boy". This term is largely used as a derogatory term to describe those girls with masculine characteristics.<ref name="www.yingyushijie.com">{{Cite web |title="女汉子"与"假小子"-商务印书馆英语世界 |url=http://www.yingyushijie.com/information/detail/id/2616.html |access-date=2022-12-03 |website=www.yingyushijie.com}}</ref> Most of the times calling someone a "假小子" is a humiliation which implies that the individual could not find a boyfriend.<ref name="www.yingyushijie.com" /> This largely reduces the value of women to only romance and diminishes girls' confidence in working in what is traditionally defined as the "boy's realm.<ref name="www.yingyushijie.com" />"