Includes bibliographical references and index.

"Is the tomboy--Scout Finch, Pippi Longstocking, Harriet The Spy, Juno--an endangered species? Based on a provocative op-ed that journalist Lisa Selin Davis wrote for the New York Times, TOMBOY provides a comprehensive look, and celebration, of tomboys--girls who defy expectations based on their gender. Davis traces the trajectory of tomboys from a Victorian ideal to a twenty-first-century fashion statement, from an American childhood phase to a vibrant sexuality and gender identity. It's a thought-provoking investigation of the evolution of girls who resist the feminine expectations hoisted upon them by society, and a revealing look at how internalized sexism and outdated marketing have narrowed our ideas of what's normal based on gender and sex. Davis illuminates the debates about what is masculine and feminine, boy and girl, cis and trans, and tomboy. She includes interviews with everyone from designers to Shakespearean scholars, to nonconforming tomboys of all sorts from ages 8-80, and peppers her prose with the latest findings from psychologists and scientists who study the biological bases for gender-bending behavior. In TOMBOY, Davis celebrates the strength of girls who resisted the pressure of gender norms. Women who learned not to care about others' approval, and summoned their own courage to love as their true selves, despite the intense pressure to look and behave like everyone else. Davis reinvents the word and in TOMBOY, she tackles an intellectual and emotional makeover of what you think of gender. Ultimately, Davis learns that gender nonconformity can be--and often is--a true gift"--