Tomboys

Starting with the figure of a bold, boisterous girl in the mid-nineteenth century and ending with the "girl power" movement of the 1990s,Tomboysis the first full-length critical study of this gender-bending code of female conduct. Michelle Abate uncovers the origins, charts the trajectory, and traces the literary and cultural transformations that the concept of "tomboy" has undergone in the United States. Abate focuses on literature including Louisa May Alcott'sLittle Womenand Carson McCullers'sThe Member of the Weddingand films such as Peter Bogdanovich'sPaper Moon. She also draws on lesser-known texts like E.D.E.N. Southworth's once wildly popular 1859 novelThe Hidden Hand, Cold War lesbian pulp fiction, and New Queer Cinema from the 1990s. Tomboysalso explores the gender and sexual dynamics of tomboyism, and offers intriguing discussions of race and ethnicity's role in the construction of the enduring cultural archetype. Abate's insightful analysis provides useful, thought-provoking connections between different literary works and eras. The result demystifies this cultural phenomenon and challenges readers to consider tomboys in a whole new light.

Michelle Ann Abate is an Assistant Professor of English at Hollins University.