Nothing new under the sun?

[oursin]

Vikings ripped off by fake swords:
Some Viking swords were among the best ever made, still fearsome weapons after a millennium. The legendary swords found at Viking sites across northern Europe bear the maker's name, Ulfberht, in raised letters at the hilt end. Puzzlingly, so do the worst ones, found in fragments on battle sites or in graves

Comments

[mrissa]

What an extremely restrictive definition of tomboy that author has! "Bona fide tomboys now (ie girls who want to pass as boys)" seems like it's far more limiting than is necessary or reasonable.

[monissaw]

It probably explains why the writer is having so many problems finding her modern tomboys.

Not all tomboys have/had gender identification issues, Ms Theobold. Some (most?) girls who play with toy cars, run around pretending to be pirates, climb trees and build mudcastles do so because they like doing these things, and are quite happy being girls. After all, girls can do all these things AND play with dolls & dress up, and boys can't, so nyah nyah.

I suspect many of today's little girls who play with toys cars etc are also those wearing pink and lugging around the latest designer fashion dolls*. There just doesn't seem to be same desire to point a finger at them and label them as something odd.

*I know at least 11 year old who preferes to wear pink and has a large collection of Bratz dolls who got a handful of pretty rocks and a display case to put them in for Christmas, because I gave them to her

[mrissa]

Well...some boys can't. Many boys can't.

When my godson was 3, he was fond of demanding that his mother "make me BOOFULL!" with various personal adornments (pretty beads, fringey shawls, etc.). This was not because he wanted to be a little girl. He wanted to be a beautiful little boy.

And he was.

I was given a great many dolls as a child, and until I was 9 years old and declared NO MORE PINK, I was often dressed in pink. Even after the no pink rule, I often chose skirts/dresses (still do). Also I spent a year being a pretend pirate captain in all my spare time, and one of my routine joys was beating all the boys in footraces. And it's astonishing what kinds of games you can play with dolls. They were great props in French Revolution, and in Political Refugees Fleeing An Oppressive Government.

[tree_and_leaf]

Bother, I am sorry to miss Lucy Mangan, as I didn't manage to pick up a Guardian today.

I know some tomboys, but then I know quite a lot of Cub Scouts.

[nineveh_uk]

But I never wanted to be a boy, just for the definition of being a girl to be slightly broader, which I think I shared with most of my contemporaries.
Agreed. When I called myself a tomboy, it was not because I wanted to be a boy, but as a conscious rejection of the definition of femininity offered by the girl next door. I wanted to join scouts because they had a scout hut and guides was dull and in the church hall. Famous Five George's desire to be a boy because they were better than girls always baffled me.