Tomboys and girly-girls: embodied femininities in primary schools

Abstract

This paper is about how nine to eleven year old children, particularly girls, coconstruct tomboy and girly-girl identities as oppositional positions. The paper sits within a theoretical framework in which I understand individual and collective masculinities and femininities as ways of 'doing man/woman' or 'doing boy/girl' that are constructed within local communities of masculinity and femininity practice. Empirical data come from a one-year study of tomboy identities within two London primary schools. The paper explores the contrasting identities of tomboy and girlygirl, how they are constructed by the children, and how this changes as they approach puberty. The findings suggest that the oppositional construction of these identities makes it harder for girls to take up more flexible femininities, though it is possible to switch between tomboy and girly-girl identities at different times and places.

Being ‘nice’ or being ‘normal’: girls resisting discourses of ‘coolness’

“…Relationships within the group were a source of constant tension and occasional extreme distress (Scott, 2002), for example when an individual was arbitrarily rejected by the others (Søndergaard, 2012;Warrington & Younger, 2011). In view of this ambivalence regarding their popularity, and in keeping with our previous work, we refer to the dominant girls in our study as the 'cool girls' (Paechter, 2010;Paechter & Clark, 2010).…”

“…Within the class, we identified three broad groups of girls, each focused around a different set of discourses associated both with their status positions in the class and their approaches to life and friendship. It included a highly dominant group of 'cool girls', about whom we have written elsewhere (Paechter & Clark, 2007, 2010. In this paper we will concentrate mainly on the rest of the girls in the class, comprising two main groups and a best-friend pair, plus a single girl, Mia, who aspired to join the 'cool girls' but was given the pariah status of 'wannabe', or 'stalker' by the other children (Goodwin, 2002) (Søndergaard, 2012).…”

“…This commitment to 'cool girl' discourses associated with competitive friendship relations was borne out in this group's self-description as 'mean girls', following the 2004 film of the same name. It was more or less taken for granted that to be part of the 'cool girls' group required participation in a constant struggle for positioning, both in relation to Kelly, the dominant member of this group, and to each other, in particular through demonstrable group solidarity in the periodic ousting of individual members (Paechter, 2010;Paechter & Clark, 2010). George (George, 2007) argues that girls within such groups are held in thrall to a central dominant girl by the ever-present risk of temporary or permanent exclusion, and their belief that to lose one's place in this supposed elite would consign one to social oblivion, and this was borne out in our research.…”

Dinamika Maskulinitas Dan Femininitas Dalam Novel Seperti Dendam, Rindu Harus Dibayar Tuntas Karya Eka Kurniawan

“…Atributatribut tersebut dalam normativitas merepresentasikan kemaskulinan laki-laki. Paechter (2010) (Kurniawan, 2014: 83) Dalam menggambarkan tokoh perempuannya narasi ini seringkali tidak menggunakan kata "perempuan" melainkan lebih sering menggunakan kata "gadis" seperti yang tertera dalam kutipan di atas dan beberapan kutipan lainnya. Hal tersebut saya asumsikan sebagai upaya narator untuk menjadikan tokoh perempuan sebagai subjek, karena kata "perempuan" menurut Prabasmoro (2006: 28) Kakinya masih terasa goyah, tapi gadis itu telah mengirimkannya satu pukulan lagi.…”

“…(Kurniawan, 2014: 168) Berkelahi selalu diasosiasikan dengan kegiatan laki-laki. Paechter (2010) mengungkapkan jika seorang perempuan memilih atau tertarik dengan aktivitas yang biasa dilakukan oleh anak laki-laki, maka perempuan tersebut termasuk dalam kategori tomboy. Dalam kutipan di atas keinginan tokoh Iteung untuk belajar berkelahi menunjukkan ketertarikan Iteung akan aktivitas laki-laki, maka dari itu Iteung adalah perempuan yang tomboy.…”