Tomboy
TOMBOY:
THE SURPRISING HISTORY AND FUTURE OF
GIRLS WHO DARE TO BE DIFFERENT
Lisa Selin Davis
Hachette, August 12, 2020, $28
ISBN 10: 0316458317; ISBN 13: 978-0316458313
ASIN: B07XDL5WMX
Davis reports:
When my daughter was three, and kids were increasingly segregating by sex in how and with whom and what they played, she stayed in the middle: friends with boys and girls, playing with “boys’” and “girls’” toys, preferring short hair and sweatpants to princess looks.
Eventually someone told her she was a tomboy, leading me to wonder 1) where the popular tomboy of my own youth had disappeared to, and 2) why adults would assume that a child who expresses stereotypical male preferences would want to identify as a boy. I decided to write about the history, science, psychology and future of tomboys.
Lisa Selin Davis, photo by Marc Goldberg
I investigated how we divided children’s material and psychic worlds into pink and blue, the nefarious forces behind that divide, and whom it served, or didn’t. I asked what motivated kids who straddled or crossed that line, and who they grew up to be. I discovered that in the last 50 years we have hyper-gendered childhood as never before, leading to a narrower range of normal and a limited understanding of what in gender is biological versus constructed, fueling culture wars.
I also discovered the research that says kids we now describe as “gender nonconforming” are more likely to do well in school and in life. What some people see as a liability, or even a diagnosis, is an advantage. We should encourage all kids to straddle, cross, ignore, or get rid of the pink/blue divide.
After I wrote a New York Times op-ed about the lack of understanding of kids like mine, an agent reached out to me about turning it into a book. Because of cancel culture, I was hesitant to do so, but the more fraught the discussion of gender became, the more I felt it important to shed light on the complexity of gender, to complicate the conversation, and try to create more understanding.
My advice to writers is: don’t let cancel culture stop you from investigating something that’s important, no matter how unpopular. What I learned has changed my life forever.
Contact info:
- Lisa Selin Davis, lisa@lisaselindavis.com, http://www.lisaselindavis.com, @lisaselindavis
- Book: http://www.lisaselindavis.com/tomboy
- Agent: Eve Atterman, 212-586-5100, EAttermann@wmeagency.com
- Publicist: Sarah Falter; 212-364-0581, Sarah.Falter@hbgusa.com
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