TOMBOY :: Lisa Selin Davis

A version of this review previously appeared in Shelf Awareness and is republished here with permission.

"It started with a tie and a button-down shirt. When my daughter was three, she asked for that ensemble for Christmas." When journalist Lisa Selin Davis's daughter announced she was a tomboy, it caught her by surprise, though Davis grew up with tomboys as heroines on favorite TV shows (Laura Ingalls on Little House on the Prairie, Jo Polniaczek on The Facts of Life) and in beloved literature (Jo March in Little Women, Scout Finch in To Kill a Mockingbird). Ubiquitous when Davis was growing up, tomboys were uncommon in her daughter's 2015 crowd.

After recurring instances of people questioning her daughter's gender identity, Davis wrote a "hotly contested" op-ed for the New York Times pondering her daughter's experiences. Partly in response to the criticism, she began to study gender and tomboys. In Tomboy, Davis reports on numerous aspects of gender while acknowledging it's "one of the hardest subjects to talk about." She addresses the judgments embedded in the word "tomboy" that provide only cisgender girls the privilege of "blurring the boundaries," and how overly restrictive categories (the pink/blue divide) have tremendous social and psychological implications.

Davis (Belly) traces the origin of the word tomboy, as well as movements of the pink/blue line in history and the impact of commercialism, homo- and transphobias, the media, racism and privilege. Who gets to draw the line? The single unequivocal truth about gender Davis uncovered is "it's complicated," but the more we know, the sooner we can undo stereotypes.

STREET SENSE:  This book was fascinating, especially for a tomboy who grew up around the time Selin Davis did. I had no clue of the changes in the term or the ability to "be" a tomboy and this was a great eye-opener. Anyone interested in gender issues should pick this one up. And that should be everyone.

COVER NERD SAYS:  Perfection.