Growing Up Acting Like A Tomboy Essay

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Growing up acting like a tomboy was all I could do to normalize myself amongst boys. I noticed at an early age that I wasn 't respected when I acted like a girl, so I thought if I acted like a boy I might fit in better and make more friends regardless of gender. So I threw out my dresses and My Little Ponies and took in Thomas the Tank Engine and hats that hid my long hair. Unfortunately, all that rebuking my femininity got me was less guy and girl friends. All my kindergarten self had was one Matthew Phillips. Matthew Phillips didn’t whether I talked about Rescue Heroes or Polly Pockets. He was my first friend. As kindergarten went on, our moms of course noticed our growing friendship and had begun to start insinuating a romance between …show more content…

I had loudly proclaimed my attraction to women and downplayed my attraction to men and suddenly I had reached the point of friendship which my initial tomboy approach had wished for. I was ‘one of the guys’ but I was pretending. I came into my own by my senior year. I was feminine without fear and felt confidant enough in my friendships to begin to act more like myself. I found myself wanting a boyfriend and acted accordingly: I woke up early to do my makeup perfectly every day and talked in a higher pitched voice. Suddenly, my friendships became potential again. Investments were made, bets were placed. Who would she end up with? Who could win her? I found myself uncomfortably mirroring the girl who I had tried to win over years ago. All niceties were debts due and I had no say in the matter that wouldn’t lead to bitterness or disappointment. My reversed role served an irony that was sickly sweet. Once again I was stuck. Attraction, which should have been expanding my horizons, was limiting me. So why can’t women and men and women and women and men and men be friends? Gender has nothing to do with it. Until we can act without expectation, all we have to offer is not friendship or a relationship, but

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