ABSTRACT
In her New York Times article, "Where Have all the Tomboys Gone?", Marissa Meltzer draws upon the perspectives of an array of editors, authors, parents, and sociologists to argue that the term tomboy is becoming obsolete and might even be considered retrograde. That said, as this article positions tomboyism as an identity category that competes with more contemporary ones–and, in particular, transgender identities–it not only creates a false dichotomy but also elides the complex history of the tomboy figure. Throughout literary history, the tomboy and queer and transgender identities have not been exclusive but rather implicitly overlapping and often mutually constitutive categories. By removing the tomboy from specific historical and cultural contexts, fantasy and dystopian literature create an ideal space for nonnormative gender expression and experimentation. Even as the twenty-first-century tomboy figure has become increasingly versatile, appearing across a variety of genres and traditions, queer childhood, more generally, continues to be associated with sentimentalism.
