ABSTRACT
With these memorable words, Jo March, one of the four Little Women in the eponymous novel with which Louisa M. Alcott established her reputation as a writer, sets the tone for a series of novels and stories that centrally revolve around the figure of the ‘tomboy’. The term tomboy refers to a boyish girl who would rather wear trousers than skirts, who is more interested in climbing trees and building huts than in embroidery or dolls, and who generally prefers the company of boys to that of girls. In the
nineteenth century, such a boyish girl still largely evoked innocent connotations. Indeed, it is precisely because of her unruly behaviour that the rebellious figure of Jo March has become a treasured role model for generations of young female readers, both inside and outside the United States. The main source of Jo’s attraction is her resistance to the constraints imposed on members of her sex by prevailing gender conventions. She has big feet and large hands, dresses sloppily, and loves to use slang. Rather than sitting at home drinking tea with her sisters, she wants to go out into the world and become a soldier. Few readers of what would become the ‘most popular girls’ story in American literature’ (Mott, 1947: 102), focused their affections on any of the other ‘little women’ in Alcott’s all time bestseller: ‘Most readers who love Little Women, love Jo March’ (Stimpson, 1990: 967).
