Good article by Melanie McDonagh in the Telegraph: It’s madness to tell tomboys they’re living in the wrong body

[RoyalCorgi]

www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2020/09/28/madness-tell-tomboys-living-wrong-body/

So far there have been more than 250 comments, overwhelmingly in support.

Can you share any details? It's asking me to start a free trial and I don't want to register but would like to read the article.

I was, and am, a heterosexual tomboy and I completely agree. I dread to think what would have happened to me as a teenager if I was 15 now.

CoolYourBeans - I think we're not allowed to copy and paste whole articles, but the gist is that McDonagh's daughter was very tomboyish, liked playing with boys, didn't like wearing dresses, but she's definitely not a boy:

"She’s at a girl’s school, has a crush on Timothee Chalamet and gets on well with her own sex. She still doesn’t do fluffy pencil cases and would rather be dead than pink but she’s found that there are others out there just like her.

"She was, and is, a tomboy. It’s just as well, really, that we didn’t bring her to the Tavistock clinic before puberty set in so she could think about what gender she should be identifying with. And thank God, the Government seems to be taking the same position."

I hope a tipping point has been reached and that there are a flood of sensible articles now.

Why do we put any labels on our children. Do we do this for our adult friends. I was thinking how I would describe my best friend, I might say "She is lots of fun, kind, would do anything for anyone, we run a lot together .." etc. But I would not label her with her identity, race or sexuality? Saying to a child from an early age that they aren't a 'normal' girl, just calling them a tom-boy (which is saying 'normal' girls only like sitting still and wearing pink and playing with dolls) still is not healthy

I agree it's better not to call girls tomboys. But I'd prefer them to be told they are tomboys than that they are actual boys trapped inside a girl's body.

Tomboy isn’t an identity though. It’s just a word somebody uses to describe someone else- like saying they are clever, ugly, feminine or whatever.

It’s a label based on gender but it isn’t an identity. Identities lead to a lot more suffering.