Table of Contents

Acknowledgements 
Introduction: From Antebellum Hoyden to Millennial Girl Power; The Unwritten History (and Hidden History) of Tomboyism in the United States 
1. The White Tomboy Launches a Gender Backlash: E.D.E.N. Southworth's The Hidden Hand 
2. The Tomboy Becomes a Cultural Phenomenon: Louisa May Alcott's Little Women 
3. The Tomboy Matures Into the New Woman: Sarah Orne Jewett's A Country Doctor 
4. The Tomboy is Reinvented an the Exercise Enthusiast: Charlotte Perkins Gilman's Herland 
5. The Tomboy Becomes the All-Americanizing Girl: Willa Cather's O Pioneers! and My Antonia 
6. The Tomboy Shifts From Feminist to Flapper: Clara Bow in Victor Fleming's Hula 
7. The Tomboy Turns Freakishly Queer and Queerly Freakish: Carson McCullers's The Member of the Wedding 
8. The Tomboy Becomes the "Odd Girl Out": Ann Bannon's Women in the Shadows 
9. The Tomboy Returns to Hollywood: Tatum O'Neal in Peter Bogdanovich's Paper Moon 
Selected Bibliography 
Works Cited 
Index 
Photographs follow page 144

Promotional Information

First full-length critical study of tomboyism, uncovering the origins of this code of conduct, charting its trajectory and tracing its literary and cultural transformations

About the Author

Michelle Ann Abate is an Assistant Professor of English at Hollins University.

Reviews

"An ambitious and exciting book that examines representations of what could be considered tomboys, in U.S. fiction and film, since 1859. The scope is impressive: Abate has done a great deal of archival research to unearth the titles she examines and cites many relevant theoretical and critical texts." Beverly Lyon Clark, Wheaton College "The author provides a detailed look at the dynamic trajectory of the tomboy 'code of conduct' in popular literature, pulp fiction, and Hollywood film...Abate suggests that the dynamic evolution of the tomboy represents wider social and cultural debates within the US."- CHOICE, May 2009