Stop putting a label on our lively tomboys
I AGREE with Kitty Dimbleby — let tomboys be tomboys (Femail). I was a tomboy who hated pink, dresses and girls’ toys, preferring to spend my spare time playing cricket and football with the boys. I had my own hand-me-down football boots, cricket pads and bat, and loved wearing trousers. Back then, I’d have said I wished I had been born a boy. At the age of 13, hormones kicked in and I recognised I was female. I believe most children would not consider being transgender if the possibility had not been thrust at them by people with their own agenda. The vast majority would grow out of being a tomboy given time, with gender reassignment reserved for more mature people who really need it.
JiLL KirBY, Driffield, E. Yorks. MY SISTER and I were tomboys: we played football and marbles with the boys and climbed trees. As for wearing skirts and dresses, we hated them! This lasted until we went through puberty, when we discovered there were different reasons for being with boys. With a few exceptions, no one knows their true sexuality until they have gone through puberty. Let children be children until they are old enough to understand the implications of what they are being encouraged to do, instead of following the latest agenda.
Mrs B. V. BrOOK, Derby. LET children explore, wear what they want and be who they want to be without judgmental remarks from narrow-minded people. If a boy wants to wear pink and play with dolls, let him. It can only help him be a caring parent in the future. A female friend who is an engineer endures sneering remarks about her sexuality when she travels on the Tube because she wears a hi-viz jacket and carries protective glasses and a hard hat. Another friend who grew up on a Yorkshire farm, herding sheep on a trial bike, had to give up her motorbike courier job in London. She was fed up of being spat at in the street because she was wearing leathers and could handle a high-powered motorbike better than most blokes. I blame online porn for the stereotyping of women as submissive and oppressed. Clothes and toys for girls are pink, soft, feminised and sometimes suggestive. The demand for boob jobs and trout-pout lips has surged among young women, who are expected to look like Barbie or a Kardashian clone for leering male eyes. Strong women, whatever their sexuality, are seen as a threat to insecure, weak men and prejudiced females. I hope the next generation are allowed to be decent human beings without being forced into narrow roles and dress codes.
aLEX HEnDErSOn, address supplied.