I was recently watching a TV program about transgender stress and I could so much relate with the people being interviewed. Though I am not a transgender, it reminded me of way back in college as I tried to battle with being a tom boy.
In college, I was seen as a tomboy and no boy in their right mind would date me. Not unless they just wanted us to be platonic friends. Looking back at the things that I had to do then to seem girly and feminine, I feel that I was young and peer pressure was on me. Maybe, I should just have allowed myself to be the tom boy that I was and stop pressurizing myself to be different because every time I had to wear a short skimpy skirt to please a boy, I felt naked. I felt as though I was betraying myself.
Tomboys are like so because of high testosterone
Research shows that tomboys do not just crop up, they are born that way. They are different from other girls because they were born with lots of testosterone hormone in their system. And as such, they tend to do more aggressive things. They want to be seen as muscular and anything too feminine is not their thing. Though their testosterone levels do not match the boys, they are way past the normal girl in the levels of the hormone.
Tomboys will not become lesbians
One thing that I really had to battle with was being seen as though I would fall in love with girls. You see I am in a country where gay rights still a non-issue as our president once said but needless to say, I was not at all attracted to girls. I fell in love with boys and I still do. I am heterosexual. In college though, girls thought that I would one day make out with one of them and so they treated me like a weirdo.
Being pressured to have girly Clothing
I really struggled with my dress code. I fancied wearing baggy jeans and long t-shirts which was so much unlike my fellow girls. And so I was treated with suspicion. I remember this one girl who once bought me a laptop backpack for women because she thought that what I had been carrying around was so manly and I had to change. There was also this roommate who felt that I had to wear skirts whenever her boyfriends visited the room because I would embarrass her with my poor clothing choices.
Unisex Hair styles
I never liked plaiting my hair and this was not welcomed at all by my peers because they felt that something was amiss with me. I liked going unisex with my hair styles and I would therefore keep it Mohawk all the way from freshman to senior class. Of course this did not augur well with my teachers and parents who thought that I should have my hair plaited just like any other girl in class.