Wednesday, August 19, 7 pm ET on Zoom
When Lisa Selin Davis’s six-year-old daughter first called herself a “tomboy,” Davis was hesitant. Her child favored sweatpants and T-shirts over anything pink or princess-themed, just like the sporty, skinned-kneed girls Davis had played with as a kid. But “tomboy” seemed like an outdated word–why use a word with “boy” in it for such girls at all? So, was it outdated? In an era where some are throwing elaborate gender reveal parties and others are embracing they/them pronouns, Davis set out to answer that question and to find out where tomboys fit into our changing understandings of gender.
Davis’s new book, Tomboy: The Surprising History and Future of Girls Who Dare to Be Different, published August 13 by Hachette Books, explores the evolution of tomboyism from a Victorian ideal to a 21st-century fashion statement, honoring the girls and women–and those who identify otherwise–who stomp all over archaic gender norms. This winter, Davis’s New York Times op-ed “Bring Back the Tomboys,” part of the research that the book was based on, went viral.
On Wednesday, August 19, Science Writers in New York invites you to join us on Zoom for a conversation with SWINY co-chair David Levine and Davis about her new book.
Lisa Selin Davis is an essayist, novelist, and journalist who has written for major publications such as the New York Times, Wall Street Journal, Guardian, Time, Yahoo, and Salon, among many others. Her articles often open the door to both debate and celebration, including an article she wrote for the New York Times, “Like Tomboys and Hate Girlie Girls? That’s Sexist,” that went viral and sparked almost 400 comments. In 2017, her Guardian article “For Years I Thought She Was Stealing My Identity Until I Found Her” sparked 551 comments and record-breaking shares for the paper.
When:
Wednesday, August 19
7 to 8 pm ET
