My type of girl.

Not mine but good to know..
Edit: wait, define tomboy. like those who look like cute guys or like Akane in Ranma ??

last edited at Aug 27, 2015 9:53PM

For tagging purposes, she needs to do both:

This tag is meant for characters that display both physical and personality characteristics associated with boys. If a character possesses only one of these traits, the tag should not be used.

For the term itself... I found some sources stating that she acts like a boy (no mention to looks) and some sources stating that she both acts and looks like a boy. Acts seems to be more prevalent.

last edited at Aug 27, 2015 10:18PM

For tagging purposes, she needs to do both:

This tag is meant for characters that display both physical and personality characteristics associated with boys. If a character possesses only one of these traits, the tag should not be used.

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For the term itself... I found some sources stating that she acts like a boy (no mention to looks) and some sources stating that she both acts and looks like a boy. Acts seems to be more prevalent.

Hmmm...and how do boys behave? I believe it's different in Asia than it is here? cos girls are usually super girly there,so like,even being normal casual here would be tomboyish there?

I wonder where would I fit on that... -ponders-

Hmmm...and how do boys behave?

According to OED:

tomboy (n): A girl who enjoys rough, noisy activities traditionally associated with boys.

Hmmm...and how do boys behave?

According to OED:

tomboy (n): A girl who enjoys rough, noisy activities traditionally associated with boys.

What!? I love boyish looking girls but I really hate girls acting like a boy. They suck.

Hmmm...and how do boys behave? I believe it's different in Asia than it is here? cos girls are usually super girly there,so like,even being normal casual here would be tomboyish there?

The cliche is pretty easy. Short to medium length hair. Dresses very casually boyish. Plays sports or something similar.

There are many different ones, obviously. But if you're just looking for a random example, Kase-san is a tomboy by our standards, and there are many yuri girls similar to her.

What!? I love boyish looking girls but I really hate girls acting like a boy. They suck.

That's your own opinion but please don't use hurtful words such as "suck"

If both traits are needed, are there tags for just one, then?

my typa woman :drools:

i never saw a tomboy though they are so rare, aw man :(

There's always short haired tomboys, where's our longer haired tomboys at!

honestly people can't tell me apart,most of the time they think I'm a guy because I have short hair and wear "boyish" clothes

^Same, if I wear a hoodie that hides my shoulder length hair, I almost always get mistaken for a dude cuz my masculine lookin face and of course the clothes as well.

l love tomboys so much

I wish this tag could get expanded to meaning just a masculine appearance as well, because otherwise it doesn't get tagged on this site and I have no way of finding something I really want to read. Or there could be just a masculine woman tag, I guess.

axelmania posted:

I wish this tag could get expanded to meaning just a masculine appearance as well, because otherwise it doesn't get tagged on this site and I have no way of finding something I really want to read. Or there could be just a masculine woman tag, I guess.

At some point in the near future, I would expect to see some separation of the Tomboy tag into some variety of other tags so hopefully you'll be able to more easily find what you're after when the time comes. Completely open to suggestions or ideas on what split makes sense.

last edited at Jan 11, 2022 2:27PM

Maybe we can just create a Butch tag? Which kind of content did you think about contemplating with the split, OP?

none posted:

Maybe we can just create a Butch tag? Which kind of content did you think about contemplating with the split, OP?

One of the more requested tags is Short hair. I suppose the most obvious split would be one tag for "masculine looks" and one tag for "masculine activities." There may be a third track as well that I'm not seeing so clearly.

I'm not a fan of a Short Hair tag particularly (I feel like it'd make more sense as a image tag, instead of one that focus on the story), but it's an understandable addition if it's so requested. I think a good way of doing the specific split you mentioned would be to keep Tomboy for 'masculine activities' and create a new tag contemplating the characters' looks. Because 'masculine looks' feels incredibly bland to me, I'd normally suggest Handsome Lady or something similar, but I'm afraid that's not quite the right thing. I think an option could be to just call it Butch, but clarifying in the tag description its specific use on the reader.

I like butch, or you could use boyish, which is the equivalent used in Japanese.

Unfortunately this is all pretty subjective, though. The titular character in Uzaki-chan Wants to Hang Out has short hair, and certainly isn't butch. Whereas in stories like The Real Momoka, Momoka's masculinity is an explicit part of her identity. I don't know that a lot of cases in yuri fit either extreme due to many art styles depicting all women similarly and lesbian identity only occasionally coming up. Not to mention that though they are few, there are masculine women with long hair. Short hair as a tag would probably capture most of them, though.

You're not wrong, but I think using Short hair would run into the same problem with Handsome lady: not all ladies with short hair would fit "masculine looking" and not all "masculine looking" ladies would necessarily qualify as handsome (although manga characters tend to look as idealized as they come). I'm also not sure all people who ask for Short hair are looking specifically for butch characters.
Funnily enough, we do have a tag that can get us more butch (x butch) characters: Not yaoi.

Lmao, yeah, I found that out and read everything in Not yaoi a while ago. If anyone reading this is looking for more butchxbutch, the Boyish^2 anthology should start selling its online version later this month.

I guess we could go with general Tomboy for both looks and personality while Butch could only apply to personality? Sounds like best compromise. We could add Handsome lady or maybe just Handsome on top of that separately, while we're at it. And then Short hair could be simply for short hair.

last edited at Jan 11, 2022 7:29PM

Chiming in with others above, while "short hair" is a central identifying trait, I think the matter cuts too many different ways to break it down very effectively into multiple meaningful categories.

For one thing, I'd guess the mass of potential examples would be high-school girls, where "butch" would be more of an adult identity and sexual role.

In high school, you've got:

• the "ace" high-school athlete

• the "prince" figure, who sometimes embraces that role or sometimes has been forced into it just because of their looks and physique

• the sporty gamine girls (closest to the classic "tomboy," I guess) who are often associated with specifically childhood masculine behavior (the ones who aren't afraid of bugs and who are always getting dirty, etc.).

For adults:

• the androgynous beauty ("bifauxnen" a la TV Tropes)

• The several varieties of butch lesbian

This doesn't even take into account the "frosty gorgeous short-haired CEO" types, etc.

(I'm not saying these should all be classified as "tomboys," by any means, but once you get past "short hair, boyish looks and/or interests, probably sporty," it gets . . . complicated.)

@Nevri: ""Butch" leads to "soft butch." Do you want tagging wars? Because that's how you get tagging wars. LOL

last edited at Jan 11, 2022 7:40PM