Date: Wed, 15 Nov 1995 08:32:18 -0500

From: Wayne Glowka wglowka[AT SYMBOL GOES HERE]MAIL.GAC.PEACHNET.EDU

Subject: Tomboy & Sissy



When I was a pre-pubescent child, both other children and parents with whom

I conversed used the term "tomboy" to refer to a girl who preferred

activities associated traditionally with boys and "sissy" to a boy who

preferred activities traditionally associated with girls or who showed any

weakness. But these terms had no connotation of sexual preference. (For

example, a tomboy, who treed all of the boys at my birthday party by

throwing a football at them, onced pinned me down in the second grade and

kissed me as the nun walked in. I got the lecture about inappropriate

behavior!) We learned new taboo terms for homosexuals in our pubescent

days.



However, I know someone who works in the Georgia prison system who

regularly uses "tomboy" and "sissy" to refer to the female and male

homosexuals in prison. He became a teenager in the South in the 1950s. Is

he using a personal set of euphemisms or did I miss something as a naive

child?





Wayne Glowka

Professor of English

Director of Research and Graduate Student Services

Georgia College

Milledgeville, GA 31061

912-453-4222

wglowka[AT SYMBOL GOES HERE]mail.gac.peachnet.edu