“You Play Like a Man!”

I don’t remember when I first became conscious of being a “Tom girl”. When I reflect up on the expression, it strikes me as such a ubiquitous part of the lexicon of my childhood; it was understood that I didn’t quite fit in with the other girls, that there was something I was that made them a little uncomfortable. While another girl would scream at the sight of a spider, I would be fascinated, could spend ages watching it build it’s web, marveling at it’s industry. The same went with all insects, snakes and ground crawlers in general…except rats and dead birds; I still can’t handle living rats and dead birds. When it came to throwing a ball, I was told I didn’t throw “like …

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