History Main / TomboyAngst

* ''Manga/HimeChanNoRibon'': The titular character Himeko is a funny, energetic girl with BoyishShortHair who is seen by everyone as the biggest tomboy in the school. She has an insecurity that she is not feminine enough and actually wants to be like her sister Aiko, a soft-spoken, domesticated girl who is considered very beautiful. Himeko sees Aiko as a role model and the ''ideal woman''.

[[folder:Film - Live-Action]]

* ''Film/PiratesOfTheCaribbeanTheCurseOfTheBlackPearl'' - Elizabeth downplays this, as she has no problem wearing dresses. But her fascination with pirates and adventure stories shocks a few people, and she struggles with being a ProperLady befitting her station. She finds more comfort in becoming an ActionGirl.
* Inverted in ''Film/ReapTheWildWind'', where Loxie is a TomboyWithAGirlyStreak who's perfectly capable of [[SheCleansUpNicely wearing a pretty dress to parties]] - but her RefugeInAudacity behavior (including trolling a group of shocked society ladies by performing a sea shanty at a luncheon) gives her maid several headaches.

* ''Series/LizzieMcGuire'': In one episode Lizzie worries that being good at football will stop the other boys from thinking she's not feminine enough to date. The BrawnHilda of a coach teaches her AnAesop about this - while also revealing she sews her own dresses and goes line dancing on the weekends.
* ''Series/SavedByTheBell'' - tomboy Tori (introduced as a leather wearing biker) angsts over what to wear to a dance. Although SheCleansUpNicely, she struggles in heels.
* ''Series/TotalDivas'' shows {{Wrestling/Paige}} angsting over what to wear for the Hall of Fame ceremony - not wanting to tan or wear more make-up than usual. She finds a happy compromise, wearing a dress in black and still having Doc Martin boots on.

-> '''Miwa:''' Why do you have to be so ''perfect?''\\

--> In reality though, the gender of the #1 Level 5 esper was hardly male despite what their appearance might indicate.
--> The constant confusion that people made about her gender pissed her off however she felt as though she would drop dead from embarrassment if someone saw her, regardless of whether they were a stranger or not in a dress or something girly. She wore those types of clothes from time to time however only on days where she did not expect to go out into the City.
* In ''Fanfic/DespairsLastResort'', Ayame Ishikawa, the only girl on her otherwise male football(as in soccer) team suffered from this. Hikaru's willingness to befriend her without judging her for that helped the two become friends, [[spoiler:until he tried to kill her to keep his cheating on his girlfriends secret, and she accidentally killed him in response]].
-->"Do you know how hard it is to be the only girl on a football team?! Because it sucks ass! All my teammates would ask me why I didn't act more like a girl! They'd ask why I didn't try to be more feminine! I'd be told shit like I'll never find a boyfriend if I keep acting like this! Sure, my teammates never doubted my skills as a player, but when they always asked me why I couldn't act like a girl in the slightest it pissed me off!"
* ''Fanfic/InfinityTrainBlossomingTrail'': Chloe Cerise is a GirlyGirlWithATomboyStreak but all her classmates care about is her relationship to her father, not the fact that she actually has other talents. She mentioned one time that she was ostracized by both groups when they "decided" to make clubs: the girls found her too rough, the boys found her too girly. This adds more to the ostracization she faces in a world where almost everyone loves Pokémon.

[[folder:Film]]

--> "He remembers me as that girl who puked at the Dodger game."

--> "It's hopeless. Making a lady out of ''you'' is just hopeless."

* Arya of ''Literature/ASongOfIceAndFire'' dislikes girly things because she's insecure about not being good at them, and wishes they weren't forced on her. [[Series/GameOfThrones The TV series]] changes it so that she [[RealWomenDontWearDresses just hates girliness]].

* ''Series/BuffyTheVampireSlayer'': In Season 1 Willow gets annoyed with Xander seeing her as "like one of the guys" even though she's more nerdy than tomboyish.

* ''Series/ThirdRockFromTheSun'': One episode introduces Janice, a tough, super-strong cop. Sally, another tough {{ladette}}, challenges her to an arm-wrestling match but Janice easily beats her. When Sally confronts her again, Janice starts crying and tells Sally that she is "soft inside", and hates being seen just as a "tough warrior" and not as a woman. Probably TruthInTelevision, since she was played by Wrestling/{{Chyna}}.

-->''I wanna be a flower,''
-->''not a dirty weed''
-->''I wanna smell like roses,''
-->''not a baseball team''
-->''And I swear one day maybe one day you're gonna wanna make-out with me''
-->''(Don't wanna be...)''
-->'''Cause I don't wanna be "one of the boys"''
-->''"One of your guys"''
-->''Just give me a chance to prove to you tonight''
-->''That I just wanna be one of the girls''
-->''Pretty in pearls''
-->''And not "one of the boys"''

* A theme with Aoi Asahina's [[RelationshipValues Freetime Events]] in ''VisualNovel/DanganronpaTriggerHappyHavoc'' is her slowly revealing how unfeminine her thought-process/lifestyle is and in the last event we hear her worry that she'll never find a boyfriend because of it. After "practicing" a LoveConfession on TheHero (which only turns into a FemininityFailure), he tells her [[BeYourself she's quite charming the way she is]].
* Mion from ''VisualNovel/HigurashiWhenTheyCry'' is OneOfTheGuys and even refers to herself as an "old man". Despite this she secretly has a more feminine side [[spoiler:and gets very upset when Keiichi gives Rena a cute doll because he deemed Mion "too boyish" for it.]] Mion's situation is more complicated than most examples. [[spoiler:Mion has an identical twin named Shion. The two [[TwinSwitch used to pretend to be each other]] often until one day Mion received a {{yakuza}} [[IdenticalTwinIDTag tattoo]]. The problem is Mion was ''really'' Shion, thus the girl everyone knows as Mion was born as Shion. Mion has to pretend to be a tomboy instead of a GirlyGirl, and the other way for Shion, though occasionally their 'true' personalities come through.]]

--> "But for young girls who grew up [[LongHairIsFeminine long hair]], [[PinkMeansFeminine pink clothes]] and {{Toys/Barbie}} foisted upon them with no alternative, there is something powerful in rejecting that."

--> '''Tantor:''' Can't you boys play nicely?
--> '''Terk:''' I'm a girl!
* ''WesternAnimation/AllGrownUp'': Lil plays soccer and mostly wears pants. Although there have been a few episodes of the series where she does try to be more girly to fit in with the other girls, those episodes also emphasize, especially in the end, that she is a tomboy at heart.

* Creator/MaraWilson of ''Film/{{Matilda}}'' fame struggled in a similar way - hating the studio's attempts to give her a GirlinessUpgrade to make her "the next Creator/ShirleyTemple". One of the reasons Matilda was her favorite role is because she was simply an interesting girl with her own story, rather than someone whose cuteness was played up. In her autobiography, she talks about feeling insecure once she realized she wasn't as pretty as the other actresses being seen for the same roles - one of the reasons she decided to give up acting professionally. [[TomboyWithAGirlyStreak She does love pink though!]]

* Creator/KeiraKnightley has said she was a {{Tomboy}} at heart and struggled with being presented as TheFashionista when she got fame in her teens - as well as people [[IAmNotSpock assuming she was like her glamorous characters]]. She nearly lost a part in ''Film/PrideAndPrejudice2005'' because Joe Wright thought she'd be too glamorous to play Lizzie Bennet.

[[/folder]]

* ''Literature/BalletShoes'' - Petrova is the merger between this and MiddleChildSyndrome. She's considered the plain one of the family and is put on the stage with her other two sisters - Pauline, who's beautiful and will be a great actress, and Posy the spunky aspiring dancer. Petrova meanwhile prefers engines and aspires to be a pilot - hating the dance lessons she's forced to take at the academy (she in fact is stuck in the beginners' class for years).
--> "You can make me sing and you can make me dance, but if you push me, I will break."
* Suggested with Hermione in ''Literature/HarryPotterAndTheGobletOfFire'' where she can sense Ron likes her, but he doesn't ask her to the Yule Ball because he sees her as just another boy like Harry.[[note]]Ironically played by Creator/EmmaWatson in the films, who plays the glamorous Pauline in the film adaptation of ''Ballet Shoes'' above.[[/note]]
--> '''Ron:''' Hermione, Neville's right. [[CaptainObvious You are a girl]].
--> '''Hermione:''' [[DeadpanSnarker Oh, well spotted]].

--> "No one can make me a lady!"

-> '''Miwa''': Why do you have to be so ''perfect?''\\
'''April''': Me? ''Perfect?''\\
'''Miwa''': Yes, perfect. ''You'' with your pretty face, and your book smarts, and that sugary sweetness that just ''oozes'' out of you. You're exactly the kind of girl Mother and Father ''wanted'' to have in a daughter. But instead they got stuck with me, who can't do a good thing unless it involves hitting somebody. Whenever I try to be sweet it turns to poison. So I'm better off just getting in trouble. It's what I'm good at, even if my parents wish I wouldn't.

* ''Anime/WonderEggPriority'': Momoe is a tall {{Bifauxnen}}, but she hates constantly getting mistaken for a boy and does not like how her female admirers tend to treat her like a male substitute because of her appearance; even her use of the masculine "boku" as a [[JapanesePronouns first-person pronoun]] was just her resigning herself to this perception. After some time in the Dream World, she becomes more comfortable with herself, but starts using the more feminine pronoun "atashi".