Rachel: No (pause) yeah Despite spoken aversion to pink, the colour keeps slipping through Rachel’s in conversation; Rachel and the but she is not derides ‘dresses’ ‘colour pink’ completely successful in portraying the tomboy image to the exclusion of the and 'pink'. The 'dress' appears in a positive possible future self ‘dress’ portrait where Rachel, an actress in the imagined possible self, is featured wearing a dress and standing on a 'red' carpet, a carpet which Rachel says be in the interview. The drawing of the imagined possible future ‘should blue’ self then, depicts Rachel in a dress and the drawing is dominated by the colour pink from which Rachel attempts to draw distance in her talk. The contradiction is also evident in this conversation about cosmetics where Rachel is telling me how she wants to look in the future based on a photograph of a model in her possible future self that she ‘positive collage’ introduces like to look like saying ‘I’d that’. Interviewer: So what about make-up would you wear make-up like her then? Rachel: Um nothing pink Interviewer: Nothing pink Rachel: Red lipstick purple, blue or purple up there blue of course Interviewer: Eye shadow Rachel: Yeah, and no blusher Interviewer: Have you got any make-up now then? Rachel: Yeah Interviewer: Are you allowed to wear make-up? Rachel: Yeah I got this light lipstick not red red, no pink Interviewer: Mmm Rachel: Either Interviewer: (laughs) Rachel: Brownie brownie most, mmm lip gloss I go anywhere without can’t my lip gloss The continual process of identification and (dis)identification (Skeggs, 1997) illustrates the way in which children who challenge the binary nature of categories remain heavily constrained by them. There is an available space for girls to do femininity differently in the identity of tomboy but this option still opposes dominant ideologies of girlhood and resistance often leads children to a contradictory set of understandings about their own identity (Renold, 2008). The degrading of stereotypically girly things, especially the theme of colour, is so entwined throughout the interview and the paradox so palpable that it becomes a standing joke between us as seen in the
Rachel: No (pause) yeah Despite Rachel’s spoken aversion to pink, the colour keeps slipping through in conversation; Rachel derides ‘dresses’ and the ‘colour pink’ but she is not completely successful in portraying the tomboy image to the exclusion of the ‘dress’ and 'pink'. The 'dress' appears in a positive possible future self portrait where Rachel, an actress in the imagined possible self, is featured wearing a dress and standing on a 'red' carpet, a carpet which Rachel says ‘should be blue’ in the interview. The drawing of the imagined possible future self then, depicts Rachel in a dress and the drawing is dominated by the colour pink from which Rachel attempts to draw distance in her talk. The contradiction is also evident in this conversation about cosmetics where Rachel is telling me how she wants to look in the future based on a photograph of a model in her ‘positive possible future self collage’ that she introduces saying ‘I’d like to look like that’. Interviewer: So what about make-up would you wear make-up like her then? Rachel: Um nothing pink Interviewer: Nothing pink Rachel: Red lipstick purple, blue or purple up there blue of course Interviewer: Eye shadow Rachel: Yeah, and no blusher Interviewer: Have you got any make-up now then? Rachel: Yeah Interviewer: Are you allowed to wear make-up? Rachel: Yeah I got this light lipstick not red red, no pink Interviewer: Mmm Rachel: Either Interviewer: (laughs) Rachel: Brownie brownie most, mmm lip gloss I can’t go anywhere without my lip gloss The continual process of identification and (dis)identification (Skeggs, 1997) illustrates the way in which children who challenge the binary nature of categories remain heavily constrained by them. There is an available space for girls to do femininity differently in the identity of tomboy but this option still opposes dominant ideologies of girlhood and resistance often leads children to a contradictory set of understandings about their own identity (Renold, 2008). The degrading of stereotypically girly things, especially the theme of colour, is so entwined throughout the interview and the paradox so palpable that it becomes a standing joke between us as seen in the
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