April 5, 2007
Multiple personalities
I love being a straight tomboy with princess tendencies. It goes all the way back to my childhood, and I love it.
Growing up, I was allowed an hour of tv a day. As a little girl, I used my hour to watch He-Man and the Smurfs. As a young adult I used it to watch Star Trek (TNG during the regular season, TOS during the summer off-season). My favorite movie(s) have been the Star Wars Original Trilogy since I was about 5 years old. At summer camp I got teased by the other girls for reading the Timothy Zahn Thrawn trilogy and X-Men comics. Sometimes my dad would take me to work with him and I would spend entire days on computers in his office playing King’s Quest IV, Covert Action and Railroad Tycoon while subsisting on microwave popcorn and Sunkist. However, to this day I still get giggly when Mary Poppins and Burt dance in the chalk picture sequence, and I always wanted to be Eliza Doolittle at the Embassy Ball. I also admit to having owned a pair of pink mesh jelly shoes and a couple of My Little Ponies…but I preferred to play with Hotwheels cars and Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles action figures.
As an adult, little has changed, but the girly side has come out more. I had two undergraduate minors: computer science and british literature - in that order. I’m writing a science fiction / fantasy novel, but a major plot line centers around the MC’s soulmate. I’m dying to see the graphic novel -based movie 300, but I also confess a secret attraction to Love, Actually. Given my druthers, I would wear my not-appropriate-for-public-or-company baggy ripped jeans and a t-shirt, but I also love to look really good in a cute flowered skirt and little heels.
Sometimes I don’t know how to reconcile these two disparate halves of my personality. I like to think of it as the “I Want To Be Cinderella vs. I Think The Man Show Is Funny” conflict. Sometimes I wonder if I’m the only person in the world with this particular inner contradiction. Is it possible within the human race to be two conflicting things at the same time, harmoniously? Or am I an aberration? A related question: is it possible for people like me to convince friends and loved ones that we are indeed both? Or are we forced to be stuck in the side of our personality we were displaying when we met that person?
You make it sound like your personality is X + Y, but I bet there are a lot more facets than that. That’s what makes people interesting. You can be “Environmental crusader who also likes sports and RPGs” even though those seem like they should come into conflict.
True dat. I guess I was just referring to one particular dichotomy in this post. That’s what comes of late-night grad school blogging.
You are definitely not the only person like this. I am like this as well.
First, welcome back, Katie!
I was actually having a conversation similar to this the other day. I am not real girlie, in that I like hanging with the boys and I’m not prissy, but I can definately play the girl card and like dressing up and all that.
Hey Cheryl!
I’m like that too! I’m very much a tomboy in a lot of respects, but I like being girly too. Its fun to dress up, put on makeup, get my hair done and all the other fun girl stuff. So, its definitely not just you.
I think this is one of those things that totally confuses guys. I mean, they have different sides too, but the external differences are less noticable. When we’re being a different part of our personality, it’s like we’re a totally different person, at times. That must throw guys for such a loop because suddenly they don’t know who they’re dealing with.