Great fictional tomboys

Following the excellent article by Dawn H Foster in The Guardian about why being a tomboy is completely marvellous, and praising some fictional tomboys, I thought it would be fun to make a list of great fictional tomboys. Here are my favourites:

• Nancy and Peggy Blackett in Swallows and Amazons
• Petrova Fossil in Ballet Shoes, Theatre Shoes and Movie Shoes
• Jo March in Little Women 
• Kaylee Frye in Firefly
• Idgie Threadgoode in Fried Green Tomatoes
• George in The Famous Five 

 Can't get enough tomboys? Here are some other people's lists:

• Wikipedia has a comprehensive list of fictional tomboys
• For Books' Sake lists three favourite tomboys 
• Entertainment Weekly has 24 favourite TV and movie tomboys

But what does being a tomboy mean?

• GLBTQ encyclopedia explores the history and sociology of the concept of a tomboy
• A thoughtful article from Feminist Philosophers on tomboys and gender identity
• Project Muse has an excerpt from The Story of Jo: Literary Tomboys, Little Women, and the Sexual-Textual Politics of Narrative Desire by Karin Quimby

Feisty fighting females

The British Pathé blog has a wonderful post entitled Ladies Who Lunge: Women Fighting Through History (great title too). It features early film clips of women stage fighters doing boxing, judo, and so on. I had rather hoped that it was about women fencers, which would have been a very bluestocking activity, but nevertheless these gals certainly have gallantry and gumption!