"It is unfortunate that we have no other word available to describe this strong, independent young woman than to refer to her as a tomboy. This continues to convey to girls that growing up clear-eyed and courageous is being like a boy."

Interestingly, tomboy was first used in the mid-16th century for males, denoting "a rude, boisterous, or forward boy," according to the Oxford English Dictionary. By then, because Thomas had been a popular name for centuries, "Tom" was a long-established moniker for the common man (hence tomfoolery).

By 1579, tomboy had somehow switched genders and referred, according to the OED, to "a bold or immodest woman." The word came into its current meaning – "a girl who behaves like a spirited or boisterous boy"– by 1592.

In a telephone interview, Schechter said the tomboy issue isn't as hot as it was a couple of decades ago "because in some ways we've made a lot of progress, and there are a lot more roles and opportunities available to girls.

"In fact, the article in the Times attests to that; it really was suggesting that there were these new female role models that are being embodied in these films. And therefore I think it was all the more disappointing that they referred to Ellen Page as a tomboy, because in a way it was sort of retro... I thought that maybe we'd moved beyond that."

Schechter notes that when she told a friend about her letter to the Times, the friend dismissed Schechter's concerns, arguing that "tomboy" is just a "manner of speaking." But Schechter counters that academics – especially at a very liberal campus like Sarah Lawrence – can be out of touch with what's going on in the real world, where children "get very invested in the categories of gender as being dualistic and dichotomous, and children get very invested in boys not being like girls and girls not being like boys."

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