Where did all the hoydens go?
I was reading a review of the play 鈥淪ilent Sky,鈥� about female astronomers at Harvard University in the early 20th century, when I came across a word that made me feel a little bit like Obi-wan Kenobi: 鈥淣ow that鈥檚 a word I鈥檝e not heard in a long time. A long time.鈥� It was 鈥渉oydenish.鈥� The word was used because one of the characters is described as 鈥渂ring[ing] a hoydenish irreverence to the workroom.鈥�
Hoydenish is an appropriate word for the play鈥檚 time period, as it had its heyday from the mid-19th to the early 20th century. It has mostly outlived its usefulness today, however. 聽
The word was used to criticize certain sorts of behavior that were once thought objectionable in women but today attract little or no disapproval. A hoyden is a 鈥渞ude, or ill-bred girl; a boisterous noisy girl,鈥� according to the Oxford English Dictionary. Nowadays, a 鈥渂oisterous girl鈥� sounds like a fun person to have around at a party, not a worthy target of rebuke. 聽
Rudeness is of course still frowned upon, and sometimes hoydens behaved in ways that are rude by today鈥檚 standards 鈥� a girl who pushed another out of her seat at school was a hoyden in 1865. 聽
But more often they were tomboys 鈥� girls who climbed trees, went barefoot, and spoke their minds freely. They did not conform to the strict rules of Victorian womanhood, with its demands for delicacy, self-control, and deference. 聽
So in 1866 we get a Miss Harcourt who 鈥渁lthough arrived at the sedate age of sixteen 鈥� retained much of the hoydenish, brusque manners for which, alas! she had ever been famed since she could use her feet at all.鈥� 聽
In 1894, older girls were described as 鈥渉aving outgrown the hoydenish period. They are graceful and pretty and well-dressed....鈥� The poem 鈥淗olidays,鈥� by Ralph Waldo Emerson, illustrates this opposition: 鈥淲hither went the lovely hoyden?/ Disappeared in blessed wife.鈥�
It is hard even to imagine hoyden as a meaningful term of reproach and criticism today. Why shouldn鈥檛 girls climb trees? What鈥檚 wrong with women laughing loudly and saying what they think?
And why should a person be obliged to give up that fun and freedom when she ages or if she marries? 聽
That we view such behaviors so differently today is pleasant, if perhaps minor, evidence of positive social change. The word has lost its charge, and in this case that is a good thing. The astronomers of 鈥淪ilent Sky鈥� 鈥� who spoke their minds, joked loudly with male colleagues, and did scientific work no one expected them to be able to do 鈥� were in the hoydenish vanguard.
