“Tomboy” by Destiny Rogers
As Destiny Rogers has explained it, “Tomboy” served as her musical introduction to the world. And she wanted to make sure the world actually knew her as is. For instance, this is someone who has been a serious skateboarder in her youth. And whereas there are of course female skateboarders, still such is an unconventional hobby for a girl.
Her style of dress was/is also shall we say more unisexual than ladylike. In other words, yes, Destiny was indeed a “tomboy”, a girl who preferred traditional male stylings more than that of females. And that is the fact upon which this tune is built.
Verse 1
So in the first verse we see her touting both ‘male’ and female attributes. In terms, of the latter she’s pretty “with no makeup on” alright, which readers can perhaps ascertain themselves by looking at her. She also alludes to the idea of having ballerina skills. But she is proficient on the basketball court and in the skateboarding rink also, which are normally male venues.
In fact in putting all of the above together, when she goes out to sport, she often has dudes trying to kick it to her. But she lets it be known that she’s not even on it like that by pointing to her professional musical pursuits. That is to say that the entertainment field is one in which sexual favors are more or less known to be the norm. But she does not engage in such, not even in the name of furthering her career.
Now what Destiny Rogers is comprehensively saying in touting herself as a tomboy is that she is a boss chick. Or stated differently, she recognizes that this is a man’s world that we live in. Even her own mum has advised her to “marry a rich man” in the name of living well. But in Destiny’s eyes, she is “that rich man”.
Or looked at through a different lens, she’s confident that she can accomplish anything that a man can. And that’s another way of saying that “Tomboy” is intended to be a female-empowerment song.
Verse 2
The second verse features the songstress touting her toughness. To some extent it sounds as if she’s down to fight on a moment’s notice. But more to the point is Rogers celebrating her independence and warning others not to underestimate her. Indeed judging by the bridge, she isn’t necessarily the hostile type.
She is just celebrating the fact that she “can hang with dudes” as well as “get pretty with the girls”, i.e. enjoying “the best of both worlds”. So if anything we can conclude that Destiny values the male side of American culture, i.e. contact sports, being in charge and what have you, just as much as the female side, i.e. being attractive and desirable in the eyes of men.
Conclusion
So at the end of the day this track is actually dual-toned. On one hand we have the “tomboy” element, as detailed above. But even beyond that, living such a lifestyle is definitely something the vocalist idealizes. And as such the lyrics are actually braggadocious in nature, which Rogers biggin’ up all of her own internal (i.e. male toughness) and external (i.e. female beauty) attributes.
Facts about “Tomboy”
Destiny Rogers, a singer from a part of California known as Lodi, was 19 years old when this song was released on 1 March 2019. “Tomboy” was her debut single and also the name of her first EP, which likewise came out in 2019.
This track was produced by The Stereotypes, the hit-making team who is credited with discovering Destiny Rogers. The individual members of the group – Ray Charles McCullough II, Jeremy Reeves, Ray Romulus and Jonathan Yip – are also credited as co-writers of the song. And they achieved that latter task in conjunction with Destiny, Whitney Phillips and Carmen Reece.
The music video to this song features Destiny Rogers skateboarding with some homeys. Said depiction is true-to-life, as at one point the young lady was actually convinced that such would be her profession. And one professional female skateboarder, Mariah Duran, does make an appearance on the clip.
During February of 2021 Lisa of Blackpink fame dropped a dance video called Lili’s Film (The Movie). As of a month later, in mid-March, it has earned about 35,000,000 on YouTube. And on the clip, the song Lisa dances to is “Tomboy”. And Destiny went on to express appreciation for her song being utilized by the music star.
