"Artist Monique Yim’s “Queer Series No.17: Tomboy Must Be Cool” was inspired by Marina Abramovic’s “Art Must Be Beautiful, Artist Must Be Beautiful” (1975). In the performance, Yim frantically made her hair with two metal combs in her hands and men’s styling products. Having a decent appearance, she was combing and setting her hair very wildly. Meanwhile, she made some statements ironically with wry humour. This repetition evolved consciously or unconsciously from a mild self-admonishment to a numbing chant to a violent, tensional and uncomfortable meditation on those gender expectations and mainstream values.
A tomboy is a female-identifying person who expresses themselves in a masculine manner through clothing, activities, or lifestyle. It is an alternative way of being challenging gender norms and stereotypes. The work represented the paradoxical dilemma of tomboys situated within social expectations and cultural beliefs of heteronormativity and gender hierarchy framed by the gender binary system. "