Talk:Girlfriend

Girlfriend Meaning

I am getting a little concerned that there are some people on here who are "trying" to change the way people asume of the word Girlfriend. Girlfriend (as a dictionary definition out of Collins) clearly states, a female friend or "A female in a non marital romantic relationship with ref. usually a male". Stop trying to change the optinion people have on the word. For some reason, I don't know why some people can't contemplate the word being used in a romantic sense. For heaven, sake a Girlfriend is a Female partner in a non-marital romantic relationship! --Steven Hipkins (talk) 12:41, 30 January 2008 (UTC)

I have also since removed the picture, which is some what inappropriate to the article and totally doesn't have any correspondance to the article itself. Nice thought though, if we are going to have a picture of it, the boyfriend article needs a pictures of 2 males together in the same context - as it has the same meaning. --Steven Hipkins (talk) 12:45, 30 January 2008 (UTC)

I believe you're wrong on both counts. A girlfriend can be and is used as just a girlfriend and the photo demonstrates that the two women pictured can be interpreted both ways. Also the term is used in LGBT cultures for people who aren't female - this may be true elsewhere as well. Benjiboi 15:09, 30 January 2008 (UTC)

I'm sorry I disagree with you - you keep removing EVERY single mention that it is to with a relationship with a male, why can I ask, are you doing this - does this sentence make you squirm - "My Girlfriend is Beautiful". I bet it does because for some reason, you can't take that the word girlfriend means that it's a non marital romantic relationship with a male. --Steven Hipkins (talk) 15:43, 30 January 2008 (UTC)

I've been watching this edit war now for quite a while and it does amuse me. Unfortunately, I think you are both getting no-where so i'm going to add a few comments. It seems thar Benjiboy is trying to narrow-cast as so to speak this article, making it into a pro-female article which is undoubtably wrong. A Girlfriend is a female in a romantic relationship or sometimes is used to describe a female friend. I have found that 99% of the time the term "Girlfriend" is used to describe the woman who is in a non-marrital relationship with a male - and extremely rarely a woman (and I agree that shouldn't be over looked, but to make the term look like it is used more often than it is just silly!). I agree with Stephen Hipkiss's edits, but not the removal of the picture - although a man and a woman together could also be added to explain the other use of the term. I think you should both stop arguing and messing up the article. --Gothgirlangel1981 (talk) 15:55, 30 January 2008 (UTC)

Thank you for AGF there but no, my primary experience with the term is with gay men using it to refer to each other and people mocking them for doing so. So, I agree with your latest nuanced edits but let's save the mind meld for some other time. Benjiboi 16:35, 30 January 2008 (UTC)

The article top disambiguation tag {{otheruses1}} is inappropriate here—as it is cast—as this is an article about all the various human relationships and context associated with the term girlfriend, not just the male-female romantic one. The disambig page does not point to any other article with meanings even remotely connected with this one, as all the pointers are to articles about records, movies, bands, etc. The DAB needs to be removed, or edited to change the implication that this article is just about girlfriend as a M-F romantic one. See also the seven AfDs and merge proposal. — Becksguy (talk) 18:08, 30 January 2008 (UTC)

Actually it's there for any reader who types in 'girlfriend' whether looking for the album, a book or an explanation. Benjiboi 18:23, 30 January 2008 (UTC)

You are correct, the part I was concerned about was the phrase: This article is about a female partner. I will change it to {{otheruses}} which is a WP:NPOV and generic DAB tag pointing to the DAB page. — Becksguy (talk) 18:55, 30 January 2008 (UTC)

Good call. Benjiboi 19:49, 30 January 2008 (UTC)

Benjiboy, so you have never heard the word girlfriend used to describe a female partner who is in a romantic relationship with a male? Thats obserred! It's the most widely used conotation of the word, a female who is in a romantic relationship with a woman is called his "Girlfriend". What do you think the word Boyfriend means then? --Gothgirlangel1981 (talk) 23:34, 30 January 2008 (UTC)

Amazing the bickering over "girlfriend"! lol Girlfriend can be:

1. a man's significant romantic sexual other with whom he's not married to
2. a man's friend, not of a sexual or romantic nature
3. a girl's significant romantic sexual other.. ever heard of lesbians?
4. a girl's friend, not of a sexual or romantic nature
5. a gay man's male friend, not of a sexual or romantic nature (I know, sadly, many gay men do call their "besties" girlfriend)
   

The best thing to do is leave out the gender specific relationship language and just leave it with it's generic definition as I did in the lede. - ✰ALLSTAR✰ ^echo 00:40, 31 January 2008 (UTC)

Gothgirlangel1981, I'm not sure where you're getting that interpretation from. I basically agree with Allstarecho's assessment above. The term is used to cover multiple genders and sexualities. Benjiboi 11:32, 31 January 2008 (UTC)

To add to the above Allstar and Benjiboi comments: The article lede actually now says: Girlfriend is a term that can refer to either a female partner in a non-marital romantic relationship or a female non-intimate friend. That places the common mainstream cultural meaning of girlfriend first, ie - a male-female romantic relationship. As it should be. Then the first sentence of the "Scope" section says: The term is most commonly used to describe any female person who is in a romantic relationship with another person. I don't believe anyone here disputes the mainstream meaning of the term, or thinks it should be demoted. However, it's not the only meaning, as has been explained, and that's something the article should cover, and does, otherwise it would be WP:POV. So what's the problem? I suggest that we should agree to mark this discussion thread as resolved, and move on to other stuff. — Becksguy (talk) 12:28, 31 January 2008 (UTC)

Benjiboy, I don't understand where your coming from because you were basically saying I was wrong and you didn't know the term was used to describe a female partner in a romantic relationship - most commonly a male, his Girlfriend. To be perfectly honest I think there are more "Girlfriends" of male partners than female partners, i'm not saying it should be overlooked - but it seems you are trying to make a small population seem larger than it is. --Gothgirlangel1981 (talk) 21:46, 31 January 2008 (UTC)

Since my last edits, I am now happy as to how the article is layed out. --Gothgirlangel1981 (talk) 01:25, 1 February 2008 (UTC)

This article's pictures look like vanity shots, and te caption are incredibly covoluded to read. "these are two people! they may or may no tbe a couple!" need to be rewritten so as to read more fluidly