Valley girl
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Valley girl is a stereotype depicting a socio-economic and ethnic class of white women characterized by the colloquial California English dialect Valleyspeak and vapid materialism. The term originally referred to an ever increasing swell of semi-affluent and affluent middle-class and upper-middle class girls living in the 1970s and early 1980s Los Angeles bedroom communities of the San Fernando Valley.[1]
In time the traits and behaviors spread across the United States and Canada, metamorphosing into a caricature of unapologetically spoiled "ditzes" and "airheads" more interested in shopping, personal appearance and social status than intellectual development or personal accomplishment.[2]
Sociolect
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A sociolect associated with valley girls termed "Valleyspeak" spread across the United States during the 1980s and 1990s, heavily populating high-school teenage female slang throughout. Qualifiers such as "like", "whatever", "way", "as if!", "totally", and "duh" were interjected in the middle of phrases and sentences as emphasizers. Narrative sentences were often spoken as if questions using a high rising terminal. Heavily accented words were spoken with high variation in pitch combined with very open or nasal vowel sounds.[citation needed]
In popular culture
In 1982, composer Frank Zappa released the album Ship Arriving Too Late to Save a Drowning Witch. The album featured the single "Valley Girl", with his 14-year old daughter Moon Unit speaking typical "Valley Girl" phrases. Zappa intended to lampoon the image, but the single also popularized the Valley Girl stereotype nationwide, and, to a lesser extent, throughout the English-speaking world, much to Zappa's frustration.[citation needed] There was a significant increase in the "Valspeak" slang usage, whether ironically spoken or not.[3]
See also
- Bimbo
- Bobby soxer
- California English
- Chav
- Dumb blonde
- Essex girl
- Fjortis is used to describe similar behavior in Scandinavian youth.
- Fresa is the Mexican equivalent. Literally translated into English as "Strawberry".
- Glamour
- Jewish princess
- Julie Brown is among the performers from the era who personified and popularized the valley girl image.
- Kogal and Ganguro are basically the Japanese equivalents.
- Paninaro
- Pissis is a Finnish expression for female youth behaving in a similar manner.
- Queen bee
- San Fernando Valley
- School diva
- Sloane ranger
- Trixie
- Valley Girl, song by Frank Zappa
- Valleyspeak
References
- ^ "Definition of Valley girl". Urban Dictionary.
- ^ Michael Demarest, Michael;Stanley, Alessandra (September 27, 1982(. "Living: How Toe-dully Max Is Their Valley:. Time magazine.
- ^ Watson, Ben (1994). Frank Zappa: The Negative Dialectics of Poodle Play. Quartet Books. p. 396. ISBN 978-0-7033-7066-2.