Girl next door
The girl next door is a young female stock character who is often used in romantic stories. She is named so because she often lives next door to the protagonist or is a childhood friend. They start out with a mutual friendship that later often develops into romantic attraction.
A similar expression is "boy next door".
Characteristics
[edit]A girl-next-door character is often seen as natural and unpretentious. A trope that evokes nostalgia, it is associated with small towns and more local or even rural ways of life.[1] The girl next door is often portrayed as innocent.[1]
Actress and singer Doris Day, renowned for her rom-com film roles in the 1950s, is described as a pioneering embodiment of the girl-next-door image in film:[1] regarded as "Hollywood's girl next door".[2]
A common cliche is when a male protagonist is caught in a love triangle between two women, he will usually choose the "sweet, ordinary, and caring girl next door" he grew up with rather than a more well-off or beautiful woman with fewer morals.[3] Other times, this character ignores the hero for another male character, despite being the object of his affections.[4][better source needed]
The character Mary Ann Summers from the TV show Gilligan's Island (portrayed by Dawn Wells) had the girl next door allure, in a contrast with the more glamorous character Ginger Grant (portrayed by Tina Louise).[5] Due to the popularity of the show and the two lead female characters, the question "Ginger or Mary Ann?" became shorthand for asking someone whether they preferred a girl-next-door type or a more glamorous type.[6]
See also
[edit]
References
[edit]- ^ a b c McDonald, Tamar Jeffers (2013-09-27). Doris Day Confidential: Hollywood, Sex and Stardom. London: I.B. Tauris. pp. 77–86. ISBN 978-0-85772-279-9. OCLC 862101452.
- ^ Glinton, Sonari (May 13, 2019). "Actress And Singer Doris Day, Hollywood's Girl Next Door, Dies At 97". WPRL. Retrieved June 28, 2024.
- ^ Ebert, Roger, ed. (1999). Ebert's bigger little movie glossary : a greatly expanded and much improved compendium of movie clichés, stereotypes, obligatory scenes, hackneyed formulas, shopworn conventions, and outdated archetypes. Kansas City, Mo.: Andrews McMeel. ISBN 0-7407-9246-6. OCLC 829154479.
- ^ Szanter, Ashley; Richards, Jessica K., eds. (August 14, 2017). Romancing the zombie : essays on the undead as significant "other". Jefferson, North Carolina: McFarland & Company. p. 45. ISBN 978-1-4766-6742-3. OCLC 987796701.
- ^ Erskine, Chris (August 22, 2019). "I invited Mary Ann to a Gilligan-themed tiki party — and she showed up". Los Angeles Times. Retrieved November 24, 2020.
- ^ Fashingbauer Cooper, Gael (September 17, 2014). "Ginger or Mary Ann? 'Gilligan' fans still ponder question". Today. Retrieved November 24, 2020.
Further reading
[edit]- Levine, Michal P.; Schneider, Steven Jay (2003). "Feeling for Buffy: The Girl Next Door". In South, James B. (ed.). Buffy the Vampire Slayer and Philosophy: Fear and Trembling in Sunnydale. Open Court. pp. 294–308. ISBN 978-0-8126-9531-1.
- From a review: "To Michal Levine and Steven Jay Schneider ... Buffy is just another unconscious Freudian reality tale starring the proverbial girl next door." in: Joss Whedon: The Complete Companion: The TV Series, the Movies, the Comic Books, and More
- Frank, Rich (February 20, 1994). "Journal: The Girl Next Door". The New York Times. Archived from the original on 2009-05-03. Retrieved January 30, 2018.
- The article criticizes Sports Illustrated for their misuse of term "girl next door": "Otherwise the magazine is still pushing what Ms. Brinkley repeatedly described as the "natural beauty" of "what readers long for – the girl next door". Who is the girl next door? Her fake name keeps changing but she is still the same empty-headed, smiling, air-brushed mannequin who appeared in Playboy in the 1950s and early 60s..."
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