The girl next door is a young female
stock character who is often used in
romantic stories. She is so named 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 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]
Doris Day of the 1950s is described as a pioneering embodiment of the girl-next-door image in film:[1] the "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
Look up girl next door in Wiktionary, the free dictionary.
^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improved compendium of movie clichés, stereotypes, obligatory scenes, hackneyed formulas, shopworn conventions, and outdated archetypes. Ebert, Roger. Kansas City, Mo.: Andrews McMeel. 1999.
ISBN0740792466.
OCLC829154479.{{
cite book}}: CS1 maint: others (
link)
^Romancing the zombie : essays on the undead as significant "other". Szanter, Ashley,, Richards, Jessica K.,, Bishop, Kyle William, 1973-. Jefferson, North Carolina. 2017-08-14. p. 45.
ISBN978-1476667423.
OCLC987796701.{{
cite book}}: CS1 maint: location missing publisher (
link) CS1 maint: others (
link)
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
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..."