Girl next door

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 similar expression is "boy next door".

Characteristics

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.