Thegirl next door is a young femalestock character who is often used inromantic stories. She is named so because she often lives next door to the protagonist or is a childhood friend. They start out with a friendship that later often develops into romantic attraction. A similar expression is "boy next door".
A girl-next-door character is often portrayed as natural, innocent, and unpretentious. Evokingnostalgia, she is associated with small towns and local or even rural ways of life.[1] For example, the actress and singerDoris Day, "Hollywood's girl next door," renowned for herrom-com film roles in the 1950s, pioneered the type in film.[1][2] On television, thesitcomGilligan's Island offered the character ofMary Ann Summers (portrayed byDawn Wells), with her girl-next-door allure in contrast with the glamorousmovie star characterGinger Grant (Tina Louise).[3] The show's long popularity led to the question "Ginger or Mary Ann?," a shorthand way to ask someone whether they preferred a girl-next-door type or a glamorous type.[4]
Thelove triangle is a common trope in fiction and often involves a male protagonist caught between his desire for two women, one of them the "sweet, ordinary, and caring girl next door" he grew up with, the other a more well-off or beautiful woman of lower morals. The male may pass over the latter for the girl next door,[5] or may himself be ignored by the beautiful woman as she pursues a more desirable man.[6][better source needed]
^abMcDonald, Tamar Jeffers (2013-09-27).Doris Day Confidential: Hollywood, Sex and Stardom. London: I.B. Tauris. pp. 77–86.ISBN978-0-85772-279-9.OCLC862101452.
^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improved compendium of movie clichés, stereotypes, obligatory scenes, hackneyed formulas, shopworn conventions, and outdated archetypes.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.ISBN0-7407-9246-6.OCLC829154479.
^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.ISBN978-1-4766-6742-3.OCLC987796701.
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 criticizesSports 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..."
