Girly girl is a term for a girl or woman who presents herself in a traditionally feminine way. This may include wearing pink, using make-up, using perfume, having long hair, long nails, wearing dresses, skirts, pantyhoses and heels, and engaging in activities that are traditionally associated with femininity, such as talking about relationships.Linda Duits, Multi-Girl-Culture (2008) p. 141
The term is often used in a derogatory manner, but it can also be used in a more positive way, especially when considering the fluidity of gender roles.Duits, p. 136 Being a "girly girl" can then be seen as a fluid and partially embodied position – a form of discourse taken up, discarded or modified for tactical or strategic purposes.M. O'Sullivan/A. MacPhail, Young People's Voices (2010) p. 37-8
Social determinants The female opposite of a girly girl is a tomboy. The increasing prevalence of girly girls in the early 21st century has been linked to a supposed "post-feminist, post–new man construction of masculinity and femininity in mutually exclusive terms",Natasha Walter, Living Dolls:The Return of Sexism (2010) p. 211 as opposed to the more blurred gender representations of previous decades.Adam Phillips, On Flirtation (1994) p. 122-4
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