Girl
For other senses of this word, see girl (disambiguation).A
girl is a young
female human, as opposed to a
boy, a young
male human. The age at which a female person transitions from girl to
woman varies in different
societies; typically the transition from adolescence to maturity is taken to occur in the late
teens.
The English word (first documented in 1290) originally designated a child of either sex. During the 14th century its sense was narrowed to specifically female children. Subsequently, it was extended to refer also to mature but unmarried young women since the 1530s. Usage in the sense of (romantic) "sweetheart" arose in the 17th century.
Historically, girls faced discrimination and limitations on the roles they were expected to play in their societies, and the United Nations targeted discrimination in schooling to end by 2010. An ongoing debate about the influences of
nature versus nurture in shaping the behavior of girls and boys raises questions about whether the roles played by girls are the result of inborn differences or socialization. Images of girls in art, literature, and popular culture often demonstrate assumptions about gender roles.
There are 2.18 billion people (est.
UNICEF,
2004) aged 18 or under in the world, for a total of more than one billion living girls. From birth, girls are a slight minority due to both natural factors (the human
sex ratio has been observed since the
1700s as approximately 1,050 boys for every 1,000 girls) and due to
sex selection on the part of parents.
Although the
International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights specifies that "primary education shall be compulsory and available free to all", girls are slightly less likely to be enrolled as students in primary (70% enrollment vs. 74% for boys) or secondary education (59% vs. 65%). This disparity is targeted to end under the
Millennium Development Goals and has closed substantially since
1990.
 |
A girl playing with paper dollsâ€"a typical manifestation of a female gender role. |
In all cultures, girls have been
socialized into
gender roles. Girls have traditionally been associated with playing with
dolls and
toy cooking and
cleaning equipment, while boys have been associated with toys and
games that require more physical activity or simulated violence, such as toy trucks, balls, and toy guns. Girls are less often encouraged to pursue
sports, with the exception of sports that might be considered "feminine," such as
figure skating or
gymnastics; or those considered "gender-neutral," such as
tennis. They may be prevented from participating in many of the same activities that boys participate in at the same age, as a matter of protecting them from perceived outside dangers, such as boys and men, or anything that may cause physical injury. Sometimes boys are presumed to be more responsible than girls, except in the cases of caring for younger children, which is sometimes thought to be
instinctual in girls. Girls, as a group, may be perceived as being more docile than boys, and as being less capable of rational decision making and more governed by
emotional responses.
The reasons for this perceived difference in the behavior of girls and boys are a controversial topic in both public debate and the sciences. The idea that differences in gender roles originate in differences in biology originates from 19th-century
anthropology; more recently,
sociobiology and
evolutionary psychology have turned to this problem to explain those differences by treating them as evolutionary
adaptations to a lifestyle of
Paleolithic hunter-gatherer societies. For example, the need to take care of offspring may have limited the females' freedom to hunt and to assume positions of power.
Simon Baron-Cohen, a
Cambridge University professor of
psychology and
psychiatry, argues that
"the female brain is predominantly hard-wired for empathy, while the male brain is predominantly hard-wired for understanding and building systems."
 |
A girl "driving" a toy car, an example of counter-stereotypical behavior. |
On the other hand,
feminists have argued that gender roles are the result of
stereotypes and
socialization rather than any innate biological differences. Owing to the influence of (among others)
Simone de Beauvoir's feminist works and
Michel Foucault's reflections on sexuality, the idea that
gender was unrelated to sex gained ground during the
1980s, especially in sociology and cultural anthropology - an idea that has taken hold in
transgender groups.
The biological viewpoint of gender roles is not that all gender distinctions result from biology, but rather that biology has an influence. Some feminists deny this, but many feminists agree that both biology and upbringing have an influence on gender roles, with the question being the relative importance of each. This conflict is often called
nature versus nurture.
Several studies, such as the
Programme for International Student Assessment of the
OECD, have shown that, in
developed countries, girls usually obtain better scores than boys do in
secondary schools in
Literature and
Language, boys on the other hand tend to score higher in
mathematics. However, their choices afterwards in
postsecondary school are often very different and lead them to less
socially recognized professions. Relatively few girls become
engineers, though in the
USA, more do become
doctors.
The word "girl" first appears during the
Middle Ages. The
Anglo-Saxon word
gyrela = "ornament" may have given rise to the modern pronunciation of "girl", if the change in meaning can be explained. While there is no general agreement about the
etymology of "girl", it is found in manuscripts dating from
1290 with the meaning "a child" (of either sex). A male child was called a "Knave girl"; a female child was called a "gay girl". Like many other words that originally were not gender-specific, "girl" gradually came to be used primarily and then exclusively for one sex. There are manuscripts dating from
1530 in which the word "girl" is used to mean "
maiden" (also originally applied to both sexes), or any unmarried human female. Within little more than a century, however, the word began to take on implications of
social class. In
1668, in his
Diary,
Samuel Pepys uses the word to mean a female servant of any age: "girl" = "serving girl". Note the parallel shift in the meaning of the word "maid".
By the
18th century, there was a difference in some uses of the word between
England and the
Americas. In England, a "girl" was often a serving girl, while in America a "girl" was often a sweetheart or "
girlfriend", for example, in the lyrics of the popular song "The Girl I Left Behind Me". In England, the word "girl" was also used as a euphemism for "
prostitute", as for example by
Richard Steele in
The Spectator.
In America today, the word "girl" is often used as an intended compliment or used humorously. A woman of a certain age might be called a girl to suggest that she looks younger than she is, or a group of women might speak of themselves as "us girls", though all are well over the age of maidenhood. Adult women will sometimes refer to themselves as "girls", as in "We're having a girls' night out" or "It's a girl thing". But social shifts generally permit only the female gender group themselves to use such terminology without giving offence.
With the rise of
feminism, the use of "girl" applied to any adult female became offensive to many, especially given the fact that the word was so often used to indicate low social status, low morals, weakness, or homosexuality. There is a parallel objection to use of the word "boy" to describe a male over the age of
puberty. In modern usage, "girl" is properly restricted to mean a human female who has not reached adulthood, and some would restrict the usage to prepubescent girls. The term "young woman" is sometimes used in the period between childhood and full adulthood.
Using the word "girl" to refer to a male is usually meant to be insulting, such as "You throw like a girl". The more insulting "girly-boy", which originated in
1589 as "girle-boy", is used to indicate a weak or "sissy" male. Calling a male a girl often serves as a provocation to fight (see
fighting words). While outsiders might use "girl" or "girly" as a pejorative to refer to a gay male, within the gay community it is used as a term of endearment.
The word
girl has many
synonyms, including "
belle", "
chick", "
doll", "
gal", "
lass" or "
lassie", "
maiden", and "
miss". The slang word "
gal", as in "Buffalo gals won't you come out tonight", is a variant pronunciation of girl.
Portrayals of girls may reflect their standing in the artists' culture, and a brief overview of different views of girls in different
art periods gives a sense of girls' roles in societies around the world and at different points in time.
Egyptian murals included sympathetic portraits of young girls of royal descent.
Ancient Greek classical art and literature paid scant attention to female children, though there are many poems about boys. Only
Sappho's poetry includes love poems addressed to girls.
In European art, some early paintings to feature girls are
Juan de Flandes'
Portrait of a Young Girl, circa 1500–1510 (shown at left);
Frans Hals'
Die Amme mit dem Kind in 1620;
Diego Velázquez'
Las Meninas in 1656;
Jan Steen's
The Feast of St. Nicolas, circa 1660; and
Johannes Vermeer's
Girl with a Pearl Earring and
Girl Reading a Letter at an Open Window. Later paintings of girls include
Albert Anker's portrait of a
Girl with a Domino Tower and
Camille Pissarro's 1883
Portrait of a Felix Daughter.
In American art, paintings that feature girls include
Mary Cassatt's 1884
Children on the Beach and
Whistler's
Harmony in Gray and Green: Miss Cicely Alexander and
The White Girl (shown at right).
As in art, portrayals of girls in literature can reflect the social norms of the time at which they were written. Many novels begin with the childhood of their heroine. Examples include
Jane Eyre, who suffers ill treatment; and Natasha in
War and Peace, who is sentimentalized. Other novels include Harper Lee's
To Kill a Mockingbird, which has a young girl as protagonist; and Vladimir Nabokov's
Lolita, about a girl subjected to sexual abuse.
Memoirs of a Geisha was written by
Caucasian American Arthur Golden. However, it has been deemed an accurate representation of
geisha life in the early 20th century
Japan. The book starts as the female main character and her sister are dropped into the pleasure district after being separated from their family.
Most early children's stories focused on boys, with the notable exception of
Alice's Adventures in Wonderland, by
Lewis Carroll, whose photographs of little girls are part of the history of photographic art.
European
fairy tales include some memorable stories about girls, including
Goldilocks and the Three Bears;
Rapunzel;
Hans Christian Andersen's
The Little Match Girl,
The Little Mermaid, and
The Princess and the Pea; the
Brothers Grimm's
Little Red Riding Hood; and others.
Children's books about girls include
Little House on the Prairie,
Eloise,
Pippi Longstocking,
Dragonsong, and
A Wrinkle in Time. Books which have both boy and girl protagonists tend to focus on the boys, but important girl characters appear in
Knight's Castle,
The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe,
The Book of Three, and the
Harry Potter series.
By contrast, the
Oz series had mainly female protagonists. The few male human characters in the books tended to be significantly more cowardly and less intelligent than their female counterparts, and usually fell in submissive or villainous roles. This is probably due to the author,
L. Frank Baum, being the son in law of
Matilda Joslyn Gage who founded the Women's National Liberal Union.
There have been many American comic books and comic strips featuring a girl as the main character, such as
Little Lulu,
Little Orphan Annie,
Girl Genius, and
Amelia Rules. In superhero comic books, an early girl character was Etta Candy, one of
Wonder Woman's
sidekicks. In the
Peanuts series (by
Charles Schulz), girl characters include
Peppermint Patty,
Lucy van Pelt, and
Sally Brown.
The most famous Flemish comic strip is
Spike and Suzy (Suske and Wiske), about the adventures of a boy and a girl (each about 10 years old); it was translated from Flemish into French and English. Franco-Belgian comics with girls in a central role include
Isabelle (by Will) and
Sophie (by Jidéhem).
In
Japanese animated cartoons and
comic books, girls are often protagonists. Most of the animated films of
Hayao Miyazaki feature a young girl as the hero, as in
Majo no takkyūbin (
Kiki's Delivery Service). There are many other stories with girls as protagonists in the
ShÅjo style of manga, which is targeted to girls as an audience. Examples include
The Wallflower,
Ceres, Celestial Legend, and
Full Moon o Sagashite. Other genres of Japanese cartoons often feature sexualized and objectified portrayals of girls.
Sexualization of young girls in art and entertainment is a common theme across all eras and mediums. However it is especially prominent, or at least more explicitly visible, in modern cinema and television. Some famous examples of this include
Taxi Driver,
The Blue Lagoon and
Pretty Baby - films dealing with young girls in adult situations, typically under extraordinary circumstances. An older, and perhaps most notorious example is a book by
Vladimir Nabokov,
Lolita (
1955) , that centers around a complex romantic relationship between a scholar and a young girl as they travel across the United States. Such very controversial work that has none-the-less gained acceptance as a classic. The fact that initial controversy over risque works that mix the themes of
youth and
sex tends to die down fairly quickly is a good indication that it is group reactionary behavior not grounded in any generally accepted ethical principles.
One of the most famous
photographs of the
Vietnam War shows a girl,
Phan Thị Kim Phúc, whose clothes were burned off by
napalm; she was taken to the hospital by the photographer and received medical care. She survived, married, and lives in Canada.
*
Child*
Boy*
Woman*
Lady*
Female infanticide*
Girl group*
Girl Guides*
Girl Heroes*
Girl Power*
Riot Grrrl*
UNICEF,
The State of the World's Children 2004 - Girls, Education and Development , 2004.
* Harrison, Lisa and Amanda Lynch,
Sex Roles: A Journal of Research - Social Role Theory and the Perceived Gender Role Orientation of Athletes, 2005.
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