Girly girl

pink dresses, high heels and hair bows are associated with girly girls

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, having long nails, dressing in dresses, skirts, pantyhoses and heels, and engaging in activities that are traditionally associated with femininity, such as talking about relationships.<ref>Linda Duits, Multi-Girl-Culture (2008) p. 141</ref>

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.<ref>Duits, p. 136</ref> 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.<ref>M. O'Sullivan/A. MacPhail, Young People's Voices (2010) p. 37-8</ref><ref> Template:Cite book</ref>

Social determinants

The female opposite of a girly girl is a tomboy. The increasing prevalence of girly girls in the early 21st centuryTemplate:Where? has been linked to a supposed "post-feminist, post–new man construction of masculinity and femininity in mutually exclusive terms",<ref>Natasha Walter, Living Dolls:The Return of Sexism (2010) p. 211</ref> as opposed to the more blurred gender representations of previous decades.<ref>Adam Phillips, On Flirtation (1994) p. 122-4</ref>