# What \*is\* the "Girl next door" type? **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [November 14, 2004, 5:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-girl-next-door-type/274724 "2004-11-14T17:25:43Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Lobsang](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lobsang/32/4067_2.png) [@Lobsang](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lobsang)\ **Post date:** [November 14, 2004, 5:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-girl-next-door-type/274724/1 "2004-11-14T17:25:43Z")
I hear that phrase used all the time. But I never understood what it meant. ---
**Author:** ![Scruloose](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/e68b1a/32.png) [@Scruloose](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Scruloose)\ **Post date:** [November 14, 2004, 5:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-girl-next-door-type/274724/2 "2004-11-14T17:31:10Z")
I always took it to mean a girl who was sweet, friendly and pretty, but not overly sexed up. A simple attractive girl, who probably wouldn’t make it as a model. YMMV. ---
**Author:** ![Alexander\_the\_Grape](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/47e85d/32.png) [@Alexander\_the\_Grape](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Alexander_the_Grape)\ **Post date:** [November 14, 2004, 5:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-girl-next-door-type/274724/3 "2004-11-14T17:31:36Z")
An attractive young female who still appears somewhat “attainable” with an unsophisticated and enthusiastic personality. She dresses somewhat casually, no fancy expensive designer goods for her. Her tastes are not especially cultured, but she is by no means a troglodyte. Contrast this with the “high maintenance” type or the “knockout”. ---
**Author:** ![brianjedi](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/3be4f8/32.png) [@brianjedi](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/brianjedi)\ **Post date:** [November 14, 2004, 5:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-girl-next-door-type/274724/4 "2004-11-14T17:33:54Z")
Just to give you a better idea of what a “girl next door” looks like, Jennifer Garner is the girl next door. Beautiful, wholesome, from humble beginnings. ---
**Author:** ![Kimstu](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/ecd19e/32.png) [@Kimstu](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kimstu)\ **Post date:** [November 14, 2004, 5:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-girl-next-door-type/274724/5 "2004-11-14T17:34:33Z")
Everything you ever wanted to know about the [Girl Next Door type](http://www.cookingtohookup.com/girls/girlnextdoor.php): > [@](#): > > The Girl Next Door is from a small town, a large family, or both. She still has a healthy dose of what people 'round these parts call “family values.” She calls her grandparents every Sunday and she’s got her mom on speed dial. The Girl Next Door likes an uncomplicated life filled with the simple pleasures of family, home, kids, and food. She may not actually live on a farm, but she tends to keep a menagerie. Asked to choose between a dog and a cat, she generally won’t. What’s a good guard dog without a mouser to keep it company? She is caring and warm, welcoming and friendly. Anybody in your office ever bring in chocolate chip cookies? You got yourself a Girl Next Door. > > The defining characteristics of the Girl Next Door are simplicity and tradition. Simplicity means that, unlike the Academic Girl, she’s really not that interested in the great questions that keep philosophers up at night. When she can sit in the kitchen, drinking coffee, eating shortbread cookies with a friend, and listening to the cat purr on top of the radiator, what else is there to life? What else, indeed. > > She Might Be a Girl Next Door if: > She drives: a good, solid American car – a Ford Taurus, Chevy Cavalier, or Dodge Stratus. > > She can talk for more than ten minutes about: her family’s holiday traditions. > > She begins her sentences with: “my mother says…” > > She’d never: go to a rave. > > She owns any of the following: scrapbooks, heirloom quilts, a Bible, family recipes, her grandmother’s engagement ring. Cripes, according to that description it looks like I might be one. Can I get an age exemption? 🙂 Oh, whew, I think I’m more the Academic Girl instead. ---
**Author:** ![Lobsang](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lobsang/32/4067_2.png) [@Lobsang](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lobsang)\ **Post date:** [November 14, 2004, 5:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-girl-next-door-type/274724/6 "2004-11-14T17:36:50Z")
Ha, this is pretty much what I thought it meant. Thanks for the replies. 🙂 ---
**Author:** ![aahala](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/a88e4f/32.png) [@aahala](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/aahala)\ **Post date:** [November 14, 2004, 5:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-girl-next-door-type/274724/7 "2004-11-14T17:39:22Z")
In my case, she was two years older, about 20 pounds heavier and possibly lesbian. She could also throw a baseball a lot further than I could. ---
**Author:** ![Avenger](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/9de0a6/32.png) [@Avenger](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Avenger)\ **Post date:** [November 14, 2004, 5:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-girl-next-door-type/274724/8 "2004-11-14T17:42:28Z")
Why don’t you just _go_ next door and find out? ---
**Author:** ![Lobsang](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lobsang/32/4067_2.png) [@Lobsang](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lobsang)\ **Post date:** [November 14, 2004, 5:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-girl-next-door-type/274724/9 "2004-11-14T17:52:31Z")
> [@Avenger](#): > > Why don’t you just _go_ next door and find out? Married ex-cher impersonator. ---
**Author:** ![Avenger](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/9de0a6/32.png) [@Avenger](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Avenger)\ **Post date:** [November 14, 2004, 5:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-girl-next-door-type/274724/10 "2004-11-14T17:53:37Z")
> [@Lobsang](#): > > Married ex-cher impersonator. There you go then! ---
**Author:** ![astro](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/9dc877/32.png) [@astro](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/astro)\ **Post date:** [November 14, 2004, 6:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-girl-next-door-type/274724/11 "2004-11-14T18:02:15Z")
She watches “Gilmore Girls”, and wants a baby. She’s waiting for you to call, but you never do [sub](you chickenshit)[/sub] so she gets knocked up by that slacker clerk she works with at Target, and has to stay in her parent’s house while going to Jr. College part time. ---
**Author:** ![monstro](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/ba9def/32.png) [@monstro](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/monstro)\ **Post date:** [November 14, 2004, 8:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-girl-next-door-type/274724/12 "2004-11-14T20:36:36Z")
The “Girl Next Door” dates the “All-American Guy”. Both are always white and live in the suburbs. And when they are missing or murdered, we’re all expected to mourn. ---
**Author:** ![ntcrawler](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/34f0e0/32.png) [@ntcrawler](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ntcrawler)\ **Post date:** [November 14, 2004, 8:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-girl-next-door-type/274724/13 "2004-11-14T20:40:45Z")
> [@Avenger](#): > > Why don’t you just _go_ next door and find out? Clumsy bleeched, tanned blonde who goes to the local college, drives a new VW bug and keeps looking at herself in the mirror. ---
**Author:** ![Robot\_Arm](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/robot_arm/32/18280_2.png) [@Robot\_Arm](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Robot_Arm)\ **Post date:** [November 14, 2004, 9:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-girl-next-door-type/274724/14 "2004-11-14T21:44:45Z")
Ever seen _Gilligan’s Island_? Mary Ann ---
**Author:** ![Scruloose](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/e68b1a/32.png) [@Scruloose](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Scruloose)\ **Post date:** [November 14, 2004, 10:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-girl-next-door-type/274724/15 "2004-11-14T22:47:13Z")
> [@Robot Arm](#): > > Ever seen _Gilligan’s Island_? > > Mary Ann Bingo! ---
**Author:** ![Girl\_Next\_Door](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/977dab/32.png) [@Girl\_Next\_Door](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Girl_Next_Door)\ **Post date:** [November 14, 2004, 11:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-girl-next-door-type/274724/16 "2004-11-14T23:09:49Z")
See, all you had to do was ask! 😃 ---
**Author:** ![Mr.Blue\_Sky](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/d26b3c/32.png) [@Mr.Blue\_Sky](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mr.Blue_Sky)\ **Post date:** [November 14, 2004, 11:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-girl-next-door-type/274724/17 "2004-11-14T23:34:08Z")
She’s sexy and either doesn’t know it or refuses to believe it. Which makes her all the sexier. ---
**Author:** ![Girl\_Next\_Door](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/977dab/32.png) [@Girl\_Next\_Door](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Girl_Next_Door)\ **Post date:** [November 14, 2004, 11:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-girl-next-door-type/274724/18 "2004-11-14T23:52:54Z")
> [@Mr. Blue Sky](#): > > She’s sexy and either doesn’t know it or refuses to believe it. Which makes her all the sexier. **Mr. Blue Sky** , how \*you \* doin’? ---
**Author:** ![Kamino\_Neko](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kamino_neko/32/34_2.png) [@Kamino\_Neko](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kamino_Neko)\ **Post date:** [November 15, 2004, 12:13am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-girl-next-door-type/274724/19 "2004-11-15T00:13:37Z")
> [@Mr. Blue Sky](#): > > She’s sexy and … refuses to believe it. Which makes her all the sexier. Having dated that type (twice)…that’s more frustrating than sexy. ---
**Author:** ![Nobody](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/94ad74/32.png) [@Nobody](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Nobody)\ **Post date:** [November 15, 2004, 6:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-girl-next-door-type/274724/20 "2004-11-15T18:09:29Z")
> [@monstro](#): > > And when they are missing or murdered, we’re all expected to mourn. I know, I mean, what’s the deal? It’s not they’re human beings or anything. [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-girl-next-door-type/274724.md?page=2)