It’s not they’re human beings or anything.
Should Read
It’s not like they’re human beings or anything.
Jan Smithers / Bailey Quarters from WKRP in Cincinnati.
Morgan Webb from the late, lamented ScreenSavers, before she started doing photo shoots for laddie magazines.
Tina Fey, and possibly Amy Poehler from Saturday Night Live.
Kerri Kenney / Trudy Wiegel from Reno 911
I always thought that the ‘girl next door’ was supposed to be a woman who was rather plain and asexual looking on the outside, but wild in the sack. 
I thought Tina Fey had the sexy nerd look going on, kind of like Kennedy from Friend or Foe, and before that, MTV I think.
Let’s find out, then:
East: Twentysomething Family Counselor with PhD in Psych and a pair of dogs named Xena and Lucy who are treated like children and spoiled even worse. Married to a city attorney who rides a BMW motorcycle to court.
West: Fortysomething Brazilian ex-samba dancer with a razor booty and fashion dreads. Owns and operates a commercial janitor service. Married to a famous Latin Jazz drummer who collects aging Volvo diesels.
Umm… so what was the question again?
Wait and see what descriptor the next Lacy Peterson gets from the media. Will it be anything like “Girl Next Door”?
Doesn’t it seem like all the famous murdered and missing women are all “girls next door”?
Maybe murderers and kidnappers have a thing for Girls Next Door. Or maybe the media believe like we can’t feel sorry for a murdered or missing woman unless they are like the Girl Next Door. I sure hope that if I get killed, someone calls me the Girl Next Door. That way, my story doesn’t get squeezed in between the story of the Hebrew-talking carp and the winner of the Nathan’s hotdog-eating contest.
Nicole Brown Simpson was not a “Girl Next Door”. Most women who are murder victims wouldn’t fall into that stereotype. Mainly because most people who are murdered in the US are already involved in some criminal enterprise already or the victim of domestic violence.
The Lacy Peterson case was news because it was unusual. The Chandra Levy case was unusual also.
I doubt that Chandra Levy would be a “Girl Next Door” either.
I think the earlier naming of Maryann from “Gilligan’s Island” answers the OP.
Maryann = Girl Next Door
Ginger <> Girl Next Door.
The Girl Next Door will also likely go through a string of failed romances because of her trusting nature.
I sometimes think that calling a female murder victim the “Girl Next Door” is simply standard operating procedure in the news industry. The way they throw the word around, they make it pretty much meaningless.
And if you want you death to make the headlines, make sure you die in some spectacular, news worthy way.
Actually, since probably hundreds of murders are committed every day, I don’t know what makes some news worthy and some not, but some things that might help are:
- Get killed by a current or former celebrity or politician.
And/Or - Be pregnant when you’re killed.
And/OR - As BobT pointed out about Lacy and Chandra, die in an unusual manner.
At any rate when I see or hear about these kinds of stories I, probably like most people, will feel a little bad about somebody’s life being cut short and the grief their friends and family have to go through on the one hand, but on the other, like most other people, I don’t feel that bad, not because the victims were white suburbanites, but because I didn’t know them and their death doesn’t impact my life in any way.
I don’t like the direction this thread has taken.
You have me wondering what you do for a living that makes you hear that expression all the time.
What? 
I was going to say that I think of the ‘girl next door’ look as being not excessively makeuped, etc, but on consideration of it, I think it might be more an attitude than a look. The ‘arrogant intimidating runway model look’ would seem to be the opposite, which implies that the Girl Next Door is happy, friendly, and considers image less important than substance.
Bettie Page had it.
But I can’t link to that from work. :o
MC: I sometimes think that calling a female murder victim the “Girl Next Door” is simply standard operating procedure in the news industry.
Seventy years or so ago, a character in an Agatha Christie murder mystery made a similar comment: something like “Have you noticed how girls who disappear are always [portrayed in the newspapers as] bright and home-loving and have no men friends? Nonsense really…”
The motive for assigning the GND stereotype to young female murder victims is probably pretty much the same now as it was then: there’s still some residual social prejudice against female independence or sexual autonomy. So the way to reassure the audience that the victim wasn’t “asking for it” is to portray her as a suitably safe, domesticated, non-threatening personality: a Girl Next Door.
Well, if a penchant for fetish gear and the ability to look sultry even in a 1950’s pinup bikini pose is “it” then, yeah.
She had it in spades.
Speaking of which, if one were to do a Google image search for “girl next door” while one were at work, one might check to make sure that Safesearch is “on.” And even then one might do better to wait untill one got home.
Just sayin’, is all.
Yeah, but if yer gonna search for “Bettie Page” then I recommend turning Safe Search “off” for best results.
I read years ago that the girl next door is a chef in the kitchen and a whore in the bedroom.
As far as looks are concerned, I always thought that the stereotypical Girl Next Door type didn’t set out to look hot, but naturally looks that way anyway.
To sound all sappy and stupid, she’s supposed to have an inner beauty and warmth that shines through. And now, after saying that, I must go through up 
The lovely Miss Webb never did a photo shoot. She was named in one of the sexiest techie chicks layouts, but she didn’t pose for anything. If I’m wrong, please link.
She left ScreenSavers – which I think is still on, btw – to join Adam Sessler on X-Play, and has been there ever since. Neither seem particular happy about the move to LA.