Girl

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

For other uses, see Girl (disambiguation) and Girls (disambiguation).

Girls

A girl is a female human from birth through childhood and adolescence to attainment
of adulthood when she becomes a woman. The term girl may also be used to mean a young
woman,[1] and is often used as a synonym for daughter.[2]
Contents
[hide]

1 Etymology
o 1.1 Usage for adults
2 History
o 2.1 Girls' education
o 2.2 "Coming of age" customs
o 2.3 Preparing girls for marriage
3 Demographics
4 Biology
o 4.1 Gender and environment
5 Girls' education
o 5.1 Educational environment and expectations
o 5.2 Obstacles to girls' access to education
6 Violence against girls
7 Girls and child labor
8 International initiatives for girls' rights
9 Art and literature
10 Popular culture

11 Girls' games and other pastimes

12 See also
13 References

Etymology

A girl from Russia

The English word girl first appeared during the Middle Ages between 1250 and 1300 CE and
came from the Anglo-Saxon words gerle (also spelled girle or gurle).[3] The AngloSaxonword gerela meaning dress or clothing item also seems to have been used as
a metonym in some sense.[1]
Girl has meant any young unmarried woman since about 1530. Its first noted meaning
for sweetheart is 1648. The earliest known appearance of girl-friend is in 1892 and girl next
door, meant as a teenaged female or young woman with a kind of wholesome appeal, dates
only to 1961.[4]

Usage for adults

The word girl is sometimes used to refer to an adult female, usually a younger one. This
usage may be considered derogatory or disrespectful in professional or other formal
contexts, just as the term boy can be considered disparaging when applied to an adult man.
Hence, this usage is often deprecative.[1] It can also be used deprecatively when used to
discriminate against children ("you're just a girl").
In casual context, the word has positive uses, as evidenced by its use in titles of popular
music. It has been used playfully for people acting in an energetic fashion (Canadian
singer Nelly Furtado's "Promiscuous Girl") or as a way of unifying women of all ages on the
basis of their once having been girls (American country singer Martina McBride's "This One's
for the Girls"). These positive uses mean gender rather than age.

History

Princess Neferure as a girl, sitting on the lap of her tutor Senenmut. Girls andwomen in Ancient
Egyptenjoyed a relatively high social status.

The status of girls throughout world history is closely related to the status of women in any
culture. Where women enjoy a more equal status with men, girls benefit from greater
attention to their needs.

Girls' education
In Ancient Egypt, the princess Neferure grew up under the reign of her mother, the woman
Pharaoh Hatshepsut, who had inherited the throne after the death of her husband Thutmose
II.Women in Ancient Egypt had a relatively high status in society, and as the daughter of the
pharaoh, Neferura was provided with the best education possible. Her tutors were the most
trusted advisors of her mother. She grew up to take on an important role by taking on the
duties of a queen while her mother was pharaoh.[5] Despite the fact that women and men had
a great deal of equality in Ancient Egypt, there were still important divisions in gender roles.
Men worked as scribes for the government, for example, whereas women would often work
at occupations tied to the home, such as farming, baking bread and brewing beer; however,
a large number of women, particularly from the upper classes, worked in business and
traded at markets, as perfumers, and some women also worked in temples. For this reason,
girls' and boys' education differed. Boys could attend formal schools to learn how to read,
write, and do math, while girls would be educated at home to learn the occupations of their
mothers. Some women did become literate and were scholars, however, such as Hypatia.[6][7]

The future Elizabeth Iof England at age 13 years.

Girls' formal education has traditionally been considered far less important than that of boys.
In Europe, exceptions were rare before the printing press and the Reformation made literacy
more widespread. One notable exception to the general neglect of girls' literacy is

Queen Elizabeth I. In her case, as a child she was in a precarious position as a possible heir
to the throne, and her life was in fact endangered by the political scheming of other powerful
members of the court. Following the execution of her mother, Anne Boleyn, Elizabeth was
considered illegitimate. Her education was for the most part ignored by Henry VIII.
Remarkably, Henry VIII's widow, Catherine Parr, took an interest in the high intelligence of
Elizabeth, and supported the decision to provide her with an impressive education after
Henry's death, starting when Elizabeth was 9.[8] Elizabeth received an education equal to that
of a prominent male aristocrat; she was educated in Latin, Greek, Spanish, French,
philosophy, history, mathematics and music. England reaped the reward of her rich
education when circumstances resulted in her becoming a capable monarch.
By the 18th century, Europeans recognized the value of literacy, and schools were opened to
educate the public in growing numbers. Education in the Age of Enlightenment in France led
to up to a third of women becoming literate by the time of the French Revolution, contrasting
with roughly half of men by that time.[9] However, education was still not considered as
important for girls as for boys, who were being trained for professions that remained closed
to women, and girls were not admitted to secondary level schools in France until the late
19th century. Girls were not entitled to receive a Baccalaureate diploma in France until the
reforms of 1924 under education minister Lon Brard. Schools were segregated in France
until the end of World War II. Since then, compulsory education laws have raised the
education of girls and young women throughout Europe.

"Coming of age" customs

Bat mitzvah in Israel

Many cultures have traditional customs to mark the "coming of age" of a girl or boy, to
recognize their transition to adulthood, or to mark other milestones of their journey to
maturity as children.
Japan has a coming-of-age ritual called Shichi-Go-San (), which literally means
"Seven-Five-Three". This is a traditional rite of passage and festival day in Japan for threeand seven-year-old girls and three- and five-year-old boys, held annually on November 15. It
is generally observed on the nearest weekend. On this day, the girl will be dressed in a
traditional kimono, and will be taken to a temple by her family for a blessing ceremony.
Nowadays, the occasion is also marked with a formal photo portrait.
Some coming-of-age ceremonies are religious rituals to recognize a girl's maturity with
respect to her understanding of religious beliefs, and to recognize her changing role in her
religious community. Confirmation is a ceremony common to many Christian denominations
for both boys and girls, usually taking place when the child is in their teen years. In Roman
Catholic communities, Confirmation ceremonies are considered one of
seven sacraments that a Catholic may receive during their life. In many countries, it is
traditional for Catholics children to undergo another sacrament, First Communion, at the age

of 7 years old. The sacrament is usually performed in a church once a year, with children
who are of age receive a blessing from a Bishop in a special ceremony. It is traditional in
many countries for Catholic girls to wear white dresses and possibly a small veil or wreath of
flowers in their hair to their First Communion. The white dress symbolizes spiritual purity.
Many coming-of-age ceremonies are to acknowledge the passing of a girl through puberty,
when she experiences menarche, or her first menstruation. The traditional Apache comingof-age ceremony for girls is called the na'ii'ees (Sunrise Ceremony), and takes place over
four days. The girls are painted with clay and pollen, which they must not wash off until the
end of the rituals, which involve dancing and rituals that challenge physical strength. Girls
are given teaching in aspects of sexuality, confidence, and healing ability. The girls pray in
the direction of the east at dawn, and in the four cardinal directions, which represent the four
stages of life. This ceremony was banned by the U.S. government for many decades; after
being decriminalized by the Indian Religious Freedom Act in 1978, it has seen a revival. [10]

Preparing girls for marriage

Cooking class at a girls' school inJerusalem, c. 1936. Girls' upbringing and education was traditionally
focused on preparing them to be future wives.

In many ancient societies, girls' upbringing had much to do with preparing them to be future
wives. In many cultures, it was not the norm for women to be economically independent.
Thus, where a girl's future well-being depended upon marrying her to a man who was
economically self-sufficient, it was crucial to prepare her to meet whatever qualities or skills
were popularly expected of wives.
In cultures ranging from Ancient Greece to the 19th-century United States, girls have been
taught such essential domestic skills as sewing, cooking, gardening, and basic hygiene and
medical care such as preparing balms and salves, and in some cases midwife skills. These
skills would be taught from generation to generation, with the knowledge passed down orally
from mother to daughter. A well-known reference to these important women's skills is in the
folk tale Rumpelstiltskin, which dates back to Medieval Germany and was collected in written
form by the folklorists the Brothers Grimm. The miller's daughter is valued as a potential wife
because of her reputation for being able to spin straw into gold.
In some parts of China, beginning in the Southern Tang kingdom in Nanjing (937-975), the
custom of foot binding was associated with upper class women who were worthy of a life of
leisure, and husbands who could afford to spare them the necessity of work (which would
require the ability to be mobile and spend the day on their feet). Because of this belief,
parents hoping to ensure a good marriage for their daughters would begin binding their feet

from about the age of seven years old to achieve the ideal appearance. The tinier the feet,
the better the social rank of a future husband. This practice did not end until the early years
of the 20th century.[11]
China has had many customs tied to girls and their roles as future wives and mothers.
According to one custom, a girl's way of wearing her hair would indicate her marital status.
An unmarried girl would wear her hair in two "pigtails", and once married, she would wear
her hair in one.[12]
In some cultures, girls' passing through puberty is viewed with concern for a girl's chastity. In
some communities, there is a traditional belief that female genital mutilation is a necessity to
prevent a girl from becoming sexually promiscuous. The practice is dangerous, however, and
leads to long-term health problems for women who have undergone it. The practice has
been a custom in 28 countries of Africa, and persists mainly in rural areas. This coming-ofage custom, sometimes incorrectly described as "female circumcision", is being outlawed by
governments, and challenged by human rights groups and other concerned community
members, who are working to end the practice.

Demographics
See also: Female infanticide

Boys to girls ratio, age below 15 (per 2006 worldwide data). Blue: below 0.99; White: 1.0-1.13; Red:
above 1.13

Slightly more boys are born than girls (in the US this ratio is about 105 boys born for every
100 girls),[13] but girls are slightly less likely to die than boys, during childhood, so that the
ratio for under 15 years of age varies between 103 and 108 boys for every 100 girls.[14][15]
In India, by 2011, there were 91 girls younger than 6 for every 100 boys. Its 2011 census
showed[16] that the ratio of girls to boys under the age of 6 years old has dropped even during
the past decade, from 927 girls for every 1000 boys in 2001 to 918 girls for every 1000 boys
in 2011. In China, scholars[17] report 794 baby girls for every 1000 baby boys in rural regions.
In Azerbaijan, last 20 years of birth data suggests 862 girls were born for every 1000 boys,
on average every year.[18] Steven Mosher, president of the Population Research Institute in
Washington, D.C. has said: "Twenty-five million men in Chinacurrently cant find brides
because there is a shortage of women [...] young men emigrate overseas to find brides." The
gender imbalance in these regions is also blamed for spurring growth in the commercial sex
trade; the UN's 2005 report states that up to 800,000 people being trafficked across borders
each year, and as many as 80 percent are women and girls.[19]
Scholars are unclear and in dispute as to possible causes for variations in human sex ratios
at birth.[20][21] Deviations in sex ratio at birth can occur for natural causes. For example, in
2012, Liechtenstein reported a sex ratio of 1.26 at birth (or 794 girls for every 1,000 boys).[22]

Biology

A girl plays with paper dolls. Biological sex interacts with environment in ways not fully understood.

Girls develop female characteristics by inheriting two X chromosomes (XX), one from each
parent.[23]
About one in a thousand girls have a 47,XXX karyotype, and one in 2500 have a 45,X one.
Girls typically have a female reproductive system. Some intersex children with ambiguous
genitals, some transgender children, originally assigned male at birth, may also be classified
or self-identify as girls.[24]
Girls' bodies undergo gradual changes during puberty. Puberty is the process of physical
changes by which a child's body matures into an adult body capable of sexual
reproduction to enable fertilisation. It is initiated by hormonal signals from the brain to
the gonads. In response to the signals, the gonads produce hormones that
stimulate libido and the growth, function, and transformation of
the brain, bones, muscle, blood, skin, hair, breasts, and sexual organs. Physical growth
height and weightaccelerates in the first half of puberty and is completed when the child
has developed an adult body. Until the maturation of their reproductive capabilities, the prepubertal, physical differences between boys and girls are the genitalia, thepenis and
the vagina. Puberty is a process that usually takes place between the ages 1016, but these
ages differ from girl to girl. The major landmark of girls' puberty is menarche, the onset
of menstruation, which occurs on average between ages 1213.[25][26][27][28]

Gender and environment

Biological sex interacts with environment in ways not fully understood.[29] Identical twin girls
separated at birth and reunited decades later have shown both startling similarities and
differences.[30] In 2005 Kim Wallen of Emory University noted, "I think the 'nature versus
nurture' question is not meaningful, because it treats them as independent factors, whereas
in fact everything is nature and nurture." Wallen said gender differences emerge very early
and come about through an underlying preference males and females have for their chosen
activities.

Girls' education
Main articles: Female education and Gender and education

Above: School girls in Afghanistan; Midle: Malala Yousafzai, a Pakistanigirl who was shot in the head
and neck for going to school, by Taliban gunmen. The Taliban also destroyed 100 other girl schools in
the region.;[31] Below: School girls in Haiti with OLPC laptop

Girls' equal access to education has been achieved in some countries, but there are
significant disparities in the majority. There are gaps in access between different regions and
countries and even within countries. Girls account for 60 per cent of children out of school in
Arab countries and 66 per cent of non-attendees in South and West Asia; however, more
girls than boys attend schools in many countries in Latin America, the Caribbean, North
America and Western Europe.[32] Research has measured the economic cost of this
inequality to developing countries: Plan Internationals analysis shows that a total of 65 low,
middle income and transition countries fail to offer girls the same secondary school
opportunities as boys, and in total, these countries are missing out on annual economic
growth of an estimated $92 billion.[32]

Although the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights has asserted
"primary education shall be compulsory and available free to all" girls are slightly less likely
to be enrolled as students in primary and secondary schools (70%:74% and 59%:65%).
Worldwide efforts have been made to end this disparity (such as through theMillennium
Development Goals) and the gap has closed since 1990.[33]

Educational environment and expectations

According to Kim Wallen, expectations will nonetheless play a role in how girls perform
academically. For example, if females skilled in math are told a test is "gender neutral" they
achieve high scores, but if they are told males outperformed females in the past, the females
will do much worse. "Whats strange is," Wallen observed, "according to the research, all one
apparently has to do is tell a woman who has a lifetime of socialization of being poor in math
that a math test is gender neutral, and all effects of that socialization go
away."[34] Author Judith Harris has said that aside from their genetic contribution, the
nurturing provided by parents likely has less long-term influence over their offspring than
other environmental aspects such as the children's peer group.[35]
In England, studies by the National Literacy Trust have shown girls score consistently higher
than boys in all scholastic areas from the ages of 7 through 16, with the most striking
differences noted in reading and writing skills.[36] In the United States, historically, girls lagged
on standardized tests. In 1996 the average score of 503 for US girls from all races on
the SAT verbal test was 4 points lower than boys. In math, the average for girls was 492,
which was 35 points lower than boys. "When girls take the exact same courses," commented
Wayne Camara, a research scientist with the College Board, "that 35-point gap dissipates
quite a bit." At the time Leslie R. Wolfe, president of the Center for Women Policy Studies
said girls scored differently on the math tests because they tend to work the problems out
while boys use "test-taking tricks" such as immediately checking the answers already given
in multiple-choice questions. Wolfe said girls are steady and thorough while "boys play this
test like a pin-ball machine." Wolfe also said although girls had lower SAT scores they
consistently get higher grades than boys across all courses in their first year in college.[37] By
2006 girls were outscoring boys on the verbal portion of the United States'
nationwide SAT exam by 11 points.[38] A 2005 University of Chicago study showed that a
majority presence of girls in the classroom tends to enhance the academic performance of
boys.[39][40]

Obstacles to girls' access to education

School girls in Mumbai, India

In many parts of the world, girls face significant obstacles to accessing proper education.
These obstacles include: early and forced marriages; early pregnancy; prejudice based on
gender stereotypes at home, at school and in the community; violence on the way to school,
or in and around schools; long distances to schools; vulnerability to the HIV epidemic; school

fees, which often lead to parents sending only their sons to school; lack of gender sensitive
approaches and materials in classrooms.[41][42][43]

Violence against girls

Millions of girls, some less than 1 year old, undergo ritual female genital mutilation (FGM) every year.
This practice is found in parts of Africa,[44]some Middle East countries such as Iraq and
Yemen,[45][46] Malaysia and Indonesia.[47][48] A worldwide campaign is underway to prevent FGM/C and
other violence against girls.

In many parts of the world, girls are at risk of specific forms of violence and abuse, such
as sex-selective abortion, female genital mutilation, child marriage, child sexual abuse, honor
killings.
In parts of the world, especially in East Asia, South Asia and some Western countries' girls
are sometimes seen as unwanted; in some cases, girls are selectively aborted, abused,
mistreated or abandoned by their parents or relatives.[49][50] In China, boys exceed girls by
more than 30 million, suggesting over a million excess boys are born every year than
expected for normal human sex ratio at birth.[17] In India, scholars[51] estimate from boy to girl
ratio at birth that sex-selective abortions cause a loss of about 1.5%, or 100,000 female
births per year. Abnormal boy to girl ratio at birth is also seen in Georgia, Azerbaijan and
Armenia, suggesting possible sex-selective abortions against girls.[52]
Female genital mutilation (FGM) is defined by the World Health Organization (WHO) as "all
procedures that involve partial or total removal of the external female genitalia, or other injury
to the female genital organs for non-medical reasons."[53] It is practiced mainly in 28 countries
in western, eastern, and north-eastern Africa, particularly Egypt and Ethiopia, and in parts of
Southeast Asia and the Middle East.[54] FGM is most often carried out on girls aged between
infancy and 15 years.[55]
Child marriages, where girls are married at young ages (often forced and often to much older
husbands) remain common in many parts of the world. They are fairly widespread in parts of
the world, especially in Africa,[56][57] South Asia,[58] Southeast and East Asia,[59][60] the Middle
East,[61][62] Latin America,[63] and Oceania.[64] The ten countries with the highest rates of child
marriage are: Niger, Chad, Central African Republic, Bangladesh, Guinea, Mozambique,
Mali, Burkina Faso, South Sudan, and Malawi.[65]
Child sexual abuse (CSA) is a form of child abuse in which an adult or older adolescent uses
a child for sexual stimulation.[66][67] In Western countries CSA is considered a serious crime,
but in many parts of the world there is a tacit tolerance of the practice. CSA can take many
forms, one of which is child prostitution. Child prostitution is thecommercial sexual
exploitation of children in which a child performs the services of prostitution, for financial
benefit. It is estimated that each year at least one million children, mostly girls, become
prostitutes.[68] Child prostitution is common in many parts of the world, especially in Southeast

Asia (Thailand, Cambodia), and many adults from wealthy countries travel to these regions
to engage in child sex tourism.
In many parts of the world, girls who are deemed to have tarnished the 'honor' of their
families by refusing arranged marriages, having premarital sex, dressing in ways deemed
inappropriate or even becoming the victims of rape, are at risk of honor killing by their
families.[69]

Girls and child labor

Girls employed in different forms of child labour in Central America.

Further information: Domestic worker

Gender influences the pattern of child labor. Girls tend to be asked by their families to
perform more domestic work in their parental home then boys are, and often at younger ages
than boys. Employment as a paid domestic worker is the most common form of child labor
for girls. In some places, such as East and South- East Asia, parents often see work as a
domestic servant as a good preparation for marriage. Domestic service, however, is among
the least regulated of all professions, and exposes workers to serious risks, such as
violence, exploitation and abuse by the employers, because the workers are often isolated
from the outside world. Child labor has a very negative effect on education. Girls either stop
their education, or, when they continue it, they are often subjected to a double burden, or a
triple burden of work outside the home, housework in the parental home, and schoolwork.
This situation is common in places such as parts of Asia and Latin America.[70][71]

International initiatives for girls' rights

Tamil girls playing

The United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child (1988) and Millennium
Development Goals (2000) promoted better access to education for all girls and boys and to
eliminate gender disparities at both primary and secondary level. Worldwide school

enrolment and literacy rates for girls have improved continuously. 2005, global primary net
enrolment rates were 85 per cent for girls, up from 78 per cent 15 years earlier; at the
secondary level, girls enrolment increased 10 percentage points to 57 per cent over the
same period.[32]
A number of international non-governmental organizations (NGOs) have created programs
focussing on addressing disparities in girls' access to such necessities as food, healthcare
and education. CAMFED is one organization active in providing education to girls in subSaharan Africa. PLAN International's "Because I am a Girl" campaign is a high-profile
example of such initiatives. PLAN's research has shown that educating girls can have a
powerful ripple effect, boosting the economies of their towns and villages; providing girls with
access to education has also been demonstrated to improve community understanding of
health matters, reducing HIV rates, improving nutritional awareness, reducing birthrates and
improving infant health. Research demonstrates that a girl who has received an education
will:

Earn up to 25 percent more and reinvest 90 percent in her family.

Be three times less likely to become HIV-positive.
Have fewer, healthier children who are 40 percent more likely to live past the age of
five.[72]

Plan International also created a campaign to establish an International Day of the Girl. The
goals of this initiative are to raise global awareness of the unique challenges facing girls, as
well as the key role they have in addressing larger poverty and development challenges. A
delegation of girls from Plan Canada introduced the idea to Rona Ambrose, Canada's
Minister of Public Works and Government Services and Minister for Status of Women, at the
55th Session of the Commission on the Status of Women at United Nations Headquarters in
February 2011. In March 2011, Canada's Parliament unanimously adopted a motion
requesting that Canada take the lead at the United Nations in the initiative to proclaim an
International Day of the Girl.[73] The General Assembly of the United Nations adopted
an International Day of the Girl Child on December 19, 2011. The first International Day of
the Girl Child is October 11, 2012.
Its most recent research has led PLAN International to identify a need to coordinate projects
that address boys' roles in their communities, as well as finding ways of including boys in
activities that reduce gender discrimination. Since political, religious and local community
leaders are most often men, men and boys have great influence over any effort to improve
girls' lives and achieve gender equality. PLAN International's 2011 Annual Report points out
that men have more influence and may be able to convince communities to curb early
marriage and female genital mutilation (FGM) more effectively than women. Egyptian
religious leader Sheikh Saad, who has campaigned against the practice, is quoted in the
report: We have decided that our daughter will not go through this bad, inhumane
experience [...] I am part of the change.[74]

Art and literature

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2013)

Peter Paul Rubens - Portrait of a Young Girl

The Time Of The Lilacs, by Sophie Gengembre Anderson.

Historically, art and literature in Western culture has portrayed girls as symbols of innocence,
purity, virtue and hope. Egyptian murals included sympathetic portraits of young girls who
were daughters of royalty. Sappho's poetry carries love poems addressed to girls.
In Europe, some early paintings featuring girls were Petrus Christus' Portrait of a Young
Girl (about 1460), Juan de Flandes' Portrait of a Young Girl (about 1505), Frans Hals' Die
Amme mit dem Kind in 1620, Diego Velzquez' Las Meninas in 1656, Jan Steen's The Feast
of St. Nicolas (about 1660) and Johannes Vermeer's Girl with a Pearl Earring along with 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.
Mary Cassatt painted many famous Impressionist works that idealize the innocence of girls
and the mother-daughter bond, for example her 1884 workChildren on the Beach. During the
same era, Whistler's Harmony in Gray and Green: Miss Cicely Alexander and The White
Girl depict girls in the same light.
The European children's literature canon includes many notable works with young female
protagonists. Traditional fairy tales have preserved memorable stories about girls. Among
these are Goldilocks and the Three Bears, Rapunzel, The Princess and the Pea and
the Brothers Grimm's Little Red Riding Hood. Well-known children's books about girls
include Alice in Wonderland, Heidi, The Wonderful Wizard of Oz, the Nancy
Drew series, Little House on the Prairie, Madeline, Pippi Longstocking, A Wrinkle in
Time,Dragonsong, and Little Women.
Beginning in the late Victorian era, more nuanced depictions of girl protagonists became
popular. Hans Christian Andersen's The Little Match Girl, The Little Mermaid, and other tales
featured themes that ventured into tragedy. Alice's Adventures in Wonderland by Lewis
Carroll featured a widely noted female protagonist confronting eccentric characters and
intellectual puzzles in surreal settings. Moreover, Carroll's controversial photographs of girls
are often cited in histories of photographic art. Literature followed different cultural currents,
sometimes romanticizing and idealizing girlhood, and at other times developing under the
influence of the growing literary realism movement. Many Victorian novels begin with the

childhood of their heroine, such as Jane Eyre, an orphan who suffers ill treatment from her
guardians and then at a girls' boarding school. The character Natasha in War and Peace, on
the other hand, is sentimentalized. By the 20th century, the portrayal of girls in fiction had for
the most part abandoned idealized portrayals of girls. Popular literary novels include Harper
Lee's To Kill a Mockingbird in which a young girl, Scout, is faced with the awareness of the
forces of bigotry in her community. Vladimir Nabokov's controversial book Lolita(1955) is
about a doomed relationship between a 12-year-old girl and an adult scholar as they travel
across the United States. Zazie dans le mtro (Zazie in the Metro) (1959) by Raymond
Queneau is a popular French novel that humorously celebrates the innocence and precocity
of Zazie, who ventures off on her own to explore Paris, escaping from her uncle (a
professional female impersonator) and her mother (who is preoccupied by a meeting with her
lover). Zazie was also made into a popular movie in 1960 (Zazie dans le mtro) by French
director Louis Malle.
Books which have both boy and girl protagonists have tended to focus more on the boys, but
important girl characters appear in Knight's Castle, The Lion, the Witch and the
Wardrobe, The Book of Three and theHarry Potter series.
Recent novels with an adult audience have included reflections on girlhood
experiences. Memoirs of a Geisha by Arthur Golden begins as the female main character
and her sister are dropped off in the pleasure district after being separated from their family
in 19th-century Japan. "Snow Flower and the Secret Fan" by Lisa See traces the laotong (old
sames) bond of friendship between a pair of childhood friends in modernBeijing, and the
parallel friendship of their ancestors in 19th-century Hunan, China.

Popular culture

Girl and doves, 1969

There have been many American comic books and comic strips featuring a girl as the main
character such as Little Lulu and Little Orphan Annie. 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.
In Japanese animated cartoons and comic books girls are often protagonists. Most of Hayao
Miyazaki's animated films feature a young girl heroine, as in Majo no takkybin (Kiki's
Delivery Service). There are many other girl protagonists in the shjo style of manga, which
is targeted to girls as an audience. Among these are The Wallflower, Ceres, Celestial

Legend, Tokyo Mew Mew and Full Moon o Sagashite. Meanwhile, some genres of Japanese
cartoons may feature sexualized and objectified portrayals of girls.
The term girl is widely heard in the lyrics of popular music (such as with the song "About a
Girl"), most often meaning a young adult or teenaged female.

Girls' games and other pastimes

Further information: Girls' games and toys
Girls' pastimes, such as games and other leisure activities, reflect the customs of their
communities. Girls' games and toys are a large yet difficult market for the children's toy
industry. Creating games and toys that can be mass-marketed to girls is challenging for
today's toy companies.

A girl applying henna art in Morocco

Cambodian girls on bicycle

Girl in Turkey practicing gymnastics

Jakun girls playing pick-up sticks, Malaysia