A girl is any female human from birth through childhood and adolescence to attainment of adulthood. The term may also be used to mean a ''young woman''.

Etymology

The 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''). The Anglo-Saxon word ''gerela'' meaning ''dress'' or ''clothing item'' also seems to have been used as a metonym in some sense. ''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.

Usage for adults

The word ''girl'' is sometimes used to refer to an adult female. 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. 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 (Furtado's "Promiscuous Girl") or as a way of unifying women of all ages on the basis of their once having been girls (McBride's "This One's for the Girls"). These positive uses mean ''gender'' rather than ''age''.

Demographics

Slightly more boys are born than girls (in the US this ratio is about 105 boys born for every 100 girls), but girls are slightly less likely to die than boys, during childhood, so that the ratio for under 15 years of age is 104 boys for every 100 girls. Since the 18th century the human sex ratio has been observed as about 1,050 boys for every 1,000 girls born and sex selection on the part of parents further lessens the number of female births. 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 the Millennium Development Goals) and the gap has closed since 1990.

Gender and environment

Biological gender interacts with environment in ways not fully understood. Identical twin girls separated at birth and reunited decades later have shown both startling similarities and differences. 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.

According to 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. "What’s 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." 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. 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. 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 their first year in college. By 2006 girls were outscoring boys on the verbal portion of the SAT by 11 points. A 2005 University of Chicago study showed that a majority presence of girls in the classroom tends to enhance the academic performance of boys.

Art and literature

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 Velázquez' ''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''.

American paintings featuring 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).

Many novels begin with the childhood of their heroine, such as ''Jane Eyre'' who suffers ill treatment or Natasha in ''War and Peace'', who is sentimentalized. Other novels include Harper Lee's ''To Kill a Mockingbird'' in which a young girl is protagonist. 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. ''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.

''Alice's Adventures in Wonderland'' by Lewis Carroll featured a widely noted female protagonist. Moreover, Carroll's photographs of girls are often cited in histories of photographic art.

Popular culture

European fairy tales have preserved memorable stories about girls. Among these are ''Goldilocks and the Three Bears'', ''Rapunzel'', Hans Christian Andersen's ''The Little Match Girl'', ''The Little Mermaid'', ''The Princess and the Pea'' and the Brothers Grimm's ''Little Red Riding Hood''.

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. 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 the Harry Potter series.

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 takkyūbin'' (Kiki's Delivery Service). There are many other girl protagonists in the Shōjo 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.

See also

Boy

Female infanticide

Girl group

Girl Guides

Girl Power

Tomboy

Woman

Notes

Category:Childhood Category:Terms for females

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Ali Baba ( ''ʿAli Bāba'') is a fictional character from medieval Arabic literature. He is described in the adventure tale of ''Ali Baba and the Forty Thieves''. Some critics believe that this story was added to ''One Thousand and One Nights'' by one of its European translators, Antoine Galland, an 18th-century French orientalist who may have heard it in oral form from a Middle Eastern story-teller from Aleppo. However, Richard F. Burton claimed it to be part of the original ''One Thousand and One Nights''. The American Orientalist Duncan Black MacDonald discovered an Arabic-language manuscript of the legend at the Bodleian Library; however, it was later found to be counterfeited.

This story has been used as a popular pantomime plot such as in the pantomime/musical ''Chu Chin Chow'' (1916). Like many other folk tales frequently adapted for children, the original tale is darker and more violent than the more familiar bowdlerised versions. Popular perception of Ali Baba, and the way he is treated in popular media, sometimes implies that he was the leader of the "Forty Thieves": in the story he is actually an "honest man" whom fortune enables to take advantage of the thieves' robberies.

Story

Ali Baba and his elder brother Cassim are the sons of a merchant. After the death of their father, the greedy Cassim marries a wealthy woman and becomes well-to-do, building on their father's business—but Ali Baba marries a poor woman and settles into the trade of a woodcutter.

One day Ali Baba is at work collecting and cutting firewood in the forest, and he happens to overhear a group of forty thieves visiting their treasure store. The treasure is in a cave, the mouth of which is sealed by magic. It opens on the words "iftaH ya simsim" (commonly written as "Open Sesame" in English), and seals itself on the words "Close, Simsim" ("Close Sesame"). When the thieves are gone, Ali Baba enters the cave himself, and takes some of the treasure home. Ali Baba borrows his sister-in-law's scales to weigh this new wealth of gold coins. Unbeknownst to Ali, she puts a blob of wax in the scales to find out what Ali is using them for, as she is curious to know what kind of grain her impoverished brother-in-law needs to measure. To her shock, she finds a gold coin sticking to the scales and tells her husband, Ali Baba's rich and greedy brother, Cassim. Under pressure from his brother, Ali Baba is forced to reveal the secret of the cave. Cassim goes to the cave and enters with the magic words, but in his greed and excitement over the treasures forgets the magic words to get back out again. The thieves find him there, and kill him. When his brother does not come back, Ali Baba goes to the cave to look for him, and finds the body, quartered and with each piece displayed just inside the entrance of the cave to discourage any similar attempts in the future.

Ali Baba brings the body home, where he entrusts Morgiana, a clever slave-girl in Cassim's household, with the task of making others believe that Cassim has died a natural death. First, Morgiana purchases medicines from an apothecary, telling him that Cassim is gravely ill. Then, she finds an old tailor known as Baba Mustafa whom she pays, blindfolds, and leads to Cassim's house. There, overnight, the tailor stitches the pieces of Cassim's body back together, so that no one will be suspicious. Ali and his family are able to give Cassim a proper burial without anyone asking awkward questions.

The thieves, finding the body gone, realize that yet another person must know their secret, and set out to track him down. One of the thieves goes down to the town and comes across Baba Mustafa, who mentions that he has just sewn a dead man's body back together. Realizing that the dead man must have been the thieves' victim, the thief asks Baba Mustafa to lead the way to the house where the deed was performed. The tailor is blindfolded again, and in this state he is able to retrace his steps and find the house. The thief marks the door with a symbol. The plan is for the other thieves to come back that night and kill everyone in the house. However, the thief has been seen by Morgiana and she, loyal to her master, foils his plan by marking all the houses in the neighborhood with a similar marking. When the 40 thieves return that night, they cannot identify the correct house and the head thief kills the lesser thief. The next day, another thief revisits Baba Mustafa and tries again, only this time, a chunk is chipped out of the stone step at Ali Baba's front door. Again Morgiana foils the plan by making similar chips in all the other doorsteps. The second thief is killed for his stupidity as well. At last, the head thief goes and looks for himself. This time, he memorizes every detail he can of the exterior of Ali Baba's house.

The chief of the thieves pretends to be an oil merchant in need of Ali Baba's hospitality, bringing with him mules loaded with thirty-eight oil jars, one filled with oil, the other thirty-seven hiding the other remaining thieves. Once Ali Baba is asleep, the thieves plan to kill him. Again, Morgiana discovers and foils the plan, killing the thirty-seven thieves in their oil jars by pouring boiling oil on them. When their leader comes to rouse his men, he discovers that they are dead, and escapes.

To exact revenge, after some time the thief establishes himself as a merchant, befriends Ali Baba's son (who is now in charge of the late Cassim's business), and is invited to dinner at Ali Baba's house. The thief is recognized by Morgiana, who performs a dance with a dagger for the diners and plunges it into the heart of the thief when he is off his guard. Ali Baba is at first angry with Morgiana, but when he finds out the thief tried to kill him, he gives Morgiana her freedom and marries her to his son. Ali Baba is then left as the only one knowing the secret of the treasure in the cave and how to access it. Thus, the story ends happily for everyone except the forty thieves and Cassim.

Adaptations

The story was made into an Egyptian movie in 1942 as "Ali Baba We El Arbeen Haramy" (Alibaba and the Forty Thieves), with Ali AlKassar playing the lead as Ali Baba, and the comedian actor Ismail Yasin as his assistant.

A French film ''Ali Baba et les quarante voleurs'' starring Fernandel and Samia Gamal (1954).

A French telefilm starring Gérard Jugnot and Catherine Zeta-Jones (2007).

In 1970s Alibaba story was adapted in a Bengali film called 'Morgiana Abdulla'.

A Soviet-Indian joint film of 1979 ''Ali Baba aur 40 Chor'', starring Dharmendra, Hema Malini, Rolan Bykov and Zeenat Aman, was largely based on this adventure tale.

A Malaysian comedy film, ''Ali Baba Bujang Lapok'' (1960) which quite faithfully adhered to the tale's plot details, but introduced a number of anachronisms for humour, for example the usage of a truck by Kassim Baba to steal the robbers' loot.

The story was made into a Tamil language movie in 1955-56 titled Alibabavum Narpadhu Thirudargalum ("Ali Baba and the Forty Thieves"), with M. G. Ramachandran playing the lead as Ali Baba and Bhanumathi Ramakrishna as Morgiana.

The story was adapted in the 1971 anime , storyboarded by Hayao Miyazaki.

The concept of Ali Baba and the Forty Thieves was used for the last installment of Disney's Aladdin series, ''Aladdin and the King of Thieves'', released in 1996, introducing Cassim the King of Thieves as Aladdin's father.

In the television mini-series ''Arabian Nights'', the story is told faithfully with two major changes. The first is that when Morgiana discovers the thieves in the oil jars, she alerts Ali Baba and together with a friend, they release the jars on a street with a steep incline and allow them roll down to break open. Furthermore, the city guard is alerted and arrest the disoriented thieves as they emerge from their containers. Later when Morgiana defeats the thief leader, Ali Baba, who is young and has no children, marries the heroine himself.

A film adaption ''Ali Baba and the Forty Thieves'' was made in 1944. The film was remade in 1965 as ''The Sword of Ali Baba''. Frank Puglia portrayed the character named Kassim in both versions.

At the United States Air Force Academy, Cadet Squadron 40 was originally nicknamed "Ali Baba and the Forty Thieves" before eventually changing its name to the "P-40 Warhawks"

A mythopoeic novel by Tom Holt, 'Open Sesame', is based on characters from the story of "Ali Baba and the Forty Thieves"

In other media

A 1981 computer video game by Quality Software.

A 1982 arcade video game by Taito.

A Tamil movie featuring Krishna Kulasekaran

In the video game Sonic and the Secret Rings, Miles "Tails" Prower is Ali Baba. Despite the fact that the forty thieves appear in the game as spirits and reanimated skeletons, he has no involvement with them at all.

In the MASH episode, "The Novocaine Mutiny," Frank Burns accuses Benjamin Pierce of mutiny. When Pierce displays his typical nonchalance, Burns states: "Ali Baba 'til the very end, aren't you?"

A Merrie Melodies Bugs Bunny/Daffy Duck cartoon, Ali Baba Bunny, has a similar premise to the concept of the treasure-filled magical cave, in which Daffy Duck is consumed by the same greed as Cassim.

A Looney Tunes cartoon with Porky Pig called Ali-Baba Bound, but this one portrays Ali Baba as a villain who attempts to attack the desert fort.

In a song "Ali Baba's Camel" by Noel Gay Ali Baba is specifically identified ("Forty thieves had he"). This song is now best known in the cover version by the Bonzo Dog Doo-Dah Band. Joint credit to Hulton (who?) is sometimes given; e.g. with the blessing of Neil Innes at .

In the Beastie Boys song "Rhymin & Stealin" they make reference to Ali Baba and the forty thieves.

A John Holt song, Ali Baba

''Ali Baba and the Forty Thieves'', a computer game for the Apple II published in 1982.

In the video game ''Spyro: Enter the Dragonfly'' the level ''Thieves' Den'' is a parody of the tale.

Dark Lotus of Psychopathic records has a song named Ali Baba.

A Popeye Cartoon, Popeye the Sailor Meets Ali Baba's Forty Thieves, features Popeye meeting, and defeating the titular group. (In typical Popeye fashion, he uses the famous command to open a can of spinach, but pronounces it "open, sez me!")

In the video game Sly 3: Honor Among Thieves, it is said that one of Sly Cooper's ancestors, Salim al Kupar of Arabia, had the stealth of forty-thieves. It is not said if this ancestor was part of the forty-thieves however.

A Los Garcias' song, Ali Baba

A Dara Puspita song, Ali Baba

In the video game Diablo II, "The Blade of Ali Baba" is the name of a unique sword that can be found, it increases the amount of gold and magical items dropped by monsters when it is used to slay them.

In the Sean Biggs (ft. Akon) song, "Never Gonna Get It" there is a reference to "chains hangin' like Ali Baba".

In the Disney film ''Aladdin'' there are several references to the story. During the Genie's song "Friend like Me" he lists the benefits other heroes have had in their adventures, including "Ali Baba had them forty thieves". Another possible reference is Aladdin's alias "Prince Ali Ababwa", which is very similar to Ali Baba. Also, in ''Aladdin and the King of Thieves'' the forty thieves play an integral part in the story. However the story is very different than the original Ali Baba story, particularly Cassim's new role as the King of Thieves.

A large illuminated tableau created for Blackpool Illuminations in 2005.

In the MMORPG (Massive Multiplayer Online Role Playing Game) Granado Espada and all its counterparts in other countries, a "cash shop" costume is named Ali Baba. This costume belongs to Alejandro, One of the Unique Player Characters in the game.

In the MMORPG (Massive Multiplayer Online Role Playing Game) Tales Runner an indirect reference is made to Ali Baba, a map is named Ali Baba Map.

In the 3CE song 'Take You To The Edge' the lyrics say 'Ali Baba had 40 thieves'

In Command & Conquer: Generals – Zero Hour, Mission 4 of the GLA campaign is named Jarmen Kell and the Forty Thieves making a reference to Ali Baba and the 40 thieves although Jarmen Kell was only sent together with a few Hijackers and Rebels that number less than 40.

In the video game Team Fortress 2, "Ali Baba's Wee Booties" is the name of a weapon the Demoman can equip, it increases your maximum health and increases turning speed while charging.

The forty thieves were featured in the second ''Dinosaur King'' series. This group was led by Zayid who was in collaboration with the Sultan's Prime Minister Rasheed in a plot to dispose of Princess Zahrah and overthrow the sultan. They were defeated by the D-Team during their visit to Ancient Persia.

Iraq War

The name Ali Baba was often used as derogatory slang by American and Iraqi soldiers and their allies in the War in Iraq to describe individuals suspected of a variety of offenses related to theft and looting. British soldiers routinely used the term to refer to Iraqi civilians. In the subsequent occupation it is used as a general term for the insurgents, similar to Charlie for the Viet Cong in the Vietnam War.

Due to interaction of the two peoples, the term Ali Baba was adopted by the Iraqis to describe foreign troops suspected of looting, and the English-speaking mainstream press mistakenly reported the slang to be native to the locals.

References

External links

"Ali Baba and the Forty Thieves" (e-text, in English)

Waller Hastings, "Ali Baba and the forty Thieves": essay

Ali Baba and the Forty Thieves and Arabian Nights and The Sword of Ali Baba at the Internet Movie Database

Category:One Thousand and One Nights Category:One Thousand and One Nights characters Category:Fictional Arab people Category:Fictional Iraqi people Category:Iraq in fiction Category:Fictional outlaws Category:Fictional criminals

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