Valley girls
Valley girls are a cultural stereotype that emerged in the 1980s, primarily associated with affluent white teenage girls from the San Fernando Valley in Los Angeles. This archetype is characterized by a distinct appearance—often featuring bleached-blond hair and fashionable clothing—as well as behaviors that are perceived as self-centered and lacking in intelligence. The Valley girl figure became a cultural icon through media representations, notably in films like *Valley Girl* (1983) and in numerous other movies and television shows that followed, portraying them as wealthy, fashion-obsessed individuals who frequent shopping malls and prioritize social status.
The term "Valspeak" refers to a unique dialect used by Valley girls, characterized by the use of casual phrases and exaggerated vocal inflections that convey a sense of frivolity and superficiality. This stereotype has influenced American culture, particularly in teen fashion, language, and attitudes, often being used pejoratively to describe someone as shallow or materialistic. Despite its origins in a specific demographic, the Valley girl trope has evolved and remains relevant in discussions about cultural perceptions of femininity and consumerism, resonating with ongoing dialogues about stereotypes and identity in modern society.
Valley girls
Pop-culture female icons representing self-centered, spoiled, wealthy, sexually promiscuous teenage girls
The 1980’s gave rise to the Valley girl icon of the dim-witted, sexy, spoiled teenage girl, which in time gained in popularity and remains a twenty-first century icon.
Although the Valley girl does not exist in reality, the image of her was established during the 1980’s as a caricature of spoiled, wealthy, usually privileged white teenage girls. Although the expression “Valley girl” originated in the 1980’s San Fernando Valley of Los Angeles, the Valley girl figure, strongly resembling a walking and talking Barbie doll, remains a cultural icon, generally depicted as a young woman with bleached-blond hair who is skinny, sexy, enormously rich, entirely self-centered, and brainless.
In 1980’s magazines, the ever-evolving Valley girl image sold cosmetics and fashions to an enormous teenage market and became a popular trope in film that would last into the twenty-first century. In 1982, Frank Zappa released “Valley Girl,” a song containing typical Valley girl expressions, in an effort to satirize the trend and illustrate how the image had come to represent the dumbing down of America. His attempt backfired: The Valley girl image became even more popular. The following year, the movie Valley Girl (1983), featuring Nicolas Cage and Deborah Foreman, was well received; it portrayed the relationship of a punk teenage boy and a Valley girl in the setting of a high school prom. The stereotype resonated with audiences and established the icon.
The Stereotypical Valley Girl
First on the Valley girl’s checklist of characteristics is her wealth, or rather her parents’ wealth, which is conspicuously displayed upon her, and around her. With her clique of other Valley girls in tow, she flits around the local shopping mall from store to store. The mall is her natural habitat, where she spends most of her time paying no attention to the price tags of fashionable clothes and accessories while flashing a variety of platinum credit cards.
For the Valley girl, fashion is foremost; she must own and wear the latest styles and trends. “Vals,” as they came to be known, are also characterized by their desire to be the center of attention. In addition to looking good, they must display the assets that set them apart from the everyday teenage girl. Although they are notoriously poor drivers, older Valley girls have driver’s licenses and must have the proper luxury car to project the correct high-class image as they gad about geographically spread out Los Angeles.
In addition, the Valley girl generally has a good-looking boyfriend, typically a sports star. Getting male attention is almost as important to the Valley girl as is jealous female attention. The Valley girl does not understand the concept of “no,” or any form of self-denial. Often she is considered to be sexually “easy.” In the 1980’s, Valley girls had fancy phones and unlisted phone numbers; today’s Valley girls carry the latest cell phones.
Beyond her striking physical appearance and material possessions, the next most noticeable characteristic of the Valley girl is her lack of intelligence. Not only is she a blond; she is a dumb blond. Her attendance at school and sports events is admirable, but she doesn’t grasp the concept of homework and may manipulate other more nerdy types to do it for her.
Valspeak
Beginning in the 1980’s, Valley girls developed a form of dialect known as Valspeak that spread quickly around the country. It serves to emphasize her minimum intelligence. Utilizing a variety of mid-sentence qualifiers such as “like” and “duh,” Valspeak is characterized by inflections that convey exaggerated emotions, from enthusiasm to disdain, such as the raising of the voice at the end of every sentence—as if each statement were a question. The vocabulary and inflections of Valspeak contributed to the idea that Valley girls were not very intelligent, suggesting that they could not articulate their limited thoughts. Similarly, short statements that stood in for sentences—“As if,” “Whatever,” “Totally,” “I’m sure,” and “Gag me with a spoon”—added to the stereotype of the Valley girl as inherently stupid.
Impact
The 1980’s Los Angeles Valley girl icon spread throughout the country and became enormously popular in advertising and film. Films of the 1980’s and post-1980’s featuring the Valley girl include Fast Times at Ridgemont High (1982), Buffy the Vampire Slayer (1992), Clueless (1995), Romy and Michele’s High School Reunion (1997), She’s All That (1999), Jawbreaker (1999), Bring It On (2000), and Legally Blonde (2001). Valley girls have also become a trope in such horror films as Scream (1996), Scream 2 (1997), I Know What You Did Last Summer (1997), and Scream 3 (2000). The enormously popular Buffy the Vampire Slayer television series featuring blond Valley girl Buffy Summers aired between 1997 and 2003.
In turn, the image infiltrated everyday Americans’ lives, affecting mannerisms, attitudes, fashion, and the way Americans speak. Valspeak slang and expressions survived into the twenty-first century, transforming mainstream American English, particularly among teens. Calling someone a Valley girl today is to denigrate a young woman as superficial, self-centered, and overspending.
Bibliography
Bernstein, Jonathan. Pretty in Pink: The Golden Age of Teenage Movies. New York: St. Martin’s Griffin, 1997. Bernstein examines the 1980’s, the Golden Age of Teenage Movies, particularly middle- and upper-middle-class teenagers, whose great concern with personal appearance and popularity gave rise to the Valley girl image.
Blyth, Carl, Sigrid Recktenwald, and Jenny Wang. “I’m Like, ’Say What?!’ A New Quotative in American Oral Narrative.” American Speech 65 (Autumn, 1990): 215-227. Scholarly but approachable article that discusses how Valley girl speech patterns, especially “like,” have entered popular American speech.
Clover, Carol J. Men, Women, and Chainsaws: Gender in the Modern Horror Film . Princeton, N.J.: Princeton University Press, 1992. Illustrates how the image of the 1980’s Valley girl has become a lasting trope in American horror film.
Douglas, Susan. “Valley Girl Feminism: New Feminist Magazine Jane Does Not Compare to Ms. Magazine.” The Progressive 61 (November, 1997): 17. Douglas recalls her first issue of Ms. magazine and considers how times have changed in her quest to find the premier issue of the latest feminist magazine for “uppity” Valley-girl women.