Are feminine and girly the same thing?

Or do they have different meanings?

They are different. Feminine implies womanliness and the qualities of being female. Girly implies childishness or immaturity. Girlishness, indeed.

Blanchy · 31-35, F

@SeekingConnection I don't think "girly" necessarily implies childishness or immaturity, it just implies the feminine style for girls below 17-18 circa. The style is not immature if it's age-appropriate (unless immature just means young, but you can be more or less mature relative to your age). 🌸

ArtieKat · M

@SeekingConnection Agreed

UndeadSona · F

Different

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UndeadSona · F

@SUPERVlXEN 😵‍💫😘

SUPERVlXEN · F

@UndeadSona 🥴😏

UndeadSona · F

@SUPERVlXEN 😌😏🤐

Reject · 26-30, M

All girly things are feminine, but not all feminine things are girly. Basically feminine is a broader term for traits associated with women or girls, while girly refers to something that is typical of a girl or woman.

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meJess · F

Feminine is knowing how to be woman, girly is the clothes and attitudes that stereotype you as one.

in10RjFox · M

Not really. Both boy and girl have both masculine and feminine traits. Feminine means those related to the physic only like waist, hips, breasts etc. Whereas girly is more of external appearance that are clothes, accessories and so on which is culture.

DeWayfarer · 61-69, M

Best way to think of it is the difference between feminine and effeminate.

The two are not the same. Feminine applies to females (including girls and women).

Effeminate applies to acting like yet not really feminine. Say male to female transvestites.

Even young girls use "feminine" products. That's actually apart of the labeling for such products.

Girly can apply to both girls and women. Though some might take exception. Yet flowers is considered "girly" by many "boys" for both girls and women. It's normally only used by young boys.

ChipmunkErnie · 70-79, M

I suspect the definitions depend on the person using them.

bijouxbroussard · F

@ChipmunkErnie This.

HootyTheNightOwl

They mean different things to me. I know that I have some of the qualities of being feminine... but I struggle with being "girly" - to me, that means I find it difficult to express my feminine side outwardly in terms of my appearance.

The Cambridge Dictionary actually defines "Girly" as this, which is very similar to what I described:-

(of a person) enjoying things typically connected with women or girls, for example, make-up or the colour pink: Is your man more girly than you?

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stound

id mostly think of girly as a subset of feminine. i can't think of much that id call girly that isnt feminine to some degree. a significant intersection, but not all the same