Flowers of Femininity

"My ally from 1 is dazzling, an explosion of flowers woven into her hair and a wispy white dress clinging to her curves. She doesn't need to play up the coy, seductive siren the audience loves, they only need look at her."

— Enobaria, The Bonds of Blood

Flowers have been associated with femininity since ancient times. In fiction, flowers are often used to symbolize a character's gentle or docile nature. This is often done by having the flower be used as some form of Signature Headgear or by having the flowers be a recurring motif.

The flexible symbolism of flowers can symbolize a number of types of femininity within The Three Faces of Eve. Flowers can symbolize elegance, nurturing, and caregiving (The Wife), sensuality, romance, and beauty (The Seductress), or new life and innocence (The Child).

May overlap with Pink Means Feminine and Long Hair Is Feminine, particularly when the flowers are worn in the hair. Compare Water Is Womanly which uses another element of nature to symbolize femininity.

Supertrope to Cherry Blossom Girl. May also overlap with Caring Gardener, Flowers of Nature, Sunny Sunflower Disposition, and Something about a Rose. Subtrope of Floral Motifs, Women Are Delicate (since they are compared to a small, delicate flower), and Delicate Is Beautiful. See also Tertiary Sexual Characteristics, Queer Flowers, and Flowers of Romance.

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Examples:

Anime & Manga

• The 100 Girlfriends Who Really, Really, Really, Really, Really Love You: One of Hakari's key motifs, to the point where her trademark Idea Bulb is a flower doodle. She wears flowers in her hair, and her family name even translates as "flower garden". In fact, she initially bonded with Yamame over advice on how to care better for her flowers.
• Black Butler:
  • Ran Mao's hair is ornamented with a pink peony and is a quite beautiful Anime Chinese Girl.
  • On stage, Doll wears a wig made of white roses and a tutu decorated with the same kind of flowers. She acts a lot more feminine and graceful when she's dressed up for the performance.
• Black Clover:
  • Charlotte Roselei uses Briar Magic that forms magical roses and thorns, and she's an elegant Lady of War who leads a female squad of Magic Knights.
  • Mimosa Vermillion uses Plant Magic that forms healing flowers, which even appear in her hair, and she's a compassionate, kind recovery mage with long hair.
• Boku Girl: Even before the transformation into a girl, Mizuki has always been very beautiful and feminine. Mizuki occasionally wears flower hair ornaments when wearing girl's clothes. There are also illustrations of Mizuki holding flowers or being surrounded by them.
• Bungou Stray Dogs: Kyouka Izumi wears white flower hairpins to tie up her Girlish Pigtails.
• Cardcaptor Sakura: The Flower card is depicted as a pretty young woman in a frilly, tiered gown and she has flower decorations that dangle from both of her ears.
• The Case Study of Vanitas: In her first appearance, Amelia wears a hat decorated with flowers to show her gentleness and allude to her true name Florifel that is related to spring.
• Kazari Uiharu from A Certain Scientific Railgun wears a headband of artificial flowers on her head, fitting with her girly and soft-spoken personality.
• Nazuna of Classroom of the Elite is a Girly Girl wearing a sunflower hairpin on the right side of her hair.
• Charlotte: Yusa ties up some of her hair with a ribbon decorated by two small pink flowers, as they look adorable in a cutesy and childish idol.
• Corrector Yui: Manami is a feminine young woman and wears a large pink flower ornament on her hair.
• Daimos: Erika's hobby is working on flowers. When she's separated from Kazuya, she tends some that are pink and yellow, just like the ones in the garden where they properly met for the first time. Kazuya instantly recognizes them and is elated she remembered them.
• Xiaomei of EDENS ZERO. She's a beautiful and feminine fortune teller who wears a lily flower on the right side of her hair.
• Even Though I'm a Former Noble and Single Mother: Shirley's a graceful lady, as well as loving mother, and wears a three-feathered rose to decorate her hair.
• Future Robot Daltanious: One of Sanae's (the group's Team Mom) hobbies are picking flowers, and when she learns a guest is due at Adalus Base, she prepares lots and lots of flowers in his room. He is touched by the gesture.
• Demon Slayer: Kimetsu no Yaiba: Makomo has blue flowers on her mask, as well as pink ones on her kimono.
• Didn't I Say to Make My Abilities Average in the Next Life?: Marcela wears a red rose on the top left side of her hair, a symbol of her being a ladylike Ojou.
• Digimon Adventure: Mimi Tachikawa is the most feminine of the three female Digidestined and her Digimon Palmon is a flower creature.
• Drugstore in Another World: Elaine Fen Dran Valgas is a ladylike (but ditzy and prideful) Ojou wearing a red rose to decorate her hair.
• Fairy Tail: One of Juvia's hats is decorated with a yellow flower and she's one of the most feminine women in the guild.
• In Fruits Basket, a type of flower called the Camelia japonica is often seen in the background when Akito appears. This is meant to be symbolic of the fact that despite her masculine dress and appearance, Akito is a woman Raised as the Opposite Gender.
• A Dog of Flanders (1975): Ellina Cogez adores flowers and has her very own tulip garden. So does Alois, who's elated when for her birthday, Nello brings her her favourite flower.
• Jibaku Kun: Hyoh is a Depraved Homosexual whose main traits are being an effeminate Psychopathic Manchild, his one-sided crush on the protagonist, and his love for roses, which he embellishes his bedroom with. The anime's closing credits also feature him making a suggestive pose while laying among flowers.
• Suzie Q of Jo Jos Bizarre Adventure Battle Tendency wears a white white headdress is decorated with red roses. She also doubles as Lisa's meido.
• Mana from Guilty Crown. Flashbacks show her wearing a white flower pin on the left side of her hair. She's initially depicted as a gentle and sweet young girl, but that was all an act as her mind had been corrupted by the Apocalypse Virus since before Shu was born.
• Hello! Sandybell: Since the anime is set in Scotland, flowers are constantly in focus and Sandybell loves to use them as a fashion statement. For her specifically, it's daffodils - she has a daffodil earring that used to belong to her mother.
• Honoo no Alpen Rose: Marie Strasser, Theodor's second wife, mentions that hobby is managing her garden's beautiful flowers.
• The Iceblade Sorcerer Shall Rule the World: Ariane wears a flower hair decoration on both sides of her hair, befitting her ladylike image.
• One promotional image of Idol Densetsu Eriko has Eriko and Rei both wearing stylish ballgowns, while they also wear peonies, lillies, roses and tulips as accessories. Because of their hair colours, it also looks like a Yellow/Purple Contrast.
• Date A Live: Kureha is a feminine and elegant girl who controls flower petals and wears a flower decoration in her hair.
• How a Realist Hero Rebuilt the Kingdom: Juna, on top of her Beautiful Singing Voice, wears a hair decoration with white flowers, emphasizing her beauty and elegance.
• I'm the Villainess, So I'm Taming the Final Boss: Empress Lala Jeanne Elmir wears a red flower ornament in her hair and is an empress with very youthful looks.
• Lady!!: Lynn is a Girly Girl and her hobbies are picking flowers for her friends and Sarah.
  Lynn: "Big sister, I love flowers!"
• Lagrange: The Flower of Rin-ne: Astelia Lizamarie de Rochefort wears a yellow rose on the left side of her hair, complementing her young appearance, cuteness and elegance.
• La Seine No Hoshi:
  • Simone's deceased parents were florists and she was the poster girl for their flower shop. After she is exiled, she returns to Île de la Cité to inherit it.
  • La Seine No Hoshi carries red carnations with her wherever she goes, and leaves them as her Zorro Mark.
  • Madame Catherine wears blue, pink and purple lillies in her Beehive Hairdo.
  • Marie Antoinette adores roses, to the point she can't go to a ball without decking her gown in them.
• Naruto:
  • The name of the lead female character, Sakura Haruno, means "spring cherry blossoms", and her pink hair vaguely resembles said flower petals. Some characters have referred to her growth throughout the series as her "blooming".
  • Ino Yamanaka is one of the more feminine members of the cast and is strongly associated with flowers due to her family owning a flower shop. She often presents others with flowers as a gesture of friendship or to display romantic interest.
  • Konan is the only female member of the Akatsuki organization, wears a large origami flower on her hair as decoration, and has been shown offering bouquets as symbols of truce. She also refers to the current antagonist as "the darkness where flowers wilt and die", to contrast the protagonist, whom she calls the "flower of hope".
• Yui of Nisekoi is a young Hot Teacher and loving Cool Big Sis who always wears a headband decorated with roses.
• One Piece: Dark Action Girl Chome wears flowers in her hair to go with her child-like, feminine looks.
• Rem of Re:Zero wears a flower-shaped hair ribbon in her maid uniform and has a flower hair accessory when depicted in other clothes like a kimono. She's very demure, girly, and sweet once Subaru brings her out of her shell.
• Rosario + Vampire: Tian-Tian is a beautiful Anime Chinese Girl with odango hair decorated with flowery bobbles.
• Ryu the Cave Boy: Ran dons a red flower in her hair, and her specialty is working with herbs.
• The Secret Garden: Mary Lennox has a rose motif and loves taking care of the garden with Ben. She loves wearing pink and dons many frilly gowns as part of her Ojou heritage, though she also has a tomboy streak as she loves playing with Dickon.
• Tengen Toppa Gurren Lagann: When first introduced, Nia Teppelin is wearing a large pink flower ornament. Coupled with the rest of her pastel color scheme, tender beauty, and the fact that she's an otherworldy Princess Classic, it helps to cement Nia as very feminine, especially compared to the tomboyish and outgoing Yoko.
• Tokyo Revengers: Senju's uniform sleeves, unlike the other Brahman members, have a cherry blossom design, alluding to her being a woman in an all-male gang.
• Elle from Urusei Yatsura is a beautiful queen and wears a white rose in her hair, as well as having a "rose" theme to all her belongings. Even her planet looks like a rose!
• Girly trans girl Nitori from Wandering Son usually doesn't wear flowers - though she does sometimes wear hair accessories when out as female. However, when she tried out a flower in her hair, her Big Sister Bully Maho caught her, made fun of her for it, and mocked her about how she couldn't stay androgynous forever.
• The World God Only Knows: Keima puts a flower in Kusunoki's hair when he encourages her to embrace her feminine side without giving up martial arts. Post-capture, she's seen placing a flower vase to decorate her family's dojo.
• Yamada-kun and the Seven Witches: Kotori wears a flower in the left side of her hair and is a cute, young girl.
• Yu-Gi-Oh!: The two most prominent female characters in the franchise both fight with monsters that have a flower motif.
  • Aki Izayoi, formerly known as the Black Rose Witch, uses mainly Plant-type monsters, and her signature card is a dragon whose body resembles a giant rose.
  • Yuzu specializes in the Melodious archetype, which encompasses feminine monsters wearing dresses that resemble blossoming flowers.

Art

• John William Waterhouse:
  • A favored motif of this pre-Raphaelite painter. Expect to see women wearing flowers in their hair, hanging out in flower gardens (Saint Cecilia, Gathering Summer Flowers in a Devonshire Garden, The Soul of the Rose), in nature surrounded by flowers (Ophelia, Windflowers, Spring Spreads One Green Lap of Flowers), or holding bouquets (the Gather Ye Rosebuds series).
  • Hylas and the Nymphs: The naiads all have small flowers in their hair to add to their seductive beauty.
• The Kiss (Klimt): The man is wearing a crown of leaves, while the woman has flowers woven in her hair.
• Ophelia (Millais): The meaningful flowers surrounding Ophelia also serve to make her look lovelier, more girlish, and more romanticized as she dies.

Comic Books

• Gotham Academy: Maps opts for an androgynous/masculine look wherever the uniform code allows. However, the flower clip she always wears in her hair clashes with her otherwise male-oriented appearance.
• Monica's Gang: An early comic strip had Monica being told to adorn her hair with flowers in order to look more feminine. However, she clumsily places one behind her ear without removing the leaves, roots, and dirt first, making her look even sloppier than before.
• In Runaways (Rainbow Rowell), Klara adds a few flowers in her hair as part of her Girly Girl with a Tomboy Streak ensemble.

Eastern European Animation

• Cinderella (1979): Cinderella wears a blue flower crown to the ball, fitting her soft-spoken and sweet personality.

Fan Works

• Chloe Cerise of Infinity Train: Blossoming Trail is associated with flowers and is a Girly Girl. Her name can be translated as "Cherry Blossom" and she names the group of her, Atticus and Lexi to become the Red Lotus Trio, based on a memory of seeing lotus flowers at home.
• Lucy's Secret: Some of the girls' bedwetting pants for sale have flowers on them.
• Tall Pine Tales: Theresa's favourite flower is the pink rose; she likes their sweet smell and romantic nature.

Films — Animation

• Aladdin: During "A Whole New World", Aladdin picks a flower from a vase resting on a window to offer to Jasmine, much for her delight. It's when she starts warming up to "Prince Ali", and she wears the flower on her headress.
• Coco: Tia Rosita wears a crown of pink roses, which highlights her bubbly and feminine personality compared to the sterner Tia Victoria.
• Encanto: Isabela, Mirabel's oldest sister, is a graceful and feminine beauty with long hair and a pink and purple dress whose power is to grow rows and rows of pink flowers. It is later revealed that she has been shoehorned into the role of a perfect Proper Lady, and by the end of the film she grows less 'feminine' plants like cacti.
• The Good, the Bad, and Huckleberry Hound: The Indian Maiden hound is literally named Desert Flower, due to her penchant for picking flowers out of the valley. She even wears the flower on her headband.
• Jack and the Cuckoo-Clock Heart: Miss Acacia wears red flowers on her hair and the skirts of her Pimped-Out Dress are shaped like the petals of a flower.
• In Turning Red, Mei wears a flower in her hair on top of her hair clip in the photos in the intro and for the red moon ritual. This seems to be under the influence of her mother as Ming favours flower euphemisms for feminine matters.

Films — Live-Action

• Buffy the Vampire Slayer: Nicki and Kimberly are both Girl Posse members who wear a lot of clothing with floral patterns in the fabric, with Nicki also having a flower brooch and a sunflower hat and some of Kimberly’s earrings being shaped after flowers.
• Daisies: Invoked. Marie I wears a daisy flower crown to look like "a virgin"; i.e. fresher, more innocent, and more feminine.
• Service with the Colors: Alluded to by Sgt. Clicker, who brings a bouquet to badly injured Pvt. Corbin's hospital room but asks the other soldiers "I suppose you think I'm a sissy for bringing him flowers?"

Literature

• In Wen Spencer's A Brother's Price, in which standards of masculinity and femininity are largely inverted, Jerin Whistler has tiny flowers braided into his long hair when he's presented at court.
• Princess Ozma from Land of Oz wears one poppy on each side of her head. It was an addition by The Marvelous Land of Oz's illustrator John R. Neill. Ozma is the most attractive girl in all of Oz and is a paragon of femininity.
• At the end of The Malloreon, Zakath mentions in his Epilogue Letter that his wife Cyradis, not being used to the finery expected of an Empress, wears flowers in her hair instead of jewelry. The noble ladies of the court, naturally, try to follow suit, which has caused the jewelers of the kingdom to start despairing.
• Quest for Fire: Gammla, a beautiful neanderthal maiden wears flowers and herbs in her hair.
• A Song of Ice and Fire: In life, Lyanna Stark was famously a tomboy who preferred horseback riding to ladylike endeavors. However, she is more closely associated with the crown of winter roses Prince Rhaegar gave to her at a tourney, which is considered by many to be one of the starting points of Robert's Rebellion. Postmortem, she is romanticized by some of the characters as a tragic young lady who is seen wearing this flower crown, which gives her a more ethereal and feminine appearance. For example, Theon Greyjoy has a dream of her wearing a crown of pale blue roses and a white gown.
• In Warrior Cats, warrior names are compound names composed of a prefix and suffix. While most name parts (including plants that the Clans are familiar with) are used for both toms and she-cats, the word "flower" itself, as well as the names of flowers such as lily and primrose, have been used exclusively in she-cats' names (Goldenflower, Lilyheart, etc). The cats with these names are often gentler, more feminine she-cats who have given birth to kits.
• In Wyrd Sisters, Magrat plaits violets and cowslips into her hair. Like most of her attempts to look like a romantic heroine, it doesn't work and is described as making her look like a window box had fallen on her head.

Live-Action TV

• Interview with the Vampire (2022):
  • Claudia's Season 1 character teaser, "Two Weeks" promo, and all three of her "Dear Diary" promos have a flower in the corners of the border to denote that she's the sole female member of the main cast.
  • "In Throes of Increasing Wonder...": Invoked twice by Lestat de Lioncourt when he equates the prostitute Lily with flowers.
    Louis: We met already.
    Lestat: In front of a florist, wasn't it? We both wanted the last bouquet of lilies. ^note It's a euphemism for Louis and Lestat's first meeting at the Fairplay Saloon (a brothel) where they bid for Lily's time.
    • Later, Lestat invites Louis de Pointe du Lac to come into his home for a nightcap, and his hospitality also includes a "present."
      Lestat: I bought you a gift.
      Louis: A gift?
      Lestat: A flower. (glances up at Lily standing on his balcony)
• The Makanai: Cooking for the Maiko House: Flower decoration is one of the traditional skills the maiko need to master. Kiyo has trouble with it, which helps establish her as a bad fit for the profession.
• Our Miss Brooks:
  • Elderly landlady Mrs. Davis prefers floral wallpaper at home, and dress patterns generally.
  • In "Bones, Son of Cyrano" (a Sound-to-Screen Adaptation of "Poetry Mixup"), Miss Brooks requests six small flowerpots for her classroom.
• In The Toy Castle, the Ballerina, the most feminine of the toys, wears pink flowers on her tutu and in her hair.
• Veronica Mars: Lilly Kane's feminine nature is reflected in her Floral Theme Naming. She is also often seen floating in a pool surrounded by lilies.

Music

• Jisoo of BLACKPINK's first single "Flower". The song lyrics are about freeing herself from an unhealthy romance with comparisons to a flower, a symbol of beauty and fragility. The music video has her wearing different elegant dresses and performing a flower-themed dance.
• Tears for Fears:
  • The covers of the "Sowing the Seeds of Love◊" and "Advice for the Young at Heart◊" singles feature women surrounded by flowers. The 1991 reissue of "Woman in Chains◊" adds a floral design that was lacking on the original artwork.
  • The red roses in "The Tipping Point" music video represent Caroline Orzabal, Roland Orzabal's late wife and Curt Smith's Childhood Friend.

Video Games

• Dragalia Lost:
  • Most of the dragons that like the Floral Circlet gift tend to be female or sensitive males.
  • The beautiful and elegant Sazanka wears a camellia in her hair which emphasizes her Yamato Nadeshiko nature. Her name also comes from the Japanese name for the camellia sasanqua flower.
• Subverted in Magical Girl Lyrical Nanoha A's Portable. The Gears of Destiny introduces Kyrie Florian, the younger Florian sister, who wears a flower in her hair and has a very pink motif. However, in contrast to her girly appearance, she has a cynical personality, a constant smirk on her face, and a fighting style that utilizes transforming guns, swords, and really big swords.
• Flowers in the Plants vs. Zombies series tend to be female (ex., Sunflower, Marigold, Rose) with only a few exceptions.
• In Pokémon Red and Blue, Erika represents traditional Japanese beauty by being a very proper and ladylike young lady in a kimono. She is a Grass-type specialist, specifically focused on flowers and the art of flower arranging. Her moniker is "The Nature-Loving Princess".
• In Potion Permit, Laura is a sweet little girl who wears a flower in her hair.
• Street Fighter has Ibuki, a girly ninja who wears flowers on her hair in her more feminine alternate outfits.
  • Her Street Fighter X Tekken kimono sees her with two roses on her hair◊.
  • She also has a Kimono in Street Fighter V with similar decorations◊ on both the available hairstyles◊.
• Super Smash Bros.: Fitting her reputation as a delicate princess, Peach's Limit Break shows her performing a dance while two giant portraits of her covered in cherry blossoms appear on the edges of the screen.

Web Videos

• The Nostalgia Chick tries her best to invoke "flower in hair = innocent girliness" during her gender battle song with the Critic.

Western Animation

• In an episode of The Angry Beavers where the two brothers start playing soccer, Daggett first adapts the personality of an extremely angry and violent Football Hooligan, and then an extremely peace-loving personality wearing a flowing white gown and spreading flowers around on the field (while speaking in an unusually soft and effeminate voice). He reverts to his hooligan personality, however, when he learns that the opposing players have stepped on the flowers.
• Friend Bear of the Care Bears franchise is one of many bears with an inconsistent gender, but when she is portrayed as female, she is often associated with flowers. Her symbol is two intertwined flowers, and she will sometimes hold or wear one as well.
• Inverted in The Grim Adventures of Billy & Mandy. Mandy wears a pink dress with a delicate yellow flower in the center, but the girly outfit only serves to contrast her perpetual glare and sociopathic personality, further emphasizing her status as an Enfant Terrible.
• Hey Arnold!: In "Helga and the Nanny," Inga forces Helga to do her hair with flowers. While embarrassing to Tomboy with a Girly Streak Helga, Arnold thought it looked nice.
• The Lion Guard: Nirmala, the gentle healer of the Night Pride, wears an orange flower behind her right ear.
• In the Ready Jet Go! episode "That's One Gigantic Pumpkin, Jet Propulsion!," Sunspot throws a bouquet of flowers at the delicate, feminine Lillian while pretending to be a magician.
• In the R.O.B. the Robot episode "Shivers in Space", TK becomes friends with a robot living in the Junkyard Planet who loves flowers, and paints them/builds them out of spare parts. TK later gives her the Meaningful Name of Blossom to reflect this.
• Daizy from Wow! Wow! Wubbzy! is so true to the trope that her name tells you about the connection between her and flowers. Heck, she even lives in a flower and has two flowers to hold up her pigtails.

Real Life

• American Olympic runner Alysia Montaño is famous for wearing flowers in her hair during every race, which she started doing to assert her femininity while training with her male peers.

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