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

• 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.
• Kazari Uiharu from A Certain Scientific Railgun wears a headband of artificial flowers on her head, fitting with her girly and soft-spoken personality.
• Digimon Adventure: Mimi is the most feminine of the three female Digidestined and her Digimon Palmon is a flower creature.
• 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.
• 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.
• 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".
• 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.
• 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.
• 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.

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.
• 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.
• Coco: Tia Rosita wears a crown of pink roses, which highlights her bubbly and feminine personality compared to the sterner Tia Victoria.
• 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

• 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

• 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.
• 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.
• 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

• 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".
• 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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