[Vocabulary] anti-it

Status
Not open for further replies.

maiabulela

Senior Member
Joined
Dec 17, 2009
Member Type
Other
Native Language
Arabic
Home Country
Egypt
Current Location
Egypt
What is the meaning of "anti-it"?

The announcer were speaking about Twilight star Kristen Stewart saying "Why this anti-it girl feels so uncomfortable under spot light?"

Thanks.
 

Barb_D

Moderator
Staff member
Joined
Mar 12, 2007
Member Type
Other
Native Language
American English
Home Country
United States
Current Location
United States
You need to understand what an "It Girl" is first: It girl - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

I guess they are saying that Kristen Stewart is not an "It" girl, and for reasons of her own choosing. I find her vapid in the extreme, and would be surprised she'd be able to put together a coherent enough thought to express why she felt this way about herself.
 

maiabulela

Senior Member
Joined
Dec 17, 2009
Member Type
Other
Native Language
Arabic
Home Country
Egypt
Current Location
Egypt
Can "'anti-it" girl then means "a tomboy girl"? Is it a posibility?

Thanks.
 

Barb_D

Moderator
Staff member
Joined
Mar 12, 2007
Member Type
Other
Native Language
American English
Home Country
United States
Current Location
United States
No.
It means she doesn't accept the fuss and bother that goes along with being the newest, most popular girl on the block.
 

BobK

Moderator
Staff member
Joined
Jul 29, 2006
Location
Spencers Wood, near Reading, UK
Member Type
Retired English Teacher
Native Language
English
Home Country
UK
Current Location
UK
:up: Incidentally, maiabulela, 'tomboy' works on its own. My sister, for example, was a tomboy. (If there's some doubt or inconsistency about it you could say 'She can be a very tomboyish girl sometimes.' But a tomboy is a tomboy (and that's a kind of girl)).

b
 

maiabulela

Senior Member
Joined
Dec 17, 2009
Member Type
Other
Native Language
Arabic
Home Country
Egypt
Current Location
Egypt
No.
It means she doesn't accept the fuss and bother that goes along with being the newest, most popular girl on the block.


Can it mean "simple" then?!!!

Thanks
 

Barb_D

Moderator
Staff member
Joined
Mar 12, 2007
Member Type
Other
Native Language
American English
Home Country
United States
Current Location
United States
Why don't you think of it is as "The girl who doesn't like a lot of attention paid to her"?
 

maiabulela

Senior Member
Joined
Dec 17, 2009
Member Type
Other
Native Language
Arabic
Home Country
Egypt
Current Location
Egypt
It's not that. I want to translate it as a one word Adj. in Arabic, So I'm trying to find an equivalent. That's all. So if there is another English words that can express that meaninf you kindly suggested, so please tell me about it. It will make it easy for me.

Thanks,
 

Barb_D

Moderator
Staff member
Joined
Mar 12, 2007
Member Type
Other
Native Language
American English
Home Country
United States
Current Location
United States
There won't be a one-word substitution. Even describing the idea of an "It-Girl" will take many words, so an "anti-It-Girl" will take a few more.

Could you go with "publicity-shunning"?
It's not quite accurate but it's better than the other suggestions so far.
 

BobK

Moderator
Staff member
Joined
Jul 29, 2006
Location
Spencers Wood, near Reading, UK
Member Type
Retired English Teacher
Native Language
English
Home Country
UK
Current Location
UK
Again it's not quite the same, and I don't know whether it applies to Kristen Stewart - and it's not one word anyway - but maybe she's a 'shrinking violet'...

b
 

bertietheblue

Senior Member
Joined
May 21, 2010
Member Type
Other
Native Language
English
Home Country
UK
Current Location
UK
No.
It means she doesn't accept the fuss and bother that goes along with being the newest, most popular girl on the block.

I don't think the 'anti-' in 'anti-It girl' means, well, 'anti-' in the sense of opposed to or rebelling against something, in this case being the 'It girl'; I think it's closer in meaning to 'the antithesis of', whether this is the result of a conscious rebellion against sexual stereotyping or not.

Many of the celebrity anti-It girls in the past might indeed have been considered tomboys in their day, eg Diane Keaton in Annie Hall, Ally Sheedy in The Breakfast Club, or Amelia Earhart back in the 1920s (dubbed the 'anti-It girl' because she was the antithesis of her contemporary, the original It girl, Clara Bow), but they also expressed their individualism in other ways. Most significantly, they didn't dress or behave to please men, but to please themselves and, in doing so, they had a very different sexual allure to the frivolous sex goddesses of the day.

As for how best to define an anti-It girl, well, given what I've written above, the best I can come up with is 'the exact opposite of an It girl'.
 
Last edited:
Status
Not open for further replies.
Top