Bad Girls......

I have a bumper sticker on Ruby Dee that proclaims, "Women who behave rarely make history." It suits Ruby perfectly and it has been alluded to that it is my personal credo. No illusions necessary here--I totally own it. Misbehaving a little, makes everything more fun. Just makes the ordinary a little edgier.

The fact that women have historically had to misbehave to be noticed doesn't mean they didn't have fun while they were at it. Take Coco Chanel. Back in the day, she did the wild misdeed of designing pants for women! Gasp. Later when she revealed her bisexuality, her infamy was sealed. Y'all remember Lizzie Borden? We had childhood rhymes about her--very bad indeed. I love the er... balls of Lady Godiva, a personal heroine of mine. Girl had something to say and implored the oldest trick in the book to make 'em notice. Nudity. On a horse. I love it and have always fantasized it as the perfect Halloween (un) costume. Sigh..... Then there is Mae West--surely the one of the bad girls. Totally misbehaving. Openly provocative and suggestive behavior alone has earned her a place in history, with dozens of appropriate quotes gleaned, no doubt, from her vast experience. That's what I call workin' the store! Another favorite being Mrs. Robinson--the ultimate and original "cougar". Anyone who has known me for a minute will know that to this affront, I say, "you go, girl." Cleopatra could be remembered for either her complete spellbinding of Julius Caesar or her death by that evil asp. Either way she never smudged her perfect eyeliner. Belle Starr gets the nod for her fraternizing with Frank and Jesse and made no apologies for her cowboy boots and chaps. Badass. Way cool. And just a little dangerous. Marie Antoinette, poor child, could hardly be blamed for the fall of the empire. Poor child just wanted to eat cake, for goodness sake. But who can forget her many indulgences and mile high hair? Medusa had only her beauty to blame when she was unjustly punished for her affair with Poseidon. We all know how that worked for her. SNAKES!!! Lord love a duck--that's freaky! And pretty memorable. Donna Summer's hit would never have sounded even a little bit remarkable if it had went something like this--toot, toot, awww beep, beep. GOOD girls, talkin' bout the GOOD girls.....not even. What's to talk about? Of course, I could go on and on.

So all you good girls gone bad just remember what our girl, Mae had to say, "It pays to be good--it just doesn't pay much." Welcome home, Rose, my sometimes partner in "misbehaving." xoxo