Good Girls vs Bad Girls
06/09/2014
I have been doing a lot of searching for correct track information for the box sets mentioned in the previous post.
While searching to check on "Erline Harris - Long Tall Papa", I spotted the image at left way down in the results. Guessing the song in question might be on the album, and ever a sucker for a bit of Fifties retro-sleaze, I bookmarked it for later follow-up. Sure enough, it is a cover picture for a retro Fifties girls music compilation. But when I went back to search it again as a possible blog subject, I ran across another search result for "How to Be a Good Girl: 22 Steps (with Pictures) - wikiHow" |
There we are presented with a range of suggestions which, taken individually, cannot be objected to and indeed sound like good advice. But taken as a whole there is what I felt to be a creepy atmosphere of robot-like acceptance of the will of others.
I wondered if the other side of the coin had been covered, and by the simple expedient of editing the word "good" in the URL to "bad", sure enough I found "How to Be a Bad Girl: 7 Steps (with Pictures) - wikiHow". (Looks like it's 22/7 = 3 times more work to be good :-)
Here we are presented with more suggestions which cover bad behaviour as in "not following the good crowd", but also as in "covering all the cliches", but with cynically defusing provisos regarding alcohol, drugs and being "trashy".
We seem to be left with both sides failing as advice due to an excess of "good"!
So.....
Being too good is bad
Being too bad is bad
Being bad with some good is good
Being good with some bad is good
I was put in mind of the case of Buffy Saint-Marie, who as a youthful folkie cum protest singer ruffled a few establishment feathers, but went on to achieve much in her advocacy for Native American society in general, even achieving such mainstream success as appearing as a regular on "Sesame Street" over a five-year period from 1976 to 1981. I'm sure her achievements would not have arisen had she been a thoroughly "good girl". She was clever enough to be "good" enough to gain acceptance, without sacrificing her aims and individuality.
03/12/23 Update: It would appear Ms. Saint-Marie was more of a "bad girl" than I thought. "In October 2023, an investigation by the CBC's The Fifth Estate disproved Sainte-Marie's career-long claims of Indigenous ancestry." Wikipedia
I wondered if the other side of the coin had been covered, and by the simple expedient of editing the word "good" in the URL to "bad", sure enough I found "How to Be a Bad Girl: 7 Steps (with Pictures) - wikiHow". (Looks like it's 22/7 = 3 times more work to be good :-)
Here we are presented with more suggestions which cover bad behaviour as in "not following the good crowd", but also as in "covering all the cliches", but with cynically defusing provisos regarding alcohol, drugs and being "trashy".
We seem to be left with both sides failing as advice due to an excess of "good"!
So.....
Being too good is bad
Being too bad is bad
Being bad with some good is good
Being good with some bad is good
I was put in mind of the case of Buffy Saint-Marie, who as a youthful folkie cum protest singer ruffled a few establishment feathers, but went on to achieve much in her advocacy for Native American society in general, even achieving such mainstream success as appearing as a regular on "Sesame Street" over a five-year period from 1976 to 1981. I'm sure her achievements would not have arisen had she been a thoroughly "good girl". She was clever enough to be "good" enough to gain acceptance, without sacrificing her aims and individuality.
03/12/23 Update: It would appear Ms. Saint-Marie was more of a "bad girl" than I thought. "In October 2023, an investigation by the CBC's The Fifth Estate disproved Sainte-Marie's career-long claims of Indigenous ancestry." Wikipedia
Then we have to look out for the girls who can be really bad!
I found this album cover when checking on James Brown - Love or a Game, although the song doesn't appear on this album.
I'm wondering about this image; it has a kind of patronising sexism that says "Don't worry, real girly girls are safe, but this one isn't really a proper girl, with her smoking gun and cigarette, Elvis haircut, pants and mannish shoes. It is only her possession of these mannish attributes which allow her to be truly bad. Anyway, she's probably butch as well, so her badness is no loss to "proper" girls."
Then it is nicely subverted by the choker with it's submissive overtones, the cleavage and the very narrow waist.
I found this album cover when checking on James Brown - Love or a Game, although the song doesn't appear on this album.
I'm wondering about this image; it has a kind of patronising sexism that says "Don't worry, real girly girls are safe, but this one isn't really a proper girl, with her smoking gun and cigarette, Elvis haircut, pants and mannish shoes. It is only her possession of these mannish attributes which allow her to be truly bad. Anyway, she's probably butch as well, so her badness is no loss to "proper" girls."
Then it is nicely subverted by the choker with it's submissive overtones, the cleavage and the very narrow waist.