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By Kimberly Nguyen
Posted on July 1, 2024
Illustration title: Cracks in the Visage
Illustration by: Christina Yan
Medium: Digital illustration
Size: 2048 pixels x 2048 pixels
Year: 2024
Be a bad girl
A deviant girl,
A rotten girl.
For goodness is a jail,
And the prisoners are good girls.
They say a good girl only comes around once a season.
To that I say, “Let a good girl sin a little.”
Maybe good girls aren't in season anymore.
Good girls were always made to be rotten.
Give a bad girl a chance, maybe you won't be so brittle
Description:
“Good Girl Gone Rotten” is about society’s view of girls who are “impure.” The concept of a “good girl” was constructed by society to depreciate “bad girls.” The underlying cost is that young girls grow up to be fearful, quiet, and enslaved to society’s rules. This imprisoning idea of a “good girl” stops girls exploring a life that doesn’t fit into society’s jail of femininity. This poem encourages young girls to color outside of the lines. To be innovative, laugh during the convention, and embrace their power. Us “rotten girls” must force the world to redefine a “good girl.” Let the “good” be someone who is brave, outspoken, and smart, while simultaneously being generous, kind, and pure.
[Writing Editor's Note]
A rotten girl is useless to society, but the same girl has a fierce core that no worm will pierce. People throw out rotten apples, but rotten apples are still apples. Though a girl may be of no use to you, maybe she never was meant to be for you in the first place. Aren't all things meant to become rotten?
[Writing Editor: RW]
[The End]