Stupid Girls by The Vegas Art Guy

Stupid Girls

“You pretend you're high
Pretend you're bored
Pretend you're anything
Just to be adored
And what you need
Is what you get

Don't believe in fear
Don't believe in faith
Don't believe in anything
That you can't break

You stupid girl
You stupid girl
All you had you wasted
All you had you wasted”

Those are the lyrics to the song “Stupid Girl” by the band Garbage. I picked those lyrics because they embody the attitude of characters in two stories that I am going to talk about, and how their stories relate to today’s pop culture and a couple of infamous pop tarts.

The first story that I am going to discuss is “Daisy Miller: A Study” by Henry James. In this story a young rich American girl named Daisy Miller travels through Europe breaking every social taboo she can get her hands on. The rules and social mores that guided how European society operated were to be bent, used and ignored depending on how she felt at the moment. It’s also worth mentioning that she was an American and the rules in the United States were different than those in Europe. However, she had been in Europe long enough to know right from wrong in social settings, and she enjoyed upsetting the social structure simply because she could. She’s a master at getting her own way and has a crowd of male admirers orbiting around her like the moon orbits the earth. Her father is nowhere to be found, her mother can’t control her little brother, much less Daisy, and she comes and goes as she pleases. One of these men, named Randolph Winterborne, who starts out totally captivated by Daisy and ends up distancing himself from her at the end.

In her world everything and everyone is hers to use at her pleasure. She doesn’t help rein in her little brother because if her mother is too tired to keep tabs on what she is doing and whom she’s doing it with Daisy can then come and go as she pleases. All the men in her life are there to take her places usually without any sort of chaperone, which was a huge deal those days because ‘good’ girls don’t do things like that in Europe. She, like many people of wealth and privilege likes to think the rules don’t apply to her. Daisy continues to push the envelope and eventually ends up dead as result of her poor decisions.

In the short story “Winter Dreams”, written by F. Scott Fiztgerald, Dexter Green becomes addicted to Judy Jones, a young rich hussy who flits from sexual partner to sexual partner, never wondering or caring about the cost of her lifestyle. Dexter meets her at a party she is holding while her parents are on vacation and he instantly falls under her spell. Even though Dexter and many of her other lovers know about each other, they have all fallen under her spell, and when she beckons, they come running. Dexter is no different, even ruining his marriage in order to have one last fling with Judy. Finally he moves far away from her and just when he thinks he’s heard the last of Judy Jones he finds out that not only did she get married but that her husband is militantly unfaithful to her. Although Dexter gets little satisfaction out of this information, most readers certainly do.

Finally we have the real life examples of Lindsay Lohan and Paris Hilton. Both of these young ladies have made the headlines with their poor decisions, fondness for alcohol, and a penchant for breaking social taboos as they see fit.

Paris Hilton just finished up a 23-day stint for a probation violation stemming from an earlier drunk-driving incident in which she pledged not to drive until her license was reinstated. Now since she swims in hundred dollar bills, it’s not like she couldn’t afford to hire a driver to take her from place to place, she just figured that the laws of the land didn’t apply to her. Her story has gotten so much attention that recently Mika Brzezinski refused to lead the news on MSNBC with the latest in the Paris saga and literally tried to burn the story on air. This follows incidents where photographs of intimate body parts were taken as she exited vehicles and partied at local hot spots. In addition, one of her ex lovers had video taped them while they were having some private time and then turned that private time into an adult movie ala Pamela and Tommy Lee. Needless to say she’s managed to combine the worst traits of both Judy and Daisy Miller into one blonde mug shot. Yea, that’s “Hot” alright.

Although Lindsay Lohan hasn’t yet starred in any adult films, she is facing the same legal problem stemming from a crash in late May where she tested at double the legal limit for alcohol. Keep in mind that she’s not yet 21 years old so you can add that to her legal troubles. Lindsay is also in rehab for her alcohol problems, something that she has in common with her father. Now that the Paris saga is over, expect Lindsay to push important things like the war on terror off the front pages and lead stories of newspapers and broadcasts.

As the four ladies have found out to their detriment and even early death, money and prestige cannot save you from your own poor decisions. They all thought that they were either bullet proof or made of Teflon due to their wealth, prestige or social standing. Instead they all learned the hard way that in the end, what you do will eventually catch up with you. Stupid girls indeed.