"Bad Boys" Versus "What's A Good Girl"

In the book, I Am an Emotional Creature, Eve Ensler who is also the author of The Vagina Monologues, creates a book for young women filled with many short stories and poetry. Ensler goes into detail about the experiences and problems that young women go through in life. This book was not as explicit and a little more toned down from The Vagina Monologues to fit a younger audience. Ensler focuses most of her ideas and topics on women in many of her books, she explores their personal feelings and experiences as a women. She creates really interesting pieces that all women ranging from the ages of 10 to 70 can relate to.

In the book, I Am an Emotional Creatures, there were two poems that really caught my attention and that was “Bad Boy” and “What’s A Good Girl.” These two poems caught my attention because they seemed to relate to one another. For instance, “Bad Boy” is a poem that is being told by a female narrator who begins describing a bad boy just like her and then starts describing her bad traits; but the poem “What’s A Good Girl” seem to discuss the opposite. The poem “What’s A Good Girl” which also seem to be told by a female narrator, describes what a good girl is supposed to be. For example, In “Bad Boy” the narrator states, “I’m not the person they want me to be my mother wants a perfect family I don’t believe in perfect.” I found this quote to be similar to “What’s A Good Girl” because there are many quotes that the narrator say that implies that there is a sense of being pressured to be perfect. For example, in “What’s A Good Girl” it states, “Follows her parents in everything even though she disagrees.” After reading these two poems, I felt as if the poems were going against each other. With the girl in “Bad Boys” rebellious ways versus a girl who follows her parents expectations these poems seem to have different views but same concept.

Even though “I am an Emotional Creature” seem like a less mature version of “The Vagina Monologues,” I felt that there were certain stories and poems that I was able to relate to as an adult women. Some stories reminded me of experience and feelings I had as a female emerging into womanhood.