Let me start by saying that I don’t think the label of “Femme Fatale” is appropriate for a high school student. Come on: they’re not allowed to drink, they’ve just started driving, they can’t vote, they can’t play the lottery. And, as the mother of a young daughter, I really don’t think they should be dating. The moral compass in this country is heading south, and I really don’t think labels like that do women any good. Think of the hard-earned strides made by the feminist movement … are they all for naught?
I consider myself fairly outspoken on most women’s issues. I went to an all-girls prep school (think Jackie O) and chose a liberal East Coast women’s college (think Hilary Clinton). No dummies there. Glass ceiling? BRING IT ON.
So my feelings were mixed when I saw “Most Likely to be a Femme Fatale” on my high school yearbook page. First feeling: Me? Second feeling: Okay, what is that exactly? Third feeling: That is SO cool!
My feminist sensibilities took a backseat as I relished my new label. It catapulted me into cool, bitchy status. I had a “don’t mess with me” kind of air. Boys from the neighboring prep schools checked me out (another note to daughter: there will be plenty of time for boys and dating in your twenties). The cool girls gave me the nod. I felt like the ultimate anti-feminist rebel. I felt like Madonna.
For about a week. Graduation and summer came with a vengeance, pushing us into our next stage in life, readying us for the real world.
And while “The Most Likely to” had all been fun and games, I still peeked at the page from time to time, savoring my five minutes in the spotlight as the antiheroine, my good girl status on hold. Femme Fatale. I didn’t want to admit it, being a feminist and all, but I loved it.
Do you have a favorite archetype? What were you “most likely” to do?
I was voted most likely to get anorexia. I was SO flattered.
I would have loved to be voted most likely to be a femme fatale. I was voted least likely to pull over when I saw flashing lights in my rear view mirror. When I became the editor of the yearbook in senior year, I learned how they came up with these things. Drunken or drugged brain storming sessions (it was the seventies).
We never officially voted, but someone wrote “Most likely to run a multi-million dollar business” in my yearbook and six people signed their names after it. I was baffled. I had the attention span of a toddler, was bored mindless in any class other than English, and spent most of my time skipping class to smoke in the yearbook office, where I too was editor (yeah, Maia!!). I guess they saw the business savvy side of me? (That’s what I like to think). Or was I just… bossy? (gulp)
I can totally see you pulling off a Bond girl thing. Leather pants some bling. It is you.
Well, Mia, you do have a certain air of mystery about you and living on the exotic Big Island certainly adds to the image. 😀
I WISH I was a Bond girl … I was more like Madonna knock-off with bad hair (actually, I don’t think many of us escaped bad, big hair in the 80’s). Black rubber bracelets, boots, gold shimmer lipstick. My writerly side. Then, for chapel, I’d be back in pink and green, or something floral a la Laura Ashley. Ah, the memories …
Gold shimmer lipstick… oooh! You Femme Fetale, you!
I grew up in Avon, CT, right near Miss Porter’s and heard many the story about the girls there. If you cut through the woods behind my house, you ended up at Avon Old Farms, where I’m sure some of the boys you mixed and mingled with attended.
Just think: I might have raced right by you in my Camaro, blowing pot smoke out the window while you were on your way to chapel. Too funny.
I KNEW that Camaro sounded familiar!
It is actually very trippy to think that we might have actually crossed paths before! Once, twice, maybe more! It’s just like a movie – flash forward 20 years (yes, 20!!), and we’re blogging together. Maybe we’ve ALL met before – mere passerbyers, not a clue our future will bring us together again – how wild of a thought is that?
Hmm…well, I haven’t actually graduated from high school…but in junior high I was voted “Most Likely To Start A Cult.” It was a joke…kind of.
We didn’t have “most likely to” superlatives in our High School yearbook, but I got the “Picasso” title every year since Junior High. Not as exciting as “Femme Fatale”, but I’ll take it! Love ya, Da Jieh!