When academic and historian Laurel Thatcher Ulrich penned her 1976 article “Vertuous Women Found: New England Ministerial Literature, 1668-1735,” she had no idea a phrase taken from it, “Well-behaved women seldom make history,” would find its way to t-shirts, bumper stickers, and memes galore. The words initially implied that no one cared about the lives of ordinary women, but they quickly became a battle cry for rebellious women everywhere. Talk about a plot twist!
It’s the modern interpretation of the phrase recording artist Paytra invokes in her new single Good Girls Don’t Make History, a quick, funky ‘Dirrty’ Christina Aquilera-style self-made feminist anthem. While we’ve heard sonic fair like this before, they rarely dive into the politics of it all. But here, Paytra isn’t playing nice. With lyrics like “today we liberate all those girls from their misogyny,” she’s calling for an all-out rebellion against the patriarchy, an organized one where “we all can wear the crown.” She could only be more blunt if she’d named names. Girl power, anyone?
Sit back and watch me. I’mma show you how to be bad
I feel so free making everyone mad
We’re kickin’ down these doors that were never opened for us
Good girls don’t make History.
