The notorious Bettie Page

Modern friends, I know you've always wondered what my line of business is, but really I'm surprised you even have to ask when my photo up there at the top left corner of your screen all but gives it away.

And it's with sadness I have to announce that one of our own, miss Bettie Page has passed on. I admit that I really had no clue until last night that she was still alive but that may have had something to do with her battle with mental illness and becoming a born-again Christian.


Anyway, there are reasons that we modern gals are as free as we are to be ourselves today, and she is one of them.

A new Modern Gal-in-Chief

Modern Gals, in the hubbub of the election last month it was totally lost on me that we now have a new Modern Gal-In-Chief.


Regardless of your political persuasion, one cannot deny that Michelle Obama is the consummate modern gal. She's smart, achieving, an awesome dresser and still devoted to her man.

Her credentials stand on their own: she went to Princeton and Harvard, she practiced law at a firm where she was Barack's superior when he joined, she's done quite a bit of nonprofit work, she's a doting mother, she's got a sense of humor and, oh yeah, she shops at J.Crew like the rest of us.

Newsweek had a fantastic cover story about what Michelle could do as First Lady through the causes she embraces and the example she sets. It's worth a ready.

We modern gals are taking over the world ... what are you doing to help? :)

And now for a vote

I'm closing the floor for nominations to The Modern Gal Hall of Fame for the time being as I feel we have a very formidable class as it stands. We may have another induction class if the induction for this class goes smoothly.

So, the nominees I have are as follows:

• Jackie Kennedy-Onassis, as nominated by Ang. E. and seconded by Alexa and Jessica
• Ms. Noelle Tannenbaum, as nominated by Allie
• Lauren Bacall, as nominated by Alexa
• Madonna, as nominated by Alexa
• Princess Diana, as nominated by Alexa and seconded by Hélène du Blonde
• Audrey Hepburn, as nominated by Jessica
• Bettie Page, as nominated by The Dutchess of Kickball
• Dolly Parton, as nominated by Candy
• Ginger Rogers, as nominated by Nutty Cow
• Sarah Jessica Parker, as nominated by Hélène du Blonde and seconded by K
• Abigail Adams, as nominated by Courtney
• Allie, as nominated by Noelle Tannenbaum
• Sasha Cagen, as nominated by Vanessa
• Katharine Hepburn, as nominated by The MG

We're just going to do this on a voice vote rather than put each individual person up to vote. Does anyone wish to withdraw their nomination? Is there any objection to any individual nomination? All in favor, say aye. Opposed, say nay.

Now, as a friendly reminder: If you nominated any of these fine ladies then please do up a guest post for this blog explaining just what makes them a modern gal. It doesn't have to be long. Send those posts to themoderngal(at)gmail(dot)com. If you have a particular photo of your modern gal that you want posted, attach them to the e-mail. Otherwise I'll just steal one from the internets.

Some thoughts from the MG

There comes a time in every modern gal's life when she manages to stick her fashionably shoed foot in her mouth. I feel like I may have done that in my post yesterday and want to apologize. Please don't feel bad for not leaving comments! I was just kidding ... honest! I know this is a busy time right now and that quite a few lucky gals are still recovering from BlogHer or other wonderful vacations. I wasn't trying to guilt trip anyone, just trying to be sarcastically witty but instead committing a big FAIL. Please accept this as an apology:

I've contacted Willy Wonka, hoping to learn how to make this cupcake materialize next to your computer, but he has yet to call me back.

Also, Mel, I appreciate your comment about honoring the real modern gals out there and not the celebs who already get attention. And I completely agree that it's important to honor the real gals. When I first started The Modern Gal, I did so with the intention of it being a gathering place and celebration of all us real modern gals. Gals who are awesome and unique and just plain rock at life. I think it's become exactly that too (with a little somethin' somethin' for the modern guys too), and I love that so much!

That said, as I told Allie yesterday in an e-mail you absolutely may nominate ANY modern gal of your choosing. They don't have to be famous! It can be anyone who sports the MG 'tude, and judging by the nominations already made y'all know just what the MG 'tude is :-) I'm having second thoughts on the whole voting thing -- maybe we'll just do that on the famous people? Just keep in mind that you'll likely be asked to do a guest post on anyone you do nominate.

Nominating the already-famous MGs is just part of the fun. I'm sure many gals have a mix of famous and not-so-famous MGs that they look to for inspiration so why not honor those ladies too? I mentioned Katharine Hepburn as my nominee because I appreciated the fact that she bucked the trend of most leading ladies of the time. She had an attitude and she wasn't afraid to use it.

Ok, I've run my mouth enough for today and I still have two more posts intended to run today. Back to our regularly scheduled programming.

The floor is now open

Maybe it's just the lethargic feeling that comes with the freakishly oppressive hot weather of the late summertime, but there's been a dearth of comments here and elsewhere in the bloggyworld.

And while that may have everything to do with the quality of posts here at The Modern Gal, I'm going to blame it instead on the lack of social activities here on the ol' blog. Well, I think I've got a good one to spice things up a bit, but it's going to take some cooperation from everyone, much like The MG CD (which, for those of you who requested one, has not yet hit production. I'm having a little problem with my music label, but my publicist is trying to work things out.)

Before I get to our social time activity, please observe the following photo taken during my trip to Washington.

Photo by The MG, who had to turn the flash off to keep from attracting the attention of nearby security guards.

That would be one miss Katharine Hepburn, who holds the record for the most Oscar wins for Best Actress. I have had a bit of a gal crush on Her Sassiness for some time. In middle school, I concocted a speech about how wonderful she was for an oration contest. I'm pretty sure I didn't win, but my teachers were shocked to learn I knew so much about Kate H.

Photo by The Modern Mom, who neglected to tell me to move out of the back of her shot.

I about died when I saw there was a whole (temporary) exhibit on her at the National Portrait Gallery in D.C. I of course ignored the "no photography" sign and snuck as many pictures of the exhibit and her four Oscars as I could.

Ok, now keep that on the backburner for a minute while I change gears.

The Modern Beau and his dude friends love to debate who should be a member of the Man Hall of Fame, prompted by those Miller Light "Man Law" commercials. Burt Reynolds was the head of the square table in those commercials, and the dudes claim he's a natural entry into the Man Hall of Fame solely based on his Smokey and the Bandit and Deliverance roles. I might add his 'stache gives him some cred too.

What I'm proposing is a Modern Gals Hall of Fame, a place to recognize those ladies (and perhaps men) who embody that MG je ne sais quoi. I can't fully put into words what makes a modern gal, but I suspect you have a general idea.

Here's how I'd like for this to work, broken out in a handy dandy list:

1. I want to now open the floor for nominations to the MG HOF and discussion as to what should be requirements for being a member of the MG HOF.
2. After a while, I shall close nominations and we will put each nominee up to a vote if I can figure out how to do polls within a post. If not, I shall just make an executive decision because that's what blog proprietors get to do.
3. Once the votes have been tallied, the modern gal or guy who nominated the inductee will write a guest post about the inductee and all of his/her MGish qualities.
4. We shall feature one inductee a week here on the ol' blog until we run out.

I will not limit the MG HOF to gals, however any guy who's nominated will have to have an extra somethin' somethin' to make up for the lack of boobs. That's just the way the world works.

With that, I open the floor to nominees/discussion and nominate Kate Hepburn to the MG HOF.