It's not that uncommon to see on the screen,
On movies, in books, and in everyday scenes,
The portrait, the painting, the one-sided standard.
The model of virtue that's held to regard,
In stereotyped fashion, the good girl is green.

The good girl stays neat and all clutter she shuns.
She doesn't act wild or leave things undone.
And if there's a party, she won't be there long;
She'll know she's a stranger and doesn't belong.
The good girl is smart but not very much fun.

The good girl's a virgin, or movies suppose.
Her temper she keeps when her will is opposed.
And curse words are foreign, and drinking is bad.
And lust is unholy. She deals not with that.
The good girl is passionless, always composed.

And since patriarchy, the good girl has been.
Some precepts have changed, or have altered and thinned.
But Victorian mores still color our sight.
The good girl is not what you’ve heard, what they write.
She’s not the conventionally perfect thin skin.

Maybe the good girl hates playing appeaser,
And wishes another would be the peacekeeper.
Perhaps she is passion when there’s not a stage,
Or keeps her love off of your Facebook home page.
  Perchance she’s romantic, a closeted dreamer.

Sometimes, she might want to scream at her parents,
Say “Fuck you!” to false friends who used her and went, 
Let group projects fail when her classmates won’t work,
Make sure the boss knows which workers have shirked,
And maybe the fiend that she fights is called Habit.

The good girl’s the mask I have found on my face,
Though I never desired it’s spurious grace.
Others hung up this curtain without my consent,
Because they decided twas my department,
And it’s hard to break something you cannot erase.

But why can’t a good girl break some of the rules?
Why is it that Good is the innocent’s jewel?
Should Good not be based on the impact we make,
The people we’ve helped despite our mistakes?
Compassion’s worth twice what you made while in school.

Are honor and loyalty not noble traits?
Integrity’s worth more than all Madoff’s estate.
So Good should be measured by more than how pure,
How righteous, how perfect, or blameless you were.
Not how stainless you are but the difference you make.

A good girl might scream, or may vent her emotions.
Cuss out a coworker who took her promotion.
She’ll lust for her lover and break the ideal.
‘Cause Good’s not pretending we don’t or can’t feel.
It’s feeling enough to be selfless and Real.