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My Evil Family

in praise of bad taste

Divine lives up to her name.

My grandmother and my parents are always talking about good taste. What's in good taste, what's not in good taste, what's done and what's simply not done, who are our kind of people and who aren't. Well I'm sick of it. Good taste is SO BORING.

I'm writing today in praise of bad taste. Bad taste is good. Everything I like is considered bad taste. Why? Because it scares the good taste people! And scaring the good taste people is my new mission in life.

Please join me in my celebration of bad taste, starting with the Pope of Trash, John Waters (see deranged Santa, left).

John Waters is a genius, everyone knows that. He makes movies--one of the tamer ones is called Hairspray—and he lives in our neighborhood. We've seen him at Eddie's supermarket! Mostly Miss Maura sees him when she goes, and he always says hello to her. He's very polite. He dresses very stylishly and has a thin pencil mustache that is very elegant. But not tasteful. How does he pull that off? I don't know. That's why they call him a genius.

The star of many John Waters movies was named Divine. She was not tasteful. But she was very glamorous.

Then there is my current favorite band, an oldie that my brother Sully turned me onto: The Cramps. There's a link to one of their videos at the bottom of the left-hand column of this blog. It's called "Garbage Man."

Like John Waters, these people know how to dress. Their clothes and hair and makeup are exactly what Almighty would call "gauche" or "vulgar"--her favorite synonyms for "bad taste." And maybe they are gauche but who cares? You can't stop looking at them. Look at Poison Ivy's leather jacket and gold leggings. That's style! She's the coolest rock chick ever, and I want to be her when I grow up. But first I need to learn how to play the guitar.

Everyone always says my mother, Ginger, has good taste. What does that mean? As far as I can tell, it means her clothes look pretty much like everybody else's, just more expensive. They're not too sexy or too wild or too loud or different or interesting in the least. The idea of good taste is that you don't notice it. But then what's the point? Am I making sense? Probably not. Making sense is overrated too.

In conclusion, bad taste is better than good taste. I may return to this subject later because it's one of my favorites.

JANE OUT

Who are your favorite purveyors of bad taste? Share! I need more inspiration. And what other arguments, besides glamour and style, can I use to convince people (in my family and at my school) that good taste is bad?

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