The "It Girl" Factor

Remember that book The Rules that came out in the mid-nineties that was all about what women need to do to land the perfect man and end up happily ever after?  (Amazon link here, if you want it.)  Actually, now that I've looked it up, the full title is worth listing here:  

The Rules: Time-Tested Secrets for Capturing the Heart of Mr. Right

One of my relatives, who writes under a pseudonym, is a "Rules Girl".  She knows these rules by heart and has coached, according to her website, hundreds of women in the use of these rules.  She is BFF with the women who wrote the original book.  And she has written a new book, titled Text. Love. Power. The Ultimate Girls Relationship Guide for Texting and Dating in the New Millennium (available for digital download here), which is a follow-on book to the original Rules.

So anyway, given that this is a (albeit distant) relative, I had to check out her website.  One of the Q&A on her book page asks Platinum Girl (aka Vanessa Taylor) what her favorite chapter was to write.  She said:

The last chapter [is] about what to do when a man stops texting. I talk about the It Girl Factor and how important it is that a man always perceives you as his It Girl. Not that you can’t have a bad hair day. But, you cannot pick fights with him about little things. If you mess up the It Girl Factor, you never get it back.

And this is what has me thinking (okay, obsessing) on this foggy Monday morning.  Did I lose my It Girl status with my husband when I started bugging him to do laundry?  Did I lose my It Girl status before that, when we were dating, and I saw him more than twice a week (one of the rules I found poking around on Platinum Girl's blog.)  Was I ever really an It Girl?  Does it even matter if I am an It Girl?  Is this all made up just to make me feel bad?  Is it not good enough that I work full time and devote all of my remaining time to playing with my kids and keeping my house (somewhat) clean?  Isn't it fair to bug my husband about contributing his share to the household?  This It Girl business feels like some kind of throwback to the 1950s or Mad Men.

On the other hand, part of me suspects it might be kind of true.  My husband IS more helpful when he feels slightly worshipped.  So I am going to try a one-week experiment.  Obviously I am already married, so I don't know that the Rules will apply directly.  But I am going to read through them and see what I can apply to my life and see what happens.  Most of me thinks that I'm just going to be ticked off all week when I'm picking up his dirty laundry from the bathroom floor and then complimenting him on the way he managed to get home only 15 minutes late rather than an hour....  But I am going to make a good faith effort to try and get this It Girl status and see what happens. 

Will keep you updated.....