Eternally Bad: Goddesses with Attitude

by Trina Robbins

Eternally Bad is a wickedly fun, irreverent tribute to mythological "bad girl" goddesses from around the world. Trina Robbins, one the most famous feminist cartoonists of our time, takes off the white gloves and relates the tales of twenty nasty, bitchy, totally amusing and utterly enjoyable goddesses. The earliest proponents of sexual equality, they slip mickeys into drinks, sleep with dwarves, have catfights with their sisters, get even when they get dumped, fight, kill, and generally have a great time.

Genres: Nonfiction, Mythology, Comics, Humor, Womens Studies, Feminism, History

203 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 2001

About the author

Trina Robbins is an American comics artist and writer. She was an early and influential participant in the underground comix movement, and one of the few female artists in underground comix when she started. Her first comics were printed in the East Village Other. She later joined the staff of a feminist underground newspaper It Ain't Me, Babe, with whom she produced the first all-woman comic book titled It Ain't Me Babe. She became increasingly involved in creating outlets for and promoting female comics artists, through projects such as the comics anthology Wimmen's Comix. She was also the penciller on Wonder Woman for a time in the '80s.

Trina has worked on an adaptation of Sax Rohmer's Dope for Eclipse Comics and GoGirl with artist Anne Timmons for Image Comics.

Trina designed Vampirella's costume for Forrest Ackerman and Jim Warren.

In addition to her comics work, Robbins is an author of non-fiction books, including several with an emphasis on the history of women in cartooning.

She is the first of the three "Ladies of the Canyon" in Joni Mitchell's classic song from the album of the same name.

Trina Robbins won a Special Achievement Award from the San Diego Comic Con in 1989 for her work on Strip AIDS U.S.A., a benefit book that she co-edited with Bill Sienkiewicz and Robert Triptow.

Reviews

[Dirty Magpie · Rating 5 out of 5]

Kick-ass Goddesses, you bet. I mean, I can be a sucker for a good cover, and with Kali, Freya and Inanna at the bar on it, I knew this was going to be a funny yet insightful look at the Goddesses with Attitude. Trina Robbins tells their stories in a modern way with most excellent humor.

Another book that was a gift from a "bad girl on the Net" friend of mine.

[AB · Rating 3 out of 5]

Eternally Bad is a nice light read on the topic of goddesses. I have a few problems with the superficial style of the book. I mean, it's engaging and funny, but at the same time it does indulge on some lookist tropes that I'm not very comfortable read. It's certainly great to learn about some goddesses or mythological women who aren't spoken of much, however.

[Elizabeth · Rating 5 out of 5]

Really funny! It brings goddesses you wouldn't have thought about down to a more human level. And the stories are told in modern language, she updates them and makes them seem more relevant. Definitely worth a read.

[Mawgojzeta · Rating 1 out of 5]

Didn't care for the writing style - I know it is suppose to be fun, but it just did not work for me.

[Danielle Woolard · Rating 2 out of 5]

Alright, so I like this book because it introduced me to goddesses and stories that I don't know.

I don't like this book because I could not stop the narration in my head as some Valley Girl/Sorority Sister. It was like Elle Woods was reading and portraying these characters. And I guess that's an interpretation to have for these mythologies that may or may not have happened.

My big problem, and ultimately what won the two star rating is when our author is introducing the Hawaiian goddesses and as she telling the backstory (I cannot say history, you'll see why..) of Hawaii she says, and I quote, "by the time the colonizers came to Hawaii, the people were ready to convert to Christianity." ......ma'am. That is not what happened. That's the worst offending example, but there are pieces of this throughout the whole book.

[May · Rating 3 out of 5]

Probably would have enjoyed this book more if it had included more "goddesses with attitude." The writing style is not for everyone and at times, I was not sure if what the author was saying could be found in the stories for some of the goddesses. If anything, this book is a different departure for those who need a respite from reading biographies of "bad girls" which inevitably includes Cleopatra, Catherine the Great, and Anne Boleyn. Kinda nice to see Isis, Lilith and Pele getting some of the spotlight for once!

[Rob · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is one of my "comfort books" that I reread every few years. It is particularly poignant in 2024 as author Trina Robbins passed away earlier this year. I recommend Eternally Bad as Robbins retells the stories of goddesses from different cultures from around the world in an original and engaging way. It is a fun read. Eternally Bad is long out of print, but Amazon and eBay sport a few copies yet.

[MKF]

DNF
The giant BAD on the cover describes this whole book perfectly. Stories of women well goddesses written like really bad soap operas with words found in cheesy romances and young adult novels. Some people will enjoy it but not for me.

[Sonja · Rating 4 out of 5]

Informative but very irreverent, you should try it!

[Linda · Rating 3 out of 5]

Entertaining short stories of known and unknown goddesses.

[Stephanie · Rating 4 out of 5]

Very cute book that talks about the different Goddesses and their personalities. Short read. Interesting to say the least.

[Kaya Black · Rating 4 out of 5]

A little goofy, but good selection and great art. Love Kali on the cover (love love love).

[Nicole Bunge · Rating 1 out of 5]

Picked this up on a whim at half-price books. And I'm only glad I didn't pay more than $5 for it.
(It had Kali on the cover, and well, I'm always looking to learn more about her.)
Sucked.
The editing is horrible. The author doesn't speak in complete sentences.
Something can be forgiven since the 'premise' is "I'm gonna speak in venacular to make these modern venacular, 'living' legends" but... it's like it was written by a cheerleader told to rewrite myth for her 10th grade creative writing class.
I really should have known after the 'Sex in the City' reference in the first one, and the excessive use of fashion and makeup used to describe the various dieties.
It gets the myths wrong in places you can't excuse 'artistic license' or 'I heard it different.'
This is basically the Cosmo Quiz guide to Goddesses.
(Hell, there's even a quiz in the back!)
It claims to be the antithesis of new-age hippy, happy-shiny goddesses. But it's insulting to anyone who even has a 5th grade knowledge of mythology.
Barf.

[Angela · Rating 3 out of 5]

An enjoyable collection of tales of the Goddess (with a few really strong women thrown in for good measure). I liked the tongue in cheek way the author re-told the stories, and I appreciated the condensed version of many of them (as so often goes with stories that were once passed by word of mouth, there is a lot of repeating)

I enjoyed hearing more about Inanna than I had previously heard. She is still a fascinating goddess. I also noticed more parallels with Christianity and the older stories than I had originally thought (the fact that all religions "borrow" from the others is not a secret -- and I knew our present religions have more in common with the former religions than they would like to admit. I just hadn't heard some of the stories that paralleled)

Anyway, overall an enjoyable and fun read.

[Erikka · Rating 2 out of 5]

This wasn't too bad. A little goofy linguistically, and the slang was just enough out-of-touch to make some sections a little embarrassing (think a person from the 1990s using the same slang terms in the 2000s--just off enough to sound old-fashioned). The stories are amusing, and are actually real myths (although there are errors), so I can see high schoolers enjoying this (if they can get past the language). The quiz at the end is also a fun way to wrap it up.

[Sha'Tisha · Rating 3 out of 5]

It's not that this book is bad, but that it's written in such a light-hearted and as others have said, superficial tone that it reduces the goddesses' stories to catty blurbs that just don't really do it for me. However, this is the type of book that might lead people into looking deeper to these stories if they didn't already know much so there's that

[Kbg503 · Rating 4 out of 5]

Re-read to make sure that it was an appropriate Mother's Day gift. Haven't heard back from my friend, but she was quite excited to begin reading it. She may not be reading it from cover to cover, but by which goddess she needs to be inspired by. Yikes!

[Megan · Rating 4 out of 5]

Rikki gave it for Christmas. I never really liked myth stories. Until this.

[Cher · Rating 4 out of 5]

Entertaining bathroom read, a colorful and amusing springboard from which to pursue deeper research on the goddess legends that most speak to one.

[Susan · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book is wonderful! Love the author's style!

[Amy · Rating 3 out of 5]

I kind of want to punch the author, after reading all of these retellings. :)

[Maan · Rating 5 out of 5]

Osmotar is my personal witch/goddess. :)

[Judy · Rating 4 out of 5]

A good, fun romp.