How to Hepburn Teaches Women How to Be "Brash"

These days, women who choose career over domesticity, wear pants instead of dresses, and who don't use sexuality to get ahead aren't exactly revolutionary (although they can be a rarity in Hollywood). One woman still dominates this image from the golden age of Hollywood, and was and still is considered revolutionary in the way she redefined femininity and romantic bliss.

Her unconventional looks (tall, skinny, freckled) were a foreign image to those used to the blond curvy stars of that time, and her refusal to wear anything but her beloved slacks challenged what the normal concepts of female beauty were, and the effect is seen to this day. Hepburn's decades-long affair with Spencer Tracy remains an admired true love story, although Tracy was married to another woman and refused to leave her for Hepburn.

Such a nonconformist lifestyle paired with an intense personality (Hepburn was considered both feisty and downright nasty) made Hepburn a Hollywood legend, and her successful career and satisfaction with herself and her life choices can make one wonder how she did it, and how could someone emmulate her confidence (or "brashness") and become a strong, independent woman as well.

This fascination with the Hepburn lifestyle and philosophy is the driving force behind How to Hepburn: Lessons from Kate the Great by Karen Karbo, a book filled with tips "for getting your Hepburn on", according to the back cover. Some examples of these tips include "say what you think", "find danger exhilarating", and "find yourself fascinating".

Hepburn's defiance for convention is well-noted in the book; Karbo muses that while her relationship with Tracy was loving but one-sided, one that Dr. Phil wouldn't have approved of, and Hepburn was never fond of rules and common expectations.

Karbo lists the icon's examples of brashness in a section titled
"The Importance of Being Brash" on pages 10-11, some being Hepburn "skinny-dipping in the library cloister fountain at Bryn Mawr", "disobeying the Bel Air Country Club's rules against women playing on Sundays", and "sneaking out of UCLA Medical Center at four o'clock one morning after secret hip-replacement surgery" when she was in her late sixties.

Karbo also notes Hepburn classicly and continuously eschewing a domestic home life in favor of concentrating on her career in a section called "Strive to Defy Categorization". The actress summed up her philosophy on the matter by stating, "Being a housewife and a mother is the biggest job in the world, but if it doesn't interest you, don't do it - I would have made a terrible mother." (pg. 44)

The need to know how to Hepburn stems from the "feeling, at any given time, as if you should be doing something else, and as if by not doing that something else you've either made the wrong decision or somehow violated our modern rules for living a full and meaningful life". (pg. 177)

Our constant questioning, analyzing, and "grass is greener" mentality (whether you're incredibly rich or living quite modestly, there's a reality show somewhere that makes the other half look like they have all the answers and seem much happier) makes us unable to make difficult decisions and live our lives to the fullest.

Karbo gives a loving look at the legendary actress with amusing stories and tongue-in-cheek tips, along with actual life lessons the reader can use in her/his own life. While Katherine Hepburn certainly had her faults, and made choices that not all of us would agree with, she was a strong, independent woman who lived life by her own terms and was rewarded with iconic immortality for it. Hepburn was a fascinating woman, and this book is at the very least interesting, and could serve as a lifestyle mentor or a fascinating biography to any reader.