What is a Gin Harpy?

It may be a phrase I coined myself and if I did how mightily impressive of me, but, to be honest I think I heard it somewhere many moons ago.

My interpretation of a Gin Harpy is a fine sophisticated woman that has been perhaps dealt, what they consider, an unfair hand in life. As a result they are wickedly bitter whilst still retaining an air of dignity becoming of European royalty. Gin Harpy's like to drink gin, obviously, and they also like to crush men between their perfectly manicured fingernails. They are to be feared and greatly admired in equal quanities. Not to be confused with 'bitch', Harpies have much more class.

Examples of Gin Harpies?
Joan Collins or more accurately Alexis Morell Carrington Colby Dexter Rowan from Dynasty. As a Gin Harpy you can also respect any deceased Hollywood star from the old school: Marilyn, Marlene Dietrich, Jane Russell, Greta Garbo - you get the idea. Tortured yet breathtakingly beautiful.

The Gin Harpy Lifestyle
Have affairs, sleep with younger men, ruin people, marry for money alone, have a special room for shoes, distance yourself, stay mysterious, look down on people, wear red lipstick, sneer, get drunk by yourself. The basic code of a Gin Harpy is that life is game that cannot be won and it's okay to be resentful about that fact.

So why is this blog called Memoirs of a Gin Harpy?
After trying other routes including 'intelligent', 'nice' and 'maternal', I decided the only path for me to take, as a woman in the 21st century was Gin Harpy. Alas, I am only a Gin Harpy in training but I hope to achieve full harpy status by the age of 25.

'Memoirs' is a little misleading as I'm not techincally dead but I did have some great explanation for this choice involving Roland Barthes's Death of the Author theory but you know, I've left Uni now and forgotten everything I ever learned.