'Honor your wisdom and don’t give up on life': Mary Lou Dobbs explores life as a 'Badass Old White Woman'

Mary Lou Dobbs says she’s always been tough and assertive.

In her 60s, Dobbs said, she had ratcheted up her attitude a notch. Now as a septuagenarian, she may be even tougher. She refers to herself as a “badass.”

Her recent book of anecdotes is “Badass Old White Woman” and the first chapter is titled “The Birth of a Badass.”

That birth came about when Dobbs was feeling stifled and withering in a corporate banking job she had held down for a long eight years.

Then one day, while heading for the company cafeteria in search of a spoon, she spotted an ad for a motorcycle for sale in an open newspaper.

“I hadn’t been on a motorcycle since my early 20s,” she wrote. “That day in my 60s, part of me was paralyzed with fear yet also ecstatic with excitement. “… Then I had a badass breakthrough moment. An hour later, I was the proud owner of an 883 Harley Sportster.”

She bought the bike, making the emotional leap. She hasn’t looked back.

Dobbs has been riding BMW motorcycles for the past 15 years. These days, she owns a BMW F9000 sports bike. It’s cherry red.

“(Riding) has expanded my ability to take in life and do some new and fun things,” she said. Dobbs wrote the book last year when she was 75.

There’s a story worth retelling about the phrase “Old White Woman” that’s in the book’s title.

Dobbs explained the circumstances. She was meeting with a contractor to get a quote from him for tile work.

Neither could recall who referred him to Dobbs until they checked the text messages on his cellphone. Dobbs quoted the message in the book:

“Manuel, be nice to the lady and give her a fair quote. She’s in my real estate investment group. She’s an old white woman.”

“Old?!” was Dobbs’ immediate gut reaction.

Dobbs said she also felt insulted. Sure, she was 75 and retired, but she didn’t — and still doesn’t — feel old.

She writes that after reading the text message she began to feel more strongly about being labeled “old.” She felt “invalidated, unappreciated and unacknowledged. And I was outraged.”

Dobbs said she quickly embraced the humorous side — was there a humorous side? Yes! — of the emotional sting of the label “old” as a catalyst to write this book. And through the book, she decided to share her wisdom and humor with other women.

She doesn’t think of herself as some kind of superhero for older women in general or older white women in particular. Given the extensive advice she imparts, the book is appropriately subtitled “How to Flip the Script on Aging.”

The morning after her meeting with the tile contractor, Dobbs recalled that she began to write what became a self-help book.

The author’s talent as a storyteller is essential to the clarity and directness of the book because it conveys what she said are universal truths. What’s more, Dobbs hopes that it “inspires readers to embrace their own journey of challenges and triumphs. … The message is the same for any age — honor your wisdom and don’t give up on life.”

Older women are ignored, whether they go into a store or a restaurant, she asserts, and their wisdom is discounted.

Dobbs maintains that the audience of the message in the book may be thought of as directed at older women, but it can also apply to women of any age. Dobbs likes the emotionally supportive catchphrase: “Honor your wisdom and don’t give up on life.”

Dobbs may be retired from the corporate world, but she is active as a lifestyle coach and an inspirational speaker.

Her two previous books are “The Cinderella Salesman: An Inspiring Success Story for Every Woman Who Seeks a Fascinating Career” and “Repotting Yourself: Financial — Emotional — Spiritual Flow.”