@Jennifer1984 Said 
Ohhhh, the Spice Girl names that we all adopted. Yep, I had one too. Not going to tell though.
I'm not sure 'obsessed' is the right word, though. In our early teens, we all do fads and crazes. Most are incredibly shallow and pass quickly, but Girl Power had a message behind it that mainlined right into our psyche.... and stayed there.
You think as a boy, Townie. When you see the Spice Girls, you see sex objects. We saw a bunch of really cool girls who had attitude and were giving us a message that was new and fresh and we wanted to absorb.
For a lot of girls of my age, social life focused around what boys wanted to do and that was a dominant force. Our older sisters, and girls in school who were a couple of years senior to us were pretty much role models in that regard. The prevailing attitude was that to get anywhere, you had to do what THEY wanted you to. If HE said he wanted you to cut your hair, you cut your hair. Girls, once they got the boyfriend they wanted would do anything to keep him That was how it was.
And boys knew it.
And then along come these lively, exuberant, sassy young women who said to us: "You know what..? You don't have to do what THEY want you to. You don't have to dress to please them. You don't have to do anything except what you want to do."
Stores like 'Claires' were starting to open and they sold girly stuff that we liked because it was pretty and bright and glittery and we felt good when we adorned ourselves in it. My teen generation soaked it up like sponges and loved it. It was the start of an entirely new female youth culture. It was new and it was US.
It wasn't just fashion though, it was a means by which we learned to assert ourselves. We didn't have to do what THEY wanted us to do and no, I like my hair just the way it is. Dating was still good and something to be desired, but from now on, it was going to be on OUR terms.
The Spice Girls didn't last long. Young teenage males quickly learned to resent this newfound 'Girl Power'. The last thing young men wanted was a female generation that didn't do as it was told anymore. And so there was negativity. Oh, they liked looking to see if they could get a little upskirt flash of Emma Bunton's knickers, or see if a bit of tit was hanging out. That's ok by them. But spreading a message that girls might actually want to look and dress and think for themselves..?
That's subversive. We can't have that.
And so what young men wanted... what they really, really wanted, was for the Spice Girls to fade and die. As it happened, the band imploded of its own accord in the end which solved that little problem quite neatly.
But the message had made its mark. It was now part of our mindset. I had friends who, adopting the new technology of mobile phones, would dump their boyfriends by text. It was easy, didn't involve any emotional stress and it felt
powerful. Actually, it was incredibly cruel and in a way, quite cowardly. I didn't like hearing about it but I wasn't going to say so.
So, what of Girl Power now..? Well, I have a 13 year old niece whose ways are a mystery to her mother (my sister). Not to me, though. There are nine years between me and my sister and she was married by the time Girl Power hit the street. I was the one who rode that wave and I can easily see where my niece's attitude comes from. She is second generation girl power.
I have a nephew who is 18 months older and his behaviour towards girls is nothing like that of the boys who used to hang around our school gates. They were cocky.... full of themselves... treated girls just the same as their fathers and older brothers had. Not any more. Girl Power changed that forever. This generation of teenage boys treats young females more respectfully. More as equals. They have to because we don't take no s*** any more.
The band has gone, but the message has endured.
.
I don't think most males are any where near as inherently sexist as you seem to think they are. And tbh I would be careful before putting the Spice Girls in the same group as the Suffragettes when it came to striving towards gender equality in this country.
Aug 14, 2012 @ 10:30:37
It was like watching a train wreck, i couldn't take my eyes away from the screen.
