The high street is brimming with crop tops and cargo pants; nude lipstick and skinny brows (eek) are the beauty looks du jour; and if you needed another reminder that the late-nineties are back, the Spice Girls are reuniting (well, four-fifths of the pop supergroup).
It’s been 22 years since Emma Bunton, Melanie Brown, Melanie Chisholm, Geri Halliwell and Victoria Beckham first burst onto the scene, all big hair and body glitter, but today – in an age of women’s marches and feminist hashtags – their reunion seems more timely than ever.
Hear me out on this one.
I was 11 years old when I first spied the boisterous band on Saturday morning’s Video Hits, and while their catchy tunes and sparkly ensembles may have hooked me in, it was their celebration of the sisterhood that kept me going back for more.
Their message was simple: female friendship is everything (as they sang in their debut single “Wannabe”). They were the original #girlsquad, sans the smug selfies and supermodels-only entry policy.
Sisters came before misters, but the Spice Girls weren’t afraid of boys. Here were five young women standing on their own buffalo-boot-clad feet; mega-fans will recall the day they walked out on their controlling (male) management to conquer the world on their own.
And while they cheekily teased their male interviewers and made Prince Charles blush by planting big red smackers on his cheeks, they were far from defined by their relations with men. We never saw pap shots of them hooking up with floppy-haired boy band members or high-flying sport stars (well, until Posh met Becks – but they kept their early romance quieter than a silent movie).
Man-hating, bra-burning feminists these girls were not – yes, you could wear your baby-doll dress and still be a strong, independent woman. But Adidas trackies worked equally well.
And even the sexier members of the group – Victoria with her leather catsuits, and Geri with her ample assets – presented an image that was remarkably unsexualised. Unlike today’s generation of “empowered” nude-selfie-snapping stars, the Spice Girls’ feminist mantra had little to do with sexuality and the body.
A few years ago, a video emerged of the group shooting a commercial circa-1997, calling a male film crew member a “chauvinistic pig” for suggesting they needed to show cleavage and midriffs; later, Mel B chastised fellow The X Factor judge Louis Walsh for groping her on air. In essence, they were campaigning for #MeToo before it even happened.
Not that Girl Power wasn’t (or isn’t) without its critics. While fan-girls (and boys) delighted in the empowering ethos, critics have been quick to denounce it as a packaged, watered-down form of feminism.
For starters, the term Girl Power was originally coined by the Riot Grrrls, an early-’90s punk feminist movement. Their gripe? Team Spice had taken their rallying cry and turned it into a prettily packaged commodity, complete with Impulse deodorant and Chupa Chups. Exactly the kind of stuff the Riot Grrrls despised.
Feminist writers also condemned the band for promoting a light and frothy feminism deemed “Feminism Lite”, which detracted from the real issues of gender politics. According to author of How To Be A Woman Caitlin Moran, the Spice Girls were responsible for “wiping out feminism for a decade”. Their frivolous Girl Power rhetoric, she told The Guardian, simplified the women’s movement to having girlfriends and wearing short skirts.
Yet in the midst of a pivotal moment in women’s history, and as pop culture becomes increasingly interlinked with feminism, the time seems right to get the band back together.
The Spice Girls weren’t Gloria Steinem or Germaine Greer, nor did they pretend to be. And while their brand of feminism was messy and simplistic, they offered me, and millions of others, a first taste of feminism – a sweet, palatable spoonful that helped shape me into the staunch supporter of women I am today. And maybe that’s the power of Girl Power.
Related stories
Native ad body.
Native ad body.
Native ad body.
