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“ Strength and courage in a wonderbra ”

“ Strength and courage in a wonderbra ”. The spice girls, girl power and enlightened sexism. My presentation….

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“ Strength and courage in a wonderbra ”

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  1. “Strength and courage in a wonderbra” The spice girls, girl power and enlightened sexism

  2. My presentation… • Today I’ll be looking at the Spice Girls and their mantra of “Girl Power,” the Riot Grrlls that started the Girl Power movement, and whether or not the Spice Girls really were proponents of feminism

  3. The Spice Girls Baby Spice Posh Spice Sporty Spice • In case you missed the Spice Girls the first time • around: • Initially formed in 1994 as the result of an ad • looking for women to form an all-girl band • the group of five women signed a record deal in 1995 • made it big with their hit song “Wannabe” in 1996 • Known for “girl power,” fierce attitudes and in- your-face image; were soon well on their way to global domination Scary Spice Ginger Spice

  4. What did feminists think? • The group was soon accused of consumerism.

  5. Problems? • What’s wrong with Girl Power? • Were they simply a “trashymarketing plot”?

  6. "We're freshening up feminism for the nineties…Feminism has become a dirty word. Girl Power is just a 90s way of saying it“ “…You have a brain, a voice, and an opinion.” • Were they really a vehicle for feminism?...

  7. Riot grrls Girl Power’s Origins

  8. The original girl power • the movement began with the Riot Grrls of the early 1990’s • Girl Power represented a “new girl”: assertive, dynamic, and unbound from the constraints of passive femininity • also mark the moment when the concept of popular feminism found widespread expression • It is in the wake of the Riot Grrls that the Spice Girls were formed • the slogan Girl Power began to be bandied about in new contexts

  9. Girl power- context • context of the Spice Girls version of Girl Power • Riot Grrls that brought the term into existence were deliberately anti-consumerist • critique of capitalism or patriarchy that was once inherent in the term is lost in (mass) production

  10. “Cuddly” feminism • “[The Spice Girls] have done the seemingly impossible: they have made feminism, with all its implied threat, cuddly, sexy, safe, and most importantly, sellable” • The Village Voice • Hyper sexualized, highly marketed Girl power • In contrast, the Riot Grrls were ridiculed and marginalized for their views on feminism. • Can feminism be a mass-produced, • globally distributed product?

  11. Barbies & Steinem • “The Spice Girls insisted that women everywhere could have it both ways, to capitulate or even embrace male fantasies about how young women should look and dress and at the same time, defy and conquer the dismissal of women as serious, independent beings that the Wonderbra-short shorts look typically evokes” • Susan J. Douglas • Feminism: it’s necessary AND fun! • Equality might lead to ‘sameness’ so girls and women need to be reminded that they are still fundamentally female, and so must be emphatically feminine • Passive Cleavage • Helpless Short Skirts • Docile Pouty Lips

  12. Spice world • heavily featured the use of the phrase Girl Power, but linked it to some unlikeable traits • Spice World (part 4), courtesy of YouTube

  13. Can women have it both ways? • women everywhere believed that they could easily have it both ways, being sex objects in stilettos and microminis while critiquing patriarchal ways of looking at women • Band was telling women “Don’t rely on your sexuality, but don’t be afraid of it” • Were they, in part, relying on their sexuality?

  14. The media • Right as the Spice Girls were gaining popularity, the media was promoting a new message: it’s through sex and sexual display that women really have the power to get what they want • Because the true path to power comes from being an object of desire, girls and women should actively choose, even celebrate and embrace, being sex objects (and catering to the fantasies of men) • This was shown as the mark of a truly confident girl, one whose objectification isn’t imposed from without, but is chosen within • Did the Spice Girls impose the objectification on themselves? Were they pushed to do so by managers and handlers for the purpose of marketing?

  15. Ginger spice Hot Pants No pants

  16. Scary spice Bikini type tops Cleavage on display

  17. Baby spice Child-like pigtails & lollipops Wholesome and innocent?

  18. Enlightened sexism and the Girls’ media image • This is where the concept of enlightened sexism begins to creep into the Spice Girls’ media image • Girls and women are assured, repeatedly, that women’s liberation is a fait accompli and that we are stronger, more successful, more sexually in control, more fearless and more held in awe than we actually are • Now it’s okay to resurrect sexist stereotypes of girls and women • Through women’s calculated deployment of their faces, bodies, attire, and sexuality that they gain and enjoy true power • Enlightened sexism is a manufacturing process that is constantly produced by the media…

  19. Enlightened sexism Anxiety about women’s achievement and branding and consumerism

  20. Divided and branded

  21. Divided and branded

  22. Presented as empowering? The man show The spice girls

  23. Final Thoughts • Were the Spice Girls selling fantasies of power? • Were they pushing feminism? Or victims of enlightened sexism? • Was their ‘critique’ of patriarchy drowned out by the marketing and consumerism of the group? • Were the relying on their own sexuality?

  24. Bibliography • Banet-Weiser, Sarah. “Girls Rule!: Gender, Feminism, and Nickelodeon.”Critical Studies in Media Communication. 21.2 (2004): 119-139. Web. 19 Jan. 2012. • Douglas, Susan J. Enlightened Sexism: The Seductive Message that Feminism’s Work is Done. New York: Times Books, 2010. Print. • Douglas, Susan J. “Enlightened Sexism: ‘Women's Success" Means It's Fine to Resurrect -- Even Celebrate -- Sexist Stereotypes.’”Alternet.org. AlterNet. 1 March 2010. Web. 19 Jan. 2012. • Gilman, Susan Jane. “‘Girl Power From’ From Botox and a Bustier…Really?”npr.org. NPR, 25 March. 2010. Web. 22 Jan. 2012. • Riordan, Ellen. "Commodified Agents and Empowered Girls: Consuming and Producing Feminism." Journal of Communication Inquiry 25.3 (2001): 279-97. Web. 19 Jan. 2012. • Spice World. Dir. Bob Spiers. Perf. Emma Bunton, Melanie Chisholm, Geri Halliwell, Victoria Adams, Melanie Brown, Richard E. Grant. Columbia, 1997. VHS/Web. • “The Spice Girls Biography.”Thebiographychannel.co.uk. The Biography Channel. 22 Jan. 2012. • “You’ve Come a Long Way Baby.”News.bbc.co.uk. The British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC). 22 Jan. 2012. • No author given. “Girl Power or Go Home: Feminism and the Spice Girls.”Girlpowerorgohome.wordpress.com. Wordpress.com, 1 Dec. 2011. Web. 22 Jan. 2012.

  25. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XkhB6lVPdNg • - Spice World: The Photoshoot • http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=x0uXpm41seA • - Spice World Part 4 • http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gs6gHq8P3Ys&feature=related • - Spice Girls: Giving You Everything 3

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