Pop culture phenomena are a dime a dozen in our millennial society; they come and go with a dizzying speed and a shocking lack of tenacity. When the latest brouhaha over a fabricated band came in the form of five spandex clad young women from England most people over the age of 15 didn't so much as bat an eyelash -- it meant nothing more to them than another inane song or two clogging the airwaves with pop slime. As the summer of 1997 wore on, however, masses of people kept waiting for the Spice Girls to go away like a bad dream. Teen idols of their ilk tend to do so, says a history full of Menudo, Wham!, and the New Kids on the Block. It never happened, and by the Spring of 1998, a year after the release of the Spice Girls first song in America, their album was still selling rather briskly. It would be easy to forget about this, and to simply change the radio station when the numerous releases by this band are played. The question is: should we forget about it? The Spice Girls have become role models for a generation of young girls by preaching trite witticisms exemplified by their trademark slogan, "Girl Power." In actuality, the Spice Girls have absolutely nothing to do with the possession of power of any sort.
The initial tip-off as to the nature of the Spice Girls comes early to an experienced music fan. No matter where you go or how hard you look, there is no information to be had about the quintet. Pictures, spicey sound clips, and glossy twenty word biographies abound, but look for things that tend to be prominently displayed in relation to other bands, such as musical credentials or stories about the group's inception, and you'll be disappointed. They don't exist. A lucky netsurfer might stumble across the endlessly fascinating and valuable fact that Ginger Spice came up with the name of the band during an aerobics class, but there are no stories of years of dedication to music or struggling to be signed to a record label. While these things are not, by any means, necessary for the production of a "good," or even successful, musical group, their glaring absence in the cosmology of Spice marks the first sign of hypocrisy. These "Girl Power" fanatics were brought together and assembled by a male manager, who, until only within the past few months, over-saw every aspect of their careers. A recent article in US magazine about the band put it this way: "Summed up, Girl Power seems to mean: Stand up for yourself, value your girlfriends, and don't subvert your needs for the fellas. Simple stuff, yes. (And if the Girls really want to put Girl Power into effect, why not hire a female manager?). " This is a very good question. If girls are so powerful why does this particular fab five need to be musically and financially synthesized by a fellow?
For the Spice Girls, as this video makes abundantly clear, music is not an issue. They perform a total of three times, only one of which is a cappela. The utter omission of facts relating to musical influences, songwriting, or singing is glaring. Having reviewed several fan videos of this nature, including those of old school favorites the New Kids on the Block and new teen dreams Hanson, it is easy to see the Spice Girls are alone in this. The other videos spend large amounts of their time showing the band at work, while this video spends large amounts of time showing the band shopping. Instead of using the film to give a glimpse into the musical workings behind the scene the goal in this video seems to be to cultivate a group of personas. Ask any one on the street about Spice these days and the response will perhaps mimic Marilyn Manson's from an MTV news year-end special: "Well, there's the one with the red hair who's always naked." The other possibility is a little more gruesome. You could be regaled with tales of "Scary, Sporty, Baby, Posh, and Ginger." A die-hard fan might come up with actual names, but the average run of the mill consumer would probably stick with this hard-thought-out nomenclature. Not only were these cutesy names assigned to each band member, but they are also acted upon. If someone at a SG performance is wearing Adidas warm up pants and doing back flips, it's going to be Sporty. Any sightings of Gucci and stilettos will, of course, be on Posh. A good example of this heavily delineated style of dressing can be found in the Spice Girls' second video, "Say You'll be There. " Scary, predictably enough, was seen in a leopard print shirt, remarkably short black skirt, and hair to rival Don King's. Her compatriot, Posh was in revealing patent leather, while Baby was in pigtails and a black baby-doll style dress. Sporty was apparently dressing up for the occasion, what with her black sports bra and Adidas wind pants. Ginger, who always wears her persona in her orange hair, appeared in a little less black leather than Posh, this number cut into a boustier. These pre-ordained styles of dressing also leach over into personality: Scary is portrayed as the loudest and most outgoing in the group, while each of the other girls takes on the attributes one would expect to go with their name. This combination of dress and behavior creates neat little niches into which each member of the band fits. The humanity of each band member is minimized, and they are at least partially defined by their names. The Spice Girls are not, as one recent song sung Alana Davis would describe women: "32 Flavors and then some. " They are, instead, one-dimensional mock-ups of humanity, props fabricated through which to sell large amounts of merchandise.
The lack of any acceptable, quantitative, form of girl power extends far beyond this. Throughout the candid tidbits of the girls dispersed informally within their first long-form video assertions like "we don't talk about girl power, we live it," run rampant. It seems almost inevitable that no sooner do these words pass the lips of a Spice Girl than the camera will pan away and cut to a shot of an intense make-up session, or perhaps an attractive shot of one of the girls macking on a male crew member. The mythology of girl power is invoked verbally again and again, but the actions of the girls promptly refute any hint of actual feminism that might be found in their catchphrases. The number one pastime of the group, if judged by the video, appears to be shopping. They are shown in footage of stays in several major cities, and, unsurprisingly enough, each and every one of these stops includes at least a few moments of spice-in-the-mall-cam. Capitalism, as the very existence of this ten-dollar video attests, can truly be a girl's best friend. The mass marketing of these human equivalents of tofu has of late reached a terrifying extent, and once again shows the ulterior motive behind the creation of the musical black hole that is the Spice Girls. Products including Spice Girl deodorant (each persona, naturally, has its own distinctive scent), chocolate bars, and potato chips, have come to grace store shelves across the world. While many of these products, thanks to high trade standards that seem to prove the existence of a God, are not available in America, young women in a variety of nations around the world are encouraged to declare their girl power by purchasing such goodies. Working in tandem with the emphasis on consumerism found in abundance in this tape, the Spice merchandise is training an entirely new generation to gain self worth from material possessions. The girl power that is so publicized in relation to this band is not one based on abstract or intellectual concepts. The Spice Girls don't care if their fans write epic poetry in their spare time -- what really matters is if they've had their dose of Scary-scented underarm treatment. The irony of precisely what they are selling never fails to amuse: a band which wears more spandex than Richard Simmons is selling chocolate?
Another interesting point that seems to call their self-described empowerment into question is the relationships shown between the Spice Girls and men. The only two of the MTV videos which include males captured on this tape, "Wannabe" and "Say You'll Be There," paint a less than flattering image. The opening scene of "Wannabe," one which the viewers of MTV were generally spared, shows two apparently homeless men seated under a blanket near the gallivanting Spice Girls. Baby, instead of offering the men change or kind words, pulls off their blanket and steals a hat belonging to one of the men. This image, shown within the first ten seconds of the Spice Girls' fist video, speaks of callous disregard for anyone but themselves. Viewed along side other images of men in their videos, such as scenes later in "Wannabe," which depict men as utterly held in the sway of this band it seems to form a trend. The men sit in various positions with women, most engaged in conversation, but as the Spice Girls wander up and proceed to go into "drape" mode the men totally ignore their original partners. "Say You'll be There"'s video has even more blatant use of Spice Girl vixen-hood. The very last scene shows the girls driving off into the sunset in a blue car, a man strapped spread eagle on the roof. This sort of behavior is an obvious attempt to incorporate a certain degree of feminism, but in both cases it goes so far as to become farce.
The supposed real life portions of the video are just as bad. "Today I found my man in Paris. His name was Gail, though," ponders Ginger Spice, clutching tattered Polaroid at one point in the video. This is only one of the many moments when the Spice Girls are viewing men as objects and re-enforcing the already deep seated belief in young, Barbie-playing, girls that in order to have a good time you must have a "man." Yet another example of the misuse of "Girl Power" is shown quite often in a very subtle manner. Out of all of the fans that the girls relate with in this videotape only two are women; they have won a contest which allows them to meet their idols. The rest of the fans that are shown with the band are male, Scary even going so far as to ask one of them, "are you a Spice Boy?" The followers of Spice portrayed here aren't a real representation of the actual body of spice-aholics that exist out there.
These warped examples of fandom do, however, demonstrate what might be the only real example of "Girl Power" in this video: the use of one's body for advancement. One memorable scene inserted between the videos for "Say You'll Be There" and "Two Become One " shows the band gathered in England to flick the switch for London's Christmas lights. Instead of greeting their fans with waves and smiles, the Spices run out into the fray, kissing every male in sight. The appropriateness of this behavior is highly questionable, especially when seen in the light of the average age of the victims. At least three of the five boys shown making time with the girls are in the neighborhood of ten years old, and, while the kisses aren't exactly fit for America's infamous Spice channel, they're too much for a family occasion like this one. The fans involved doubtlessly had the times of their lives, but the statement that the Spice Girls make with this bold tactic is not quite so heart-warming. We're bodies, they seem to be screaming. People don't care about the music we make, to them we are simply objects to lust or envy. And we don't mind. This concept is very much in evidence in the clothing worm by the Spice Girls, ensembles typically written off as an example of their free spirits. One suspects, however, that the clothing must really be more related with deep psychological issues of masochism. The platforms that this group of Stepford Girls have made so popular of late have measured to literally over six inches, causing cold sweats in bystanders who have worn so much as pumps in their lifetimes. It is amazing to see how ambulatory the girls actually manage to be in those shoes, especially when one factors in the short skirts and barely visible shirts they are often paired with. But indecent exposure is hardly an issue with this particular troop, as in evidenced by Ginger Spice's ride on a motor bike early in the proceedings. As she rides along, skirt the size and texture of Kleenex flapping around her, she actually pulls it up, giving nearly new meaning to the British term full monty. She's not actually naked, one imagines to the disappointment of twelve-year-old boys around the universe, but is instead flashing a blue g-string. This act is immediately followed by the sticking out of her tongue, which is apparently so be taken to further the appearance of her devil-may-care attitude toward public nudity. This is certainly a form of girl power, the form that is willing to exploit physical appearances for personal gain.
Men aren't the only people whom the Spice Girls treat poorly in their videos. They fall into a trap that many feminists have long noted, that of women bashing women. All females in the mythical world of Spice are enemies, people to be feared and hated. The video for "Wannabe" illustrates this quite nicely in the scenes which involve the Spices stealing boys away from their assumed girlfriends, as was noted above. The girls charge on in to this fancy restaurant, and don't so much as pause to say "hello, sister friend," or whatever sort of greeting someone so obsessed with the concept of girl power would be likely to employ. Instead they put the moves on their men, and then proceed to frolic throughout the set, abusing various women. Perhaps the most noticeable is a fairly buxom woman dressed up as Marilyn Monroe, who is systematically grabbed, shoved, and just generally mistreated by the entire band. Instead of supporting her and her compatriots, they attack them, merely because of their femininity. This video makes it obvious that men and women all exist to fill very a precise role for the Spice Girls: that of victim.
The parts which the SG play in this cosmology are equally negative. They domineer over everyone they come in contact with, in MTV designed videos as well as in the real life snippets we are offered in the video, yet they themselves have no actual power. This is amply illustrated in the videos for "Two Become One" and "Say You'll Be There." The first of these two songs is the latest Spicey installment taken into the MTV fold, and it features the girls wandering around in New York City at night. The girls exist in some bizarre fifth dimension; they walk unharmed through moving vehicles and sit on the tops of bridges. While this new style of video is no doubt thanks to a budget raise the Spice Girls received after they proved their bankability, it also adds a little to the image the band seems so fond of: that of objects. They aren't people to interact with; they are simply pretty things outside the realm of humanity. "Say You'll Be There" is perhaps the biggest offender that the Spice Girls have to offer, showcasing them alone in a desert situation. Each girl is in possession of some sort of a weapon or special martial art, very reminiscent of the action figures that many young boys are so fond of playing with. As if to intensify this similarity, they are also given various cutsie names like along the lines of Sporty's title: "Kung Fu Kandy." Throughout the video, however, they don't actually do anything. All of the impressive kicks, jumps, and ninja star tosses that the girls manage to execute have no effect; they are simply for show. The chicas struggle away against non-existent foes, making no impact on anything around them, in very much the same vein as "Two Become One." They are simply living out a boyish fantasy of taming 'dangerous women.' It is almost as if the supposed dominatrixes are in a zoo, safe behind the bars of a television screen, yet exotic and exciting enough to entertain.
The Spice Girls prove many times over throughout this video that while they may talk a good game, there is little substance to back up their feminist assertions. In fact, had the group specifically set out to violate every basic tenant of feminism they could hardly have done better. Men are to be looked upon as objects, women as competitors. Shopping and make-up are the hot topics of conversation, and music is so infrequently discussed that it hardly makes an appearance in any form other than polished and highly contrived studio mixes. And yet this evil empire of Spicey-ness has people around the world totally fooled. Not even just the average ten year old one would expect to be entranced by the bright colors and flashy dance moves belonging to the Spice Girls, but also respected citizens; Nelson Mandala and Oprah Winfrey are two notable examples, both of whom not only met this modern day golden horde but also expressed delight in this state of affairs. The power behind the Spice Girls is not something to be proud of, or so many think. It is the power that bound the feet of women in China for hundreds of years, it is the power that causes high rates of anorexia and bulimia, it is the power that tells young girls that they must exist passively in a world dominated by men and their relations.