girl power!

Whenever I hear the phrase "Girl Power" I am reminded of something that was a big part of who I was as a teen: the Spice Girls. That was their battle cry, their motto, and they wanted to let us girls know that we had power, that we were important. "Girl Power" might have been used as a catchphrase from which then merchandise was created, but it was meaningful for us. At a time when only boy bands were becoming famous, all girls had as role models were cute (okay, hot)guys who were singing about love (and we fantasized about each song being about ourselves). However, the Spice girls provided songs that were about us, girls, about our dilemmas, our strength, about being happy. They sang about friends, mothers, boys,and dancing, among other things. We not only admired them, we wanted to be them because we identified with one (if not all) of them. They were singing for girls.  

Image taken from: this blog

In Coalescing: The Development of Girls’ Studies, Mary Celeste Kearney discusses that in early feminism,in an attempt to demonstrate that women were equal to men, issues about girls were neglected, making it an adult-centered feminism.Thus, feminism became about women, not all females, but there was a need to study girls; they needed to be included. 

The fact that the Spice Girls were grown women but their name included the word "girls" instead of "ladies" perhaps, is a sign that they were including all forms of females, not just adults. Their catchphrase was "girl power" and not "woman power" or "female power". Of course, not surprisingly, their majority of their fanbase was comprised of little girls and teenagers (such as myself).