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 My pop culture artifact for this semester is Spice Girls!

Spice Up Your Life!!!



What Would Mary Celeste Kearney Say? Author of Producing Girls 2/14/10 The spice girls were put together by a man named, Bob Hebert, who just wanted to make the big bucks. These girls have talent but most importantly they have pretty faces and that sells. We know them as Scary, Baby, Ginger, Sporty, and Posh. But we really never get to know who they really are. They were very short lived but they were the biggest phenomenon in England since the Beatles. They were the first pop girl band and were loved by men and women of all ages but especially by young girls. I would know, I was one of them singing in pretend concerts out on the playground at recess.

I am writing this article on what Mary Celeste Kearney would say about the Spice Girls based on her article //Producing Girls//. I think Kearney would say that the spice girls are a perfect example of the mass media taking advantage of young females as objects of consumption. The spice girls are just like the images that you see of models in the young girl’s magazines Kearney was critiquing. They produced new images of the latest fashions, beauty, and sex appeal for men. Young girls like me loved to look like them and pretend to be them. My friends and I bought every CD, magazine and movie that featured them. We consistantly got the wrong idea put out by the media; that the spice girls are normal women and that is how they act in real life. Real successful women of society don’t go around in neon outfits telling men that they need somebody with a human touch. It is what Kearney was saying about the mass media capitalizing on a market of young people.

Here are some examples I have taken from the //Producing Girls// text that represent the mass media taking advantage of young females through the Spice girls. “Mainstream teen magazines such as //seventeen// significantly participate in reproducing the traditional gendered ideologies of production and consumption, reinforcing the popular notion that fashion consumption and beauty routines are “natural” activities for females…..and displaces the reality that making oneself beautiful requires considerable labor, expense, and time”(MCK P.291-292). When do you ever see a photograph of a Spice Girl looking normal? They always look like they had hours of hair and make-up and they are always wearing some huge crazy boots, no sane person would attempt to walk in. And here is what Kearney says about celebs being portrayed by the media, “despite some effort to reveal the private lives of these media stars through biographical information and or interviews, they are never portrayed working, and the reader is left with the implication that celebrities are born with talent and that there is no work involved in being a star” (p.292). My friends and I always thought we could be spice girls because we knew the words and dances to each song. What a heart breaker that was. I think Kearney would agree that steering young women away from the mainstream media and implementing your own values would be the better way to go around this bush.

What Would Linda T. Parsons Say? Author of Ella Evolving: Cinderella Stories and the Construction of Gender Appropriate Behavior 2/20/10 We often just accept our feminine and masculine roles and behaviors. Where do these roles come from? Parsons would say that fairy tales implant in us a strong foundation of these roles when we are young. Fairy tales contribute to the patriarchy society. I think that Parsons and the Spice Girls would agree that some fairy tales should be rewritten to display more independent princesses and more equality among the sexes.

I think Parsons would say that the Spice Girls set better examples for young girls than fairy tales do. Fairy tales give girls this idea that to be beautiful means everything and is the only way to get your man. “A primary goal of gender construction in patriarchal culture is to prepare young girls for romantic love and heterosexual practices. Girls come to know that their value lies in men’s desire for them and the characteristics and qualities that will assure their desirability are revealed in cultural storylines,”((Gilbert1994) LTP P.136). In the movie //Spice World//, the spice girls are portrayed as not being dependent on men. There is no story line between a spice girl or a boy at all in the movie. A reporter asks them, “do you have anytime for boys?” Sporty replies, “Boys, doesn’t ring a bell.” The Spice Girls go on to say that they would like to order their men like pizzas with all the right personalities and such. The reporter is taken a back and says, “Geri, you like boys don’t you?” And Geri replies, “Is the Pope Catholic?” The next day, on the news, a Bishop is outraged that the Spice Girls said the Pope wasn’t Catholic. The Bishop says, “what evidence do they have. Do you think he would be invited here to be Pope if he wasn’t Catholic?” Also, their best friend Nikola is pregnant and her baby daddy leaves her. Nikola doesn’t sweat it. Ginger tells Nikola that everything is going to be just fine. The Spice Girls are there for Nikola when the baby is born and almost miss their show. They can always rely on friendship which most princesses that you hear of in fairy tales don’t have. Or they do but it is always with animals from the woods. No matter how hard I try I can’t get those squirrels outside my window to sweep the floor for me. Animals can’t speak so they don’t substitute for girlfriends.Here is a clip from the making of "Spice World", the spice girls speak of their commeted friendship []

“Fairy tales in patriarchal tradition portray women as weak, submissive, dependent, and self-sacrificing, while men are powerful, active, and dominant,” (LTP P.137). Parsons talks about how princesses don’t have voices and they let others walk all over them and abuse them. Are these the kind of women we want our children to look up to. O look, Bell just got yelled at and thorwn on to the floor by the beast again. Bell should being going to the women’s community shelter and not staying in the castle to try to tame the beast. There is a scene in "Beauty and the Beast" where the beast lets her father and her free and she chooses to stay. Well, the Spice Girls do have voices, especially Geri. The men in the movie make ridiculous plans for the Spice Girls career path and they are like No, No, No that is not happening. "This spice girl is about to get Spice Angry." These women have girl power and that is something to look up to.

What would Holly Hassel Say? Author of “Susan Murphy, Ginormica and Gloria Steinem: Feminist Consciousness- Raising Science Fiction in //Monsters Vs. Aliens//”

"What makes //Monsters Vs Aliens// unique in the production of company’s works is the radical departure from the patriarchal storylines of previous films, ranging from the male- centered and male- dominated narratives of //Antz, the Prince of Egypt, Chicken Run,// and //Shrek// to the comparatively more recent and andocentric //Flushed Away, Bee Movie//, and //Kung Fu Panda//,”(Holly Hassel p.2). Susie the main character of //Monsters Vs Aliens//, is very dependent of her fiancé Derek in the beginning of the film but then finds a new empowerment strength inside herself when she is struck and turns into Ginormica. The whole film is about her becoming her own person and being a strong woman others look up to.

At first Susan is a participant in the patriarchy society. As quoted from Parsons, “A primary goal of gender construction in patriarchal culture”: “to prepare young girls for romantic love and heterosexual practices. Girls come to know that their value lies in men’s desires for them and the characteristics and qualities that will assure their desirability are revealed in cultural storylines,”(Holly Hassel P.5). Then Susan is preparing herself for marriage and her romantic honeymoon with Derek in Paris, exactly how the patriarchy society wants her to. But then she wakes up and realizes that all it is romantic love and heterosexual practices and that Derek doesn’t support her or love her for the person she is.

The Spice Girls put out a message that they don’t want to give in to these romantic love and heterosexual practices if men are going to dominate over them. For example in their song //Wannabe//, they sing, “If you wanna be my lover, You got to get with my friends, Make it last forever, friendship never ends, If you wanna be my lover, You have got to give, Taking is to easy, and that’s the way it is.” [] In several of their songs they say stuff like don’t go wasting my time and get your act together or you won’t be with me. They clearly want their partner to respect them. Also in the movie, //Spice World//, they don’t have boyfriends and don’t want them unless they are spectacular. They say they wish they could order their men like pizzas. It’s great they want this for themselves and put this requirement out for other young women to follow.

What would Lisa Hager Say? Author of “Saving the World before bedtime: the Powerpuff Girls, Citizenship, and the Little Girl Superhero”

This article compares patriarchal superhero stereotypes to the Powerpuff Girls, an animated cartoon series on Cartoon Network. “Writers and animators have focused primarily on the maturing bodies of adolescent girls who are discovering their superpowers and their sexualities,” (Lisa Hager p.62). The Powerpuff Girls are little girls who go to school and live with their dad. They are of Kindergarten age. My question is, do they just get away with avoiding their sexualities because they are not of age? This is the age that they really start learning their gender roles. This maybe is a technique the writers choose to use; by making them so young they can show them confused by gender roles put out by the patriarchy society.

Lisa Hager writes about what makes the Powerpuff girls so great, “with their strong sense of sisterhood and cooperation, these girl-power poster children have the potential to do radical cultural work because of their reactive fissions produced by their actions as superheroes. Rather than simply reproducing the disempowering girl power of the Spice Girls, for example, whose images suggested that the only way for girls to achieve power is by using one’ sexuality and looks,”(p.64). While I agree with this statement that the Spice Girls do impose power is given through sexuality and looks, I also think they are not totally disempowering. They do have sisterhood and you see that in the movie and hear that in their songs. They have cooperation, great cooperation because being famous is really hard for people. They worked hard to be where they are as singers and actors. They were working 24/7 in the movie; always practicing, do interviews, training, doing concerts, and business parties. Hard work and determination are great qualities.

They do put out the message that their values lie in men’s desires for them. They think their sex appeal is their empowerment as individuals. In their song, //My Strongest Suit//, they sing, “Conversation, wit, I am doubter Manners, charm, they’re no way to impress So forget the inner me, observe the outer I am what I wear and how I dress.” [] This is a horrible message to put out for young women. What are they saying? They are going to get men by wearing clothes and being mute because their outer beauty has all that there is to say about them. This is disturbing because young women believe this. There are so many great qualities that I listed above that the spice girls have but they want to be known as “one who wears clothes.” Laugh out loud, is what I think.

What Would Kelly Schrum Say? Author of //Teena Means Business,// teenage girl’s culture and //Seventeen’s// magazines, 1944-1950

This article is really interesting because it describes what contributed to the obsession women have today with consumerism. The article brings you back to World War 2, where women are playing new roles in society and consumerism was urged to pick up the economy. More people had money to go to high school and a subculture of teenagers began. The magazine business used this to their advantage because young people are more influenced to peer pressure and so society norms of this time were redefined sort of by the media. Young women were a big target. “The scant literature on female adolescents addressed issues of behavior, appearance, and relationships and idealized teenage girls for their domesticity and dependence on consumer goods to alleviate feelings of inferiority,”(Kelly Shrum p.138). This market has flourished and today is a huge part of our society.

“As with contemporary sociological and psychological studies of girls, market researchers assumed that teenage girls invested substantial time and energy in commercial self-improvement by purchasing fashion and beauty products,”(Kelly Schrum p.141). The Spice Girls contribute to this new girl culture. The Spice girls are always wearing make up and setting fashion trends. They have their own make up and clothing lines. [|victoria beckham-Elle] These clothing lines are advertised in magazines that are targeted at young girls. Magazines use celebrates to their advantage because celebrates are role models to young women and young women will buy anything to be like that celebrity.

Magazines also target young women by giving love and beauty advice. What is a way to better target someone than by exploiting their vulnerability? //Seventeen// magazine gives really conflicting love advice. “//Seventeen// encouraged teenage girls to concentrate their energy on boys and to attract male attention, but strongly discouraged necking, petting, going steady, or early marriage,”(Kelly Shrum p. 152). The Spice girls give the same advice. They believe being attractive to the opposite sex gives you power. The Spice Girls discouraged some relationship tips that //Seventeen// urged young women to do, for example, “the continual focus on boys advised girls not to talk too much, but rather to ask the boy about himself and to always sound interested,”(Kelly Shrum p.152). In other words don’t let boys feel that they are not dominate. Spice Girls believe in equality of genders and discourage relationships that are not equal. This statement from a reader sums up the misleading love advice very well, “ a girls life is not centered around boys all the time, just pleasing them and living for them,”(Teena means business, p.152, sept.1945:6).

**What would Jack Zipes say?** According to Zipes and many other authors, the Harry Potter series is not that well written and overall not that good. Zipes then questions why it is such a big Phenomenon? He brings up an interesting point that some people do not enjoy a cultural phenomenon for themselves. They do it to conform to a cultural convention of amusement. I know this is true for a lot of Harry Potter fans because they will go enjoy the movies but never pick up the book because it is a long read. The same can be true for the Spice Girls. They were a phenomenon but is their lyrics and music really all that great, well crafted,or a work of great art? I don’t think so, most of their lyrics sound like they wrote it when they were twelve. Harry Potter and the Spice Girls do contribute to patriarchy. According to Zipes, so do most phenomenons. ‘“ Whether you are a super athlete, actor, writer, or commodity- there is a tremendous overlap in these categories- you must be displayed or display yourself to socially accepted rules and expectations of “phenomenality,”’(Zipes p.3). Would it have been socially expectable to let Hermione kill Voldermort at the end of the series? Probably not, Harry was the chosen one and Hermione is just his side kick. I think a lot of people would have been upset if it turned out that Hermione was the chosen one after all. The middle class, dentist’s daughter, sleighed the lord of death. Harry Potter would be just an ordinary boy if Voldermort didn’t kill his parents and his only chance at a good life. This is why Zipes thinks people like the story because it is an ordinary to extraordinary life’s tale. Harry Potter is like the Cinderella story. First he is treated like a dog under the power of his Aunt and Uncle. Then he is set free to be a hero of the magical wizarding world. This is an empowering book for young boys. The Spice Girls went from being regular artists to extraordinary Pop Stars. It is the same inspiring story people want to be a part of.
 * Author of “The phenomenon of Harry Potter, or Why all the Talk?”**

Another reason Zipes gives why Harry Potter is so popular is because he fights evil. People love tales that are the good against the evil. The Good always wins. We thought of some instances in class were the evil wins. And that was only in horror films and books. Harry Potter fights Voldermort. The Spice Girls, believe it or not, fight evil in the movie, //Spice World//. They have evil paparazzi after them, spying on them, and trying to split them up because that would make big news. They do split for awhile but their girl power and friendship brings them back together. This is what draws people to the Spice Girls; they are good and talented. Good always triumphs over evil.

**What would Elizabeth E. Heilman and Trevor Donaldson say?** Harry Potter was wrote to be geared towards the young male generation. It is not a surprise that it is not equal among the genders. Heilman and Donaldson shows this in their article. There are a total of 115 female characters in the series and 201 male characters in the series. The male characters have the most important roles. Major female characters like Hermione are just there on the side lines. Especially, in the first four books. Books five, six, and seven have more prominent female characters with higher status roles. Heilman and Donaldson agree that it would be very beneficial for women everywhere if women had better playing in cultural phenomenons. I think Heilman and Donaldson would say that the Spice Girls contribute to patriarchy but they are all females and they stride for gender equality. You can hear this in their songs and see this in their movie.The Spice Girls are a minor step towards the right direction.
 * Authors of “From Sexist to (sort-of) Feminist Representations of Gender in the Harry Potter Series”**

The Spice Girls have their down falls. But they do want to be equal to males. They were very successful in a male dominated business. I think Heilman and Donaldson can respect that. Heilman and Donaldson say that the females in the Harry Potter series are sometimes displayed to be very emotional which is a very typical view point. Females with their hormones. The Spice Girls are very strong females. They don’t display themselves to be overall emotional. Another quality that some Harry Potter, female characters have are obsessions with themselves and beauty. The Spice Girls are guilty of this quality too. Sporty Spice seems to care more about working out than getting beautified up though. She can be exempt. In the Harry Potter movie, it was a big deal when Hermione dressed up and did her hair for the dance. It was like, oh, now she is socially expectable. I don’t like how Hermione is viewed as being a nerd because she is intelligent. Isn’t that a good quality to have. And Sporty Spice, she is athletic but some people call her dyke spice. People get all offended when women don't feminine qualities. It is like your best qualities can be your worst qualities according to males.

Heilman and Donaldson want to see more powerful, positive female role models. They want books to be equal among genders. They want women to be praised for their good qualities. And most importantly they don’t want to see women being down graded by society.

Authors of “Challenging the Notions of Gendered Game Play: Teenagers playing the Sims” **
 * What would Catherine Beavis and Claire Charles say?

It is a popular notion that girls aren’t capable of using highly technological equipment and won’t play video games because of their lack of knowledge. The Video game culture is dominated with men. Basically men create video games that appeal to other men. Because of this video games contribute to patriarchy and also violence against women. Some women do like to play video games and women do know how to use computers. The Sims is a game that some young girls enjoy playing. Beavis and Charles say this is because women like video games that explore domestic and social space. “Where role play and strategy games for the most part construct military or fantasy landscapes as the terrain of play, //The Sims// centers round domestic space. In this it contributes to a long tradition of both literature and childhood- utopia and the dolls house-as spaces for imaginative play,”(Beavis and Charles p. 359). Girls can build their dream homes and dream lives. They can makes their Sims socialize with other Sims. These are things that girls like playing rather than the typical violent killing video games. The spice girls have a video game. It is called Spice World and was created by Play Station. You have to learn dance routines and songs to do performances. You also have to go on a Japanese talk show. It sounds like something young girls would like to play. The Spice Girls in the video game kind of look like Brat Dolls. They are a little sexualized. I never played it so I don’t know really what it is all about. It gets girls more involved with technology and it is different from the average male centered video games. I am sure the Spice Girls are not exploding people’s heads off with machine guns, they are just learning choreography and lyrics. It probably teaches girls too, how much work it is being a pop star like going to these talk shows and learning all this dance stuff and dealing with the press. All of this just goes to show that women can get involved with technology just as much as males can. There are so many things that are wrong in the video game culture like dominance, violence, pornography, and lack of morals. If more women were more involved in the video game culture there would be more gender equal games and more games that are healthier for the youth to play. Video games do shape young people and if all they see is violence on the TV, they are going to start to think it is normal. I don’t think our society is prepared for the effects of video games. ​ Author of "Anti-Barbies" **
 * ​What Would Sherrie A. Inness Say?
 * 4/25/10 **

Inness questions what girl culture is? Many times toys are made that have adult ideologies built into them that influence how children mature. Inness’ article demonstrated how even so called “anti-barbies” contribute to the politics of advocacy, attack, and assent. The Spice Girls have Barbie dolls and they also promote the politics of advocacy, attack, and assent.

The policy of Advocacy is described by Sutherland as “pleading for and promoting a specific cause, or upholding a particular point of view or course of action as being valid or right,”(“Anti-Barbies” p.172). These dolls are promote fame and fashion. They all have microphones in their hands. Young girls playing with these dolls are most likely putting on pretend concerts and inspiring to become superstars. The dolls also promote fashion and material goods. Look at their clothing; they don’t look like your average women. Sporty Spice is the only doll that doesn’t look like she is wearing designer clothing. Girls go out and start buying designer clothing to look like their dolls. I do like that Sporty Spice is wearing sport clothes. This gives girls the idea that it is ok to be athletic and you can be athletic and be other things like famous. In the past, girls were not inspired by society to be athletic. Anything that wasn’t cooking or cleaning was getting in the way of being a good future wife. Scary Spice has tattoos. This promotes girls to get tattoos when they are older, not that tattoos are bad unless they are on your face or covering your whole body. Employers really love that. These are just some things of many that contribute to girl culture. According to Sutherland, “the politics of attack is generated by the authors’ sense of amusement, outrage, or contempt when they encounter something that runs counter to their concepts of right and wrong, good and evil, justice, fair play, decency, or truth,”(“Anti-Barbies”p.173). I could not find anything about the Spice Girl Barbies but barbies in general there are some examples. One example I found was the song “Barbie Girl” by //Aqua.// There was a big lawsuit for the song ruining Barbie’s trademark and turning her in to a sex object. Here are the lyrics to the song, “I'm a Barbie girl in the Barbie world Life in plastic, it's fantastic You can brush my hair, undress me everywhere Imagination, life is your creation.” It says that Barbie has sex everywhere she goes and that is normal which is what you would think by the way that she looks. This ruins Barbie’s so called image and parents would not be likely to buy Barbie if this was true. The song clearly runs against society’s concept of right

The politics of assent are ideologies that conform to society and reinforce traditions. There are many things about these dolls that reinforce the views of society. One is that women have to be beautiful and have sex appeal. Their outfits show this and their faces show this. Also, girls get the idea that they have to grow up to be this one unattainable body shape. The Spice Girls themselves aren’t even as stick thin as their dolls are. This leaves girls feeling gloom about their future and causes them to develop eating disorders at very young ages. From the //Killing Me Softly// video that we watched in class, women of minorities are often shown to wild and exotic. Scary Spice is wearing a leopard top and pants which signifies her wildness. Her name also signifies her wildness. This gives young girls the idea that women of minorities are different and they are more like animals than human beings. It is amazing how many messages a simple doll can give young girls. Kids are sponges and they feed of this stuff. We all want to be normal and conform.

One day my boss said to me, “Morgan, at your age life is a fashion show, you girls are always in competition with each other to look the best.” I thought wow, that is really true. We get this message from the time we are born. Moms always try to make their kids have the cutest outfits and be the most attractive. Many girls at a young age are taught to be materialistic. Girls are being persuaded at younger and younger ages to be into fashion and beauty. It’s sad when you are in kindergarten and have to strive to be the most popular by what you wear. You should be outside playing and having fun. How do clothes really define who you are? Little girl’s clothing sends messages that are really ego busting. The writing on their t-shirts make you feel like you have to be special to wear them. For example, “too cool for you” and “Perfect Angel;” these phrases make you think you have to be super cool or perfect to wear them. And everything is either pink or purple. Some colors are girls colors like pink, purple, and yellow and some colors are boy colors like black, red, blue, and green. And by wearing these colors Lamb, Sharon, and Brown say, “it becomes more than a choice of frills and colors; it is a choice of characteristics, qualities, and labels- those associated stereotypes of girls(girly, cute, sweet, innocent, soft) and stereotypes associated with boys (active, sporty, aggressive, strong, and bold),”(p.19). This is how our society runs. I think Sharon, Lamb, and Brown would say the Spice Girls contribute a lot to little girl’s fashion style. It is like what they say about “dressing like your doll.” Look at picture of the Spice Girl Dolls. Baby Spice sports the pretty in pink. While Geri sports the Sassy in red look. Scary Spice sports the wear your favorite animal. Posh only wears designer dresses. Sporty Spice always wears sport clothes which if little girls dressed like her it would be going against what Sharon, Lamb, and Brown say about “dressing to play.” Sporty Spice wears real work out clothes not the fake sport teams gear the authors talk about in the article. Sporty Spice really does defy patriarchy which makes her a positive role model. I think little girl clothing is the first thing society does to put girls in their inferior places where they will stay the rest of their lives. The colors that women simple wear make them inferior. That is why women don’t want to wear pink shirts. Who really wants to be on bottom? Most people don’t realize how bad it is. Little girls have to dress themselves in pink every mourning.
 * What Would Lamb, Sharon and Lyn Mikel Brown Say?**
 * Authors of “Pretty in Pink: What Girls Wear” **