The Spice Girls are reuniting! (Well, except for Posh). Viva Forever!
The news has had me harking back to the era of Girl Power and wondering what my three-year-old daughter would make of The Spice Girls.
She certainly knows how to tell you what she wants, what she really, really wants. But she was born almost 20 years after the release of Wannabe and the world has changed a lot since then. And so have I. Now I am a protective mother who would be horrified if, as a teenager, she even thinks about going out in leopard print jumpsuit that flaunts her bra or a Union Jack mini-dress that reveals her knickers. For my Scary-Sporty-Pouty-and-Bonkers Baby does the legacy of The Spice Girls have anything meaningful to pass on?
Despite their commercial appeal in skimpy, brash and Lolitaish costumes, The Spice Girls encouraged me to wear what I wanted to, not what I thought would impress boys. While my elders may have been horrified by my bare midriff, visible bra-straps and knee-high socks teamed with baby-doll dresses, when I dressed up like Baby, Sporty, Scary, Ginger or Posh it was because I felt good in what I was wearing. (Though a glimpse at old photos has brought some doubt upon my fashion choices. But hey – it was the Nineties.) And as someone prone to trips and stumbles it was such a relief to shun heels in favour of platform trainers.
The Spice Girls reassured me that we are all different. As teenagers we all excelled at separate skills and developed individual interests and not having posters of a girlband all dressed in matching outfits on my wall was an indicator that that’s okay. Just because my friends were on the netball team and I couldn’t even throw a ball, let alone catch one, didn’t mean I was a failure. I could excel at being scary instead.
The Spice Girls highlighted the importance of friendship, which can withstand many differences between you. Some of those girls I once slammed my body down and wound it all around with 22-years-ago at school discos and seedy nightclubs – they are still my friends and always will be.
The Spice Girls reminded me to be kind to my mother. And even though she still hates me playing that song, it brings a tear to my eye when I hear it and consider everything she’s done for me. That she still does. Now I see through her eyes, and I feel guilty every time my daughter is so bad.
Girl Power may have been some superficial slogan a man made up to sell records, but it certainly isn’t meaningless. Girls and women are still fighting for equal pay. We are still vulnerable to sexual misconduct in all walks of life. There are still countries in the world where women do not have the vote. But all over the globe more and more children – girls and boys – are growing up feeling powerful and being whoever they Wannabe. And anything that nurtures that should be promoted.
It doesn’t matter how much they were miming, how misjudged some of their fashion choices were or how ridiculous the word “zig-a-zig-ah” is. Girl Power will always be relevant.
And when I taught my three-year-old daughter the dance to Stop and bopped around the kitchen with her this week I knew I have a friendship that will never end. Is three too young to go to a Spice Girls concert?
Nursery Whines 