Spice World: Constructing Femininity the Popular Way
Introduction
The Spice Girls-a British manufactured all-female pop group had an unprecedented success in the global popular music market of 1997. Their first single "Wannabe" was the biggest selling debut single ever and was number one in the charts of 32 countries (Dibbens). Their first disc (Spice Girls) sold over 50 million copies within 1 year. Pre-adolescent girls worldwide are admirers of the five "Spices": Emma ("baby spice"), Geri ("ginger or sexy spice"), Melanie B. ("scary spice"), Melanie C. ("sporty spice"), and Victoria ("posh spice"). The girls enthusiastically listen to the group's latest hit disc or tape, watch their video-clips on MTV, attend to every detail about them in the gossip columns of their magazines and newspapers, hang their posters above their beds, wear their T-shirts, watches and wrist bands, collect their memorabilia, bind their school books in Spice Girls wrapping paper, and talk about them among themselves (Lemish).
Through their image in music, print and visual texts, the Spice Girls construct a particular feminine space, representing models for adoration, inspiring young girls' fantasies, providing legitimization for various modes of rites of passage into the world of femininity. What then defines being a young female today, à la Spice Girls? What are the characteristics and signs of femininity they choose to portray? What range of gender relationships do they provide for young girls growing up in today's confusing world of "feminisms"? It is to these questions that the following analysis is devoted.
Female pop stars
Previous analyses of female pop stars are infrequent but revealing. The advent of MTV introduced a different variety of female images from familiar representational forms of the plastic arts or of Hollywood movies. In reviewing the development of female expression in MTV, Lewis ("Gender Politics and MTV") suggests that the '80s exposed young audiences to women performers through "female-addressed videos
The Spice Girls-a British manufactured all-female pop group had an unprecedented success in the global popular music market of 1997. Their first single "Wannabe" was the biggest selling debut single ever and was number one in the charts of 32 countries (Dibbens). Their first disc (Spice Girls) sold over 50 million copies within 1 year. Pre-adolescent girls worldwide are admirers of the five "Spices": Emma ("baby spice"), Geri ("ginger or sexy spice"), Melanie B. ("scary spice"), Melanie C. ("sporty spice"), and Victoria ("posh spice"). The girls enthusiastically listen to the group's latest hit disc or tape, watch their video-clips on MTV, attend to every detail about them in the gossip columns of their magazines and newspapers, hang their posters above their beds, wear their T-shirts, watches and wrist bands, collect their memorabilia, bind their school books in Spice Girls wrapping paper, and talk about them among themselves (Lemish).
Through their image in music, print and visual texts, the Spice Girls construct a particular feminine space, representing models for adoration, inspiring young girls' fantasies, providing legitimization for various modes of rites of passage into the world of femininity. What then defines being a young female today, à la Spice Girls? What are the characteristics and signs of femininity they choose to portray? What range of gender relationships do they provide for young girls growing up in today's confusing world of "feminisms"? It is to these questions that the following analysis is devoted.
Female pop stars
Previous analyses of female pop stars are infrequent but revealing. The advent of MTV introduced a different variety of female images from familiar representational forms of the plastic arts or of Hollywood movies. In reviewing the development of female expression in MTV, Lewis ("Gender Politics and MTV") suggests that the '80s exposed young audiences to women performers through "female-addressed videos