Transcript ppt - COMN 3393 Gender, Women, Feminism, Media, Technology

My presentation…
Today I’ll be looking at the Spice Girls and their mantra of “Girl Power,” the
Riot Grrlls that started the Girl Power movement, and whether or not the
Spice Girls really were proponents of feminism
THE SPICE GIRLS
Posh
Spice
Sporty
Spice
Baby
Spice
In case you missed the Spice Girls the first time
around:
-
Initially formed in 1994 as the result of an ad
looking for women to form an all-girl band
-
the group of five women signed a record deal
in 1995
-
made it big with their hit song “Wannabe” in
1996
-
Known for “girl power,” fierce attitudes and inyour-face image; were soon well on their way to
global domination
Scary
Spice
Ginger
Spice
WHAT DID FEMINISTS THINK?
-
The group was soon accused of consumerism.
PROBLEMS?
What’s wrong with Girl Power?
Were they simply a “trashy
marketing plot”?
"We're freshening up feminism for
the nineties…Feminism has
become a dirty word. Girl Power is
just a 90s way of saying it“
“…You have a brain, a voice, and
an opinion.”
Were they really a vehicle for feminism?...
THE ORIGINAL GIRL POWER
-the movement began with the Riot Grrls of the early
1990’s
-Girl Power represented a “new girl”: assertive,
dynamic, and unbound from the constraints of
passive femininity
-also mark the moment when the concept of popular
feminism found widespread expression
-It is in the wake of the Riot Grrls that the Spice Girls
were formed
-the slogan Girl Power began to be bandied about in
new contexts
GIRL POWER- CONTEXT
-
context of the Spice Girls version of Girl
Power
-
Riot Grrls that brought the term into
existence were deliberately anti-consumerist
-
critique of capitalism or patriarchy that was
once inherent in the term is lost in (mass)
production
“Cuddly” feminism
“[The Spice Girls] have done the seemingly impossible: they
have made feminism, with all its implied threat, cuddly,
sexy, safe, and most importantly, sellable”
-
The Village Voice
-
Hyper sexualized, highly marketed Girl power
-
In contrast, the Riot Grrls were ridiculed and marginalized
for their views on feminism.
Can feminism be a mass-produced,
globally distributed product?
BARBIES & STEINEM
“The Spice Girls insisted that women everywhere
could have it both ways, to capitulate or even
embrace male fantasies about how young
women should look and dress and at the same
time, defy and conquer the dismissal of women
as serious, independent beings that the
Wonderbra-short shorts look typically evokes”
-
Susan J. Douglas
-
Feminism: it’s necessary AND fun!
-
Equality might lead to ‘sameness’ so girls and
women need to be reminded that they are still
fundamentally female, and so must be
emphatically feminine
Passive
Helpless
Docile
Cleavage
Short Skirts
Pouty Lips
SPICE WORLD
-
heavily featured the use of the phrase Girl Power, but
linked it to some unlikeable traits
-
Spice World (part 4), courtesy of YouTube
CAN WOMEN HAVE IT BOTH WAYS?
-
women everywhere believed that they could easily have it both ways, being sex
objects in stilettos and microminis while critiquing patriarchal ways of looking at
women
-
Band was telling women “Don’t rely on your sexuality, but don’t be afraid of it”
-
Were they, in part, relying on their sexuality?
THE MEDIA
-
Right as the Spice Girls were gaining popularity, the media was promoting a new
message: it’s through sex and sexual display that women really have the power to
get what they want
-
Because the true path to power comes from being an object of desire, girls and
women should actively choose, even celebrate and embrace, being sex objects
(and catering to the fantasies of men)
-
This was shown as the mark of a truly confident girl, one whose objectification
isn’t imposed from without, but is chosen within
-
Did the Spice Girls impose the objectification on themselves? Were they pushed
to do so by managers and handlers for the purpose of marketing?
GINGER SPICE
HOT PANTS
NO PANTS
SCARY SPICE
BIKINI TYPE TOPS
CLEAVAGE ON DISPLAY
BABY SPICE
CHILD -LIKE PIGTAILS &
LOLLIPOPS
WHOLESOME AND
INNOCENT?
Enlightened sexism and the Girls’ media image
-
This is where the concept of enlightened sexism begins to creep into the Spice
Girls’ media image
-
Girls and women are assured, repeatedly, that women’s liberation is a fait
accompli and that we are stronger, more successful, more sexually in control,
more fearless and more held in awe than we actually are
-
Now it’s okay to resurrect sexist stereotypes of girls and women
-
Through women’s calculated deployment of their faces, bodies, attire, and
sexuality that they gain and enjoy true power
-
Enlightened sexism is a manufacturing process that is constantly produced by the
media…
ENLIGHTENED SEXISM
Anxiety about women’s achievement and branding and
consumerism
DIVIDED AND BRANDED
DIVIDED AND BRANDED
PRESENTED AS EMPOWERING?
THE MAN SHOW
THE SPICE GIRLS
FINAL THOUGHTS
Were the Spice Girls selling fantasies of power?
Were they pushing feminism? Or victims of enlightened sexism?
Was their ‘critique’ of patriarchy drowned out by the marketing and
consumerism of the group?
Were the relying on their own sexuality?
BIBLIOGRAPHY
Banet-Weiser, Sarah. “Girls Rule!: Gender, Feminism, and Nickelodeon.” Critical Studies in Media
Communication. 21.2 (2004): 119-139. Web. 19 Jan. 2012.
Douglas, Susan J. Enlightened Sexism: The Seductive Message that Feminism’s Work is Done. New
York: Times Books, 2010. Print.
Douglas, Susan J. “Enlightened Sexism: ‘Women's Success" Means It's Fine to Resurrect -- Even
Celebrate -- Sexist Stereotypes.’” Alternet.org. AlterNet. 1 March 2010. Web. 19 Jan. 2012.
Gilman, Susan Jane. “‘Girl Power From’ From Botox and a Bustier…Really?” npr.org. NPR, 25 March.
2010. Web. 22 Jan. 2012.
Riordan, Ellen. "Commodified Agents and Empowered Girls: Consuming and Producing
Feminism." Journal of Communication Inquiry 25.3 (2001): 279-97. Web. 19 Jan. 2012.
Spice World. Dir. Bob Spiers. Perf. Emma Bunton, Melanie Chisholm, Geri Halliwell, Victoria Adams,
Melanie Brown, Richard E. Grant. Columbia, 1997. VHS/Web.
“The Spice Girls Biography.” Thebiographychannel.co.uk. The Biography Channel. 22 Jan. 2012.
“You’ve Come a Long Way Baby.” News.bbc.co.uk. The British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC). 22
Jan. 2012.
No author given. “Girl Power or Go Home: Feminism and the Spice Girls.”
Girlpowerorgohome.wordpress.com. Wordpress.com, 1 Dec. 2011. Web. 22 Jan. 2012.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XkhB6lVPdNg
- Spice World: The Photoshoot
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=x0uXpm41seA
- Spice World Part 4
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gs6gHq8P3Ys&feature=related
- Spice Girls: Giving You Everything 3