Spice Girls, Feminism, and Me

By: Samantha Lapierre –
Follow @samanthamarg

Spice Girls.

The Spice Girls released their first album, Spice, 20 years ago today.

I was pretty young when I was first introduced to them, but I remember being absolutely fascinated with the music video for “Wannabe”. Their outfits were colourful, they were dancing on tables, and they just didn’t care.

Over the years I acquired both of their albums (on bootlegged cassette tape, no less), a lot of merchandise (posters, t-shirts, jewelry and school supplies) and some pretty solid knowledge of their choreography. Now, I can recognize that they were cookie-cutter feminism-lite; you didn’t have to think too hard about their possibly controversial message, but they were outrageous and different enough to be drawn in. But being a shy only child, the Spice Girls felt like sisters to me. I didn’t know them, but I loved them, and I thought that they would probably love me, too.

Once Ginger left the band, like most fans, I grew up and moved on to other obsessions. When I was in my early 20s and learning about feminism in university, I began to revive my interest in the group. They clearly stood out among other (male-driven) pop groups of their time. Their outfits were pretty amazing and their music still held up, too. Learning about feminism allowed me to approach the group and their music from an intersectionalist perspective; they were problematic as hell, but they also did a lot of cool things with the power that they had.

Over the years, and pretty much at every age, I’ve had a lot of men tell me that the things that I liked were worthless. I am constantly suspicious of men who actively bash the things or people that teenage girls love or show interest in. Men who like popular things are cultured, but women who like popular things are either faking their interest or the thing that they like is foolish. There is no in between.

So, you could imagine how delighted I was when I was asked to be a part of a live listening party to celebrate their first album, Spice, for CBC’s Q.

The conversation that producer Vanessa proposed about feminism and the Girls was everything I think about on a daily basis. I was on a panel with two other fans, Indrit and Jessie, who were absolutely wonderful and so full of energy, insight and perspective. We talked for an hour about how the Spice Girls made us feel when we were younger, their problematic aspects, and how they make us feel today. The aired result of the conversation was amazing, and really breathed a whole new life into my passion for feminism and popular culture.

So, here I am in 2016, and at the age of 24. Just this April my absolutely wonderful partner planned a surprise Spice Girls-themed birthday party (complete with posters, a large union jack flag, and a Spice World viewing party) for me. For the past year I’ve been requesting that our good friend, Ottawa’s very own DJ Emmett, play “Stop” for me at any event he DJs… and he fulfills the request, every single time. The entire room will be absolutely fanatical about it as soon as the first few notes hit, and it’s totally worth it.

Very few things have affected me in the way that the Spice Girls have. If I ever have children, I want to pass on the Spice Girls’ core message of empowerment and self-love (I will also pass on to my children to be critical of everything because that’s important, too, let’s be real). Until then, I will be over here, requesting Stop at the club, and hoping some Spicy folks sing along with me.