Girl Power
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Image:Girlpowershampoo.jpg
The phrase "Girl Power," as a term of empowerment, developed during the mid-1990s. There is great debate as to both the origins and meaning of the phrase "Girl Power." While "Grrrl Power" was a term frequently associated with the Riot Grrrl movement during the early 1990s the Plumstead pop-punk duo Shampoo often have this term attributed to them, as they released both an album and single titled Girl Power in early 1995 (despite the fact that they were quoted—tongue planted firmly in cheek—as saying, ""Girl Power is a load of rubbish, who the hell thought that one up anyway?" [1])
However, it was Welsh indie band Helen Love who first recorded the words, on their debut single Formula One Racing Girls, released on the Damaged Goods label in 1993 [2]. The song itself is a nod to Riot Grrrl, and embraces the concept of Girl Power and Female Emancipation.
"I bought these jeans to make you love me/I cut a whole so your hand would fit/now I don't care about/you so I'm going to saw up all the rips/girl power/I bought these boots to make you happy/I strapped them up to turn you on/now I don't care about you/I've got my Huggy Bear t-shirt on/I'm not going to dress up for you/I'm not going to pay your rent/outside the sun is shining/I'm hanging out with my girlfriends/Girl power"
Shampoo's svengali was a big fan of Helen Love, and no doubt "borrowed" the phrase.
Without a doubt, however, the phrase is most commonly associated with the mid-1990s British singing group the Spice Girls [3], [4]. The group used the phrase as a slogan in interviews, on merchandise, and as an overall band "politic", through lyrics such as "God help the mister that comes between me and my sister" ("Love Thing").
As a number of critics have suggested (including Dr. Susan Hopkins, a lecturer in The School of Journalism and Communication, The University of Queensland, in her book Girl Heroes), the phrase "Girl Power!" mirrored the growing interest in popular culture in "The Girl" during the late 1990s [5]. This interest was further reflected in the development of the academic discipline, Buffy Studies (which led to Slayage: The Online Journal of Buffy Studies). Subfields in this area include Girls Studies and Girl Culture (when the television series Buffy the Vampire Slayer ended in 2003, there was speculation that the field of Buffy Studies might also end [6]. It is still an active field, however).
Another way to think of this is as an expression of the dynamics between Second-wave feminism (as embodied in the images of Ellen Ripley in the Alien films, Sarah Connor in The Terminator films and Blaxploitation films and characters such as Coffy and Cleopatra Jones)and Third-wave feminism (as embodied in late 1990s female action heroes such as Buffy Summers of Buffy the Vampire Slayer [7] or Sydney Bristow of Alias). Media theorist Kathleen Rowe Karlyn echoes this sentiment in her article "Scream, Popular Culture, and Feminism's Third Wave: I'm Not My Mother" [8].
Girl Power had different meanings according to context. The brand of Girl Power espoused by Shampoo involved "coming home drunk in the midnight hour" (Girl Power), whilst the official book for the Spice Girls quotes them as saying: "Feminism has become a dirty word. Girl Power is just a nineties way of saying it. We can give feminism a kick up the arse. Women can be so powerful when they show solidarity."
In 2001, the Oxford English Dictionary added the term Girl Power!, defining this phrase as "a self-reliant attitude among girls and young women manifested in ambition, assertiveness and individualism" [9].
Pop culture, 1995-2005
See Girl Power in popular culture
See also
Scholarship
- Barr, Marleen S. Future Females, the Next Generation : New Voices and Velocities in Feminist Science Fiction Criticism. Lanham, Md.: Rowman & Littlefield, 2000.
- Deuber-Mankowsky, Astrid and Dominic J. Bonfiglio (Translator). Lara Croft:Cyber Heroine. Minneapolis: University Of Minnesota Press, 2005.
- Early, Frances and Kathleen Kennedy, Athena's Daughters: Television's New Women Warriors, Syracuse University Press, 2003.
- Gateward, Frances. Sugar, Spice, and Everything Nice. Cinemas of Girlhood. Detroit: Wayne State University Press, 2002.
- Heinecken, Dawn. Warrior Women of Television: A Feminist Cultural Analysis of the New Female Body in Popular Media, New York: P. Lang, 2003.
- Helford, Elyce Rae. Fantasy Girls : Gender in the New Universe of Science Fiction and Fantasy Television. Lanham, MD: Rowman & Littlefield, 2000.
- Hopkins, Susan, Girl Heroes: the New Force in Popular Culture, Pluto Press Australia, 2002.
- Inness, Sherrie A. (ed.) Action Chicks: New Images of Tough Women in Popular Culture, Palgrave Macmillan, 2004.
- ———. Tough Girls : Women Warriors and Wonder Women in Popular Culture. Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press, 1999.
- ———.Nancy Drew and Company : Culture, Gender, and Girls' Series. Bowling Green, OH: Bowling Green State University Popular Press, 1997.
- McCaughey, Martha and Neal King (eds.) Reel Knockouts: Violent Women in the Movies. Austin: University of Texas Press, 2001.
- Osgerby, Bill, Anna Gough-Yates, and Marianne Wells. Action TV : Tough-Guys, Smooth Operators and Foxy Chicks. London: Routledge, 2001.
- Pohl-Weary, Emily. Girls Who Bite Back: Witches, Mutants, Slayers, Freaks.Toronto: Sumach Press, 2004.
- Tasker, Yvonne. Action and Adventure Cinema. New York: Routledge, 2004.
- ———.Working Girls: Gender and Sexuality in Popular Culture. London: Routledge 1998
- ———.Spectacular Bodies : Gender, Genre, and the Action Cinema. London and New York: Routledge, 1993.fr:Girl power