The Spice Girls annoy me. It’s not that I’m jealous of them because many men are gaga over them or anything like that — they just really annoy me.
They dress in ridiculous clothes, brag about being promiscuous and contribute to the perpetuation of gender stereotypes. Just access one of their websites and you’ll see what I mean.
I checked out “http://channel3.vmg.co.uk/ spicegirls/tips+hints/index.html” and connected to the “spill the beans” subject where members of the Spice Girls do a Teenbeat-ish interview where they spill really important information about their shallow selves.
When asked the question, “How do you meet guys?” Spice Girl Emma answered, “I smile sweetly and play with my pigtails. I’d chat him up with, ‘Would you like one of my Bon-Bons?'” Whatever.
Spice Girl Victoria’s answers are no better. She answered the question “What do you do before bedtime?” with the following: “I have a full facial routine and put on my silk pajamas.”
These women are such great confidence boosters. They have a new authorized book called “Girl Power,” which I haven’t checked out yet, but they hardly display any power of the sort. Role models are something they are not. I have been informed that one of them is a former exotic dancer and another one is a former porn star. And their lyrics are ridiculous. “If you wanna be my lover, you gotta get with my friends,” they sing.
What does that mean? So if you want to be one of their lovers, you have to have sex with all their friends, too? I am sure the guys love that. Why can’t their songs have positive lyrics that talk about the empowerment of women and women being able to survive in life without a man?
Some men who are reading this right now are probably sitting there rolling their eyes thinking, “Who would want to listen to a song with words like that?” A lot of us women would. I am so sick of hearing songs about women crying about the men who dumped them and women begging for their boyfriends back.
Women’s sole purpose in life is not to be somebody’s girlfriend. Songs like the ones the Spice Girls record don’t help break down social constructions about the roles of genders. They perpetuate them.
This commentary originally ran in Friday’s issue of The Daily Illini at the University of Illinois.