Girl Power
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The phrase "Girl Power," as a term of empowerment, expressed a cultural phenomenon of the mid-late 1990s to the early 2000s and is also linked to third-wave feminism.
Origins
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, this term was also associated with the Plumstead pop-punk duo Shampoo. 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?" [link])
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 [link]. 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.
Girl power in popular culture
Spice Girls
Without a doubt, however, the phrase is most commonly associated with the mid-1990s British singing group the Spice Girls [link], [link]. 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").Third wave
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 [link]. 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 [link]. It is still an active field, however).Critics have thus contextualized this phenomenon within the dynamics between third-wave feminism and second-wave feminism [link]. They juxtapose second wave figures in popular culture with female action heroes of the late 1990s and early 2000s.
Media theorist Kathleen Rowe Karlyn echoes this sentiment in her article "Scream, Popular Culture, and Feminism's Third Wave: I'm Not My Mother" [link], as does Irene Karras in "The Third Wave's Final girl: Buffy the Vampire Slayer" [link].
Fiction
- Sydney Bristow of Alias
- Jess Bhamra and Jules Paxton of Bend It Like Beckham (also references Mia Hamm and the Spice Girls)
- ''Bratz Dolls
- Buffy Summers of Buffy the Vampire Slayer
- ''Charlie's Angels
- Charmed
- Cher of Clueless
- Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon
- Max Guevera/X5-452 of Dark Angel
- Felicity
- Lorelai Gilmore and Rory Gilmore of the Gilmore Girls
- Beatrix Kiddo of Kill Bill
- Kim Possible
- Guinevere of the 2004 version of King Arthur
- [[Lara Croft: Tomb Raider]]
- Elle Woods of Legally Blonde
- Trinity (The Matrix) of The Matrix
- La Femme Nikita
- Powerpuff Girls [link]
- Sabrina, the Teenage Witch,
- ''Sailor Moon [link]
- Scream
- Princess Fiona of Shrek
- Padmé Amidala of [[Star Wars Episode I: The Phantom Menace]]
- Rose DeWitt Bukater of Titanic
- Two Weeks Notice (in which second- and third-wave dynamics are played out by Lucy Kelson and her mother Ruth Kelson)
- Xena
Sports and entertainment
- Christina Aguilera
- Mia Hamm
- Moesha
- Brandi Chastain
- Mary-Kate and Ashley Olsen
- Britney Spears
- Ashlee Simpson
- J.Lo
- Spice Girls
- Venus Williams
- Serena Williams
- FIFA Women's World Cup
Meanings
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."Oxford English Dictionary
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" [link].The OED also gives an example of this term by quoting from an article (on the television show Dark Angel) in the March 24, 2001 issue of Dreamwatch entitled, "Angel Delight":
- After the Sarah Connors and Ellen Ripleys of the eighties, the nineties weren't so kind to the superwoman format -- Xena Warrior Princess excepted. But it's a new millennium now, and while Charlie's Angels and Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon are kicking up a storm on movie screens, it's been down to James Cameron to bring empowered female warriors back to television screens. And tellingly, Cameron has done it by mixing the sober feminism of his Terminator and Aliens characters with the sexed-up Girl Power of a Britney Spears concert. The result is Dark Angel [link].
See also
- List of superheroines
- Post-feminism
- second-wave feminism
- third-wave feminism
- Mudflap girl
- riot grrrl
- Slayage (peer-reviewed online journal, Buffy Studies)
Scholarship
- [Buffy The Partriarchy Slayer] - Bibliography of scholarly articles on Buffy Studies.
- Alvarez, Maria (1998), Feminist icon in a catsuit (female lead character Emma Peel in defunct 1960s UK TV series 'The Avengers'), New Statesman, Aug 14.
- 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.
- Karlyn, Kathleen Rowe. "[Scream, Popular Culture, and Feminism's Third Wave: 'I'm Not My Mother']. Genders: Presenting Innovative Work in the Arts, Humanities, and Social Sciences No. 38 (2003).
- Karras, Irene. "[The Third Wave's Final Girl: Buffy the Vampire Slayer]." thirdspace 1:2 (March 2002).
- Kennedy, Helen W. "[Lara Croft: Feminist Icon or Cyberbimbo?: On the Limits of Textual Analysis]". Game Studies: The International Journal of Computer Game Reserach. 2:2 (December, 2002).
- 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.
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