Girl Power
Encyclopedia
The phrase "girl power", as a term of empowerment, expressed a cultural phenomenon
of the 1990s and early 2000s. It is also linked to third-wave feminism
. The term was made popular by the Spice Girls
in the mid to late 1990s.
.
"Girl power" was later utilized by a number of bands during the early 1990s, such as the Welsh
indie band Helen Love
and the Plumstead
pop-punk duo Shampoo
.
. Professor Susan Hopkins, in her 2002 text, Girl Heroes: The New Force in Popular Culture
, suggested a correlation between "girl power", Spice Girls and female action heroes at the end of the 20th century.
Other scholars have also examined the phrase, "girl power", often within the context of the academic field, Buffy Studies
. Media theorist Kathleen Rowe Karlyn in her article "Scream, Popular Culture, and Feminism's Third Wave: I'm Not My Mother" and Irene Karras in "The Third Wave's Final girl
: Buffy the Vampire Slayer" suggest a link with third-wave feminism
. Frances Early and Kathleen Kennedy in the introduction to Athena’s Daughters: Television’s New Women Warriors, discuss what they describe as a link between girl power and a "new" image of women warriors in popular culture.
added the term girl power," defining this phrase as:
The OED further offers an example of this term by quoting from "Angel Delight", an article in the March 24, 2001 issue of Dreamwatch about the television series Dark Angel
:
, was critical of the "Girl power" ideals, and linked it to the sexualisation of younger children, girls in particular.
Some question whether the concept of “girl power” is an effective media campaign to empower young women. In the last decade, it can be argued that the original girl power movement has become co-opted by the media and marketing industries. Amy McClure of North Carolina State University
, warns against placing too much hope on girl power as an empowering concept. She says, “An ideology based on consumerism
can never be a revolutionary social movement. The fact that it appears to be a revolutionary movement is a dangerous lie that not only marketers sell to us but that we often happily sell to ourselves.”
“Girl power” may actually limit young women’s identity development. There are numerous examples of how the media presents a narrow definition of what it means to be a girl today. A common and overused example is Mattel’s Barbie
. The recent “I can be” Barbie embodies this concept of “girl power”: that little girls can be anything they want when they grow up, but ultimately, it could be argued that identity options are narrowed by Barbie’s image and superficial values.
Cultural studies
Cultural studies is an academic field grounded in critical theory and literary criticism. It generally concerns the political nature of contemporary culture, as well as its historical foundations, conflicts, and defining traits. It is, to this extent, largely distinguished from cultural...
of the 1990s and early 2000s. It is also linked to third-wave feminism
Third-wave feminism
Third-wave feminism is a term identified with several diverse strains of feminist activity and study whose exact boundaries in the historiography of feminism are a subject of debate, but often marked as beginning in the 1980s and continuing to the present...
. The term was made popular by the Spice Girls
Spice Girls
The Spice Girls were a British pop girl group formed in 1994. The group consisted of Victoria Beckham , Melanie Brown, Emma Bunton, Melanie Chisholm and Geri Halliwell. They were signed to Virgin Records and released their debut single, "Wannabe" in 1996, which hit number-one in more than 30...
in the mid to late 1990s.
Early usage
The phrase is sometimes spelled as "grrrl power", initially associated with Riot GrrrlRiot grrrl
Riot grrrl was an underground feminist punk movement based in Washington, DC, Olympia, Washington, Portland, Oregon, and the greater Pacific Northwest which existed in the early to mid-1990s, and it is often associated with third-wave feminism...
.
"Girl power" was later utilized by a number of bands during the early 1990s, such as the Welsh
Wales
Wales is a country that is part of the United Kingdom and the island of Great Britain, bordered by England to its east and the Atlantic Ocean and Irish Sea to its west. It has a population of three million, and a total area of 20,779 km²...
indie band Helen Love
Helen Love (band)
Helen Love are an indie band from Wales whose music is a combination of punk rock, bubblegum pop and disco dance music. The main thematic elements in their oeuvre are Joey Ramone, summer days and bubblegum music.-History:...
and the Plumstead
Plumstead
Plumstead is a district of south London, England, located in the London Borough of Greenwich. Plumstead is a multi cultural area with large Asian and Afro-Caribbean communities, in similarity to local areas such as Woolwich and Thamesmead...
pop-punk duo Shampoo
Shampoo (band)
Shampoo were a British all-girl band in the 1990s, formed by Jacqui Blake and Caroline "Carrie" Askew. They were most famous for their hit song, "Trouble".-History:...
.
Spice Girls and scholarship
The phrase entered the mainstream, however, during the mid-1990s with the British pop quintet Spice GirlsSpice Girls
The Spice Girls were a British pop girl group formed in 1994. The group consisted of Victoria Beckham , Melanie Brown, Emma Bunton, Melanie Chisholm and Geri Halliwell. They were signed to Virgin Records and released their debut single, "Wannabe" in 1996, which hit number-one in more than 30...
. Professor Susan Hopkins, in her 2002 text, Girl Heroes: The New Force in Popular Culture
Girl Heroes
Girl Heroes: The New Force In Popular Culture is a 2002 text by Susan Hopkins. It is a cultural analysis of the contemporary archetype of the girl hero in popular culture....
, suggested a correlation between "girl power", Spice Girls and female action heroes at the end of the 20th century.
Other scholars have also examined the phrase, "girl power", often within the context of the academic field, Buffy Studies
Buffy studies
Buffy Studies is a term applied to the collection of written works about, and the university courses that discuss aspects of, the television program Buffy the Vampire Slayer and, to a lesser extent, its spin-off program Angel. It explores issues related to gender and other philosophical issues as...
. Media theorist Kathleen Rowe Karlyn in her article "Scream, Popular Culture, and Feminism's Third Wave: I'm Not My Mother" and Irene Karras in "The Third Wave's Final girl
Final girl
The final girl is a trope in thriller and horror films that specifically refers to the last woman or girl alive to confront the killer, ostensibly the one left to tell the story...
: Buffy the Vampire Slayer" suggest a link with third-wave feminism
Third-wave feminism
Third-wave feminism is a term identified with several diverse strains of feminist activity and study whose exact boundaries in the historiography of feminism are a subject of debate, but often marked as beginning in the 1980s and continuing to the present...
. Frances Early and Kathleen Kennedy in the introduction to Athena’s Daughters: Television’s New Women Warriors, discuss what they describe as a link between girl power and a "new" image of women warriors in popular culture.
Oxford English Dictionary
In 2001, the Oxford English DictionaryOxford English Dictionary
The Oxford English Dictionary , published by the Oxford University Press, is the self-styled premier dictionary of the English language. Two fully bound print editions of the OED have been published under its current name, in 1928 and 1989. The first edition was published in twelve volumes , and...
added the term girl power," defining this phrase as:
- Power exercised by girls; spec. a self-reliant attitude among girls and young women manifested in ambition, assertiveness, and individualism. Although also used more widely (esp. as a slogan), the term has been particularly and repeatedly associated with popular music; most notably in the early 1990s with the briefly prominent ‘riot girl’ movement in the United States (cf. RIOT GIRL n.); then, in the late 1990s, with the British all-female group The Spice Girls.
The OED further offers an example of this term by quoting from "Angel Delight", an article in the March 24, 2001 issue of Dreamwatch about the television series Dark Angel
Dark Angel (TV series)
Dark Angel is an American biopunk/cyberpunk science fiction television series created by James Cameron and Charles H. Eglee. The show premiered in the United States on the Fox network on October 3, 2000, and was canceled after two seasons...
:
- After the Sarah Connors and Ellen RipleyEllen RipleyEllen Ripley is a fictional character and the main protagonist of the Alien film series played by American actress Sigourney Weaver. The character was heralded as a seminal role for challenging gender roles, particularly in the science fiction genre, and remains Weaver's most famous role to...
s of the eighties1980sFile:1980s decade montage.png|thumb|400px|From left, clockwise: The first Space Shuttle, Columbia, lifted off in 1981; American President Ronald Reagan and Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev eased tensions between the two superpowers, leading to the end of the Cold War; The Fall of the Berlin Wall in...
, the nineties1990sFile:1990s decade montage.png|From left, clockwise: The Hubble Space Telescope floats in space after it was taken up in 1990; American F-16s and F-15s fly over burning oil fields and the USA Lexie in Operation Desert Storm, also known as the 1991 Gulf War; The signing of the Oslo Accords on...
weren't so kind to the superwoman format—XenaXenaXena is a fictional character from Robert Tapert's Xena: Warrior Princess franchise. She first appeared in the 1995–1999 television series Hercules: The Legendary Journeys, before going on to appear in Xena: Warrior Princess TV show and subsequent comic book of the same name...
Warrior Princess excepted. But it's a new millennium now, and while Charlie's AngelsCharlie's Angels (film)Charlie's Angels is a 2000 American action comedy film directed by McG, starring Cameron Diaz, Drew Barrymore, and Lucy Liu as three women working for a private investigation agency...
and Crouching Tiger, Hidden DragonCrouching Tiger, Hidden DragonCrouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon is a 2000 wuxia film. An American-Chinese-Hong Kong-Taiwanese co-production, the film was directed by Ang Lee and featured an international cast of ethnic Chinese actors, including Chow Yun-Fat, Michelle Yeoh, Zhang Ziyi, and Chang Chen...
are kicking up a storm on movie screens, it's been down to James CameronJames CameronJames Francis Cameron is a Canadian-American film director, film producer, screenwriter, editor, environmentalist and inventor...
to bring empowered female warriors back to television screens. And tellingly, Cameron has done it by mixing the sober feminism of his TerminatorThe TerminatorThe Terminator is a 1984 science fiction action film directed by James Cameron, co-written by Cameron and William Wisher Jr., and starring Arnold Schwarzenegger, Michael Biehn, and Linda Hamilton. The film was produced by Hemdale Film Corporation and distributed by Orion Pictures, and filmed in Los...
and AliensAliens (film)Aliens is a 1986 science fiction action film directed by James Cameron and starring Sigourney Weaver, Carrie Henn, Michael Biehn, Lance Henriksen, William Hope, and Bill Paxton...
characters with the sexed-up girl power of a Britney SpearsBritney SpearsBritney Jean Spears is an American recording artist and entertainer. Born in McComb, Mississippi, and raised in Kentwood, Louisiana, Spears began performing as a child, landing acting roles in stage productions and television shows. She signed with Jive Records in 1997 and released her debut album...
concert. The result is Dark Angel.
Criticism
Dr. Debbie Ging, Chair of the BA in Communications Studies in Dublin City UniversityDublin City University
Dublin City University is a university situated between Glasnevin, Santry, Ballymun and Whitehall on the Northside of Dublin in Ireland...
, was critical of the "Girl power" ideals, and linked it to the sexualisation of younger children, girls in particular.
Some question whether the concept of “girl power” is an effective media campaign to empower young women. In the last decade, it can be argued that the original girl power movement has become co-opted by the media and marketing industries. Amy McClure of North Carolina State University
North Carolina State University
North Carolina State University at Raleigh is a public, coeducational, extensive research university located in Raleigh, North Carolina, United States. Commonly known as NC State, the university is part of the University of North Carolina system and is a land, sea, and space grant institution...
, warns against placing too much hope on girl power as an empowering concept. She says, “An ideology based on consumerism
Consumerism
Consumerism is a social and economic order that is based on the systematic creation and fostering of a desire to purchase goods and services in ever greater amounts. The term is often associated with criticisms of consumption starting with Thorstein Veblen...
can never be a revolutionary social movement. The fact that it appears to be a revolutionary movement is a dangerous lie that not only marketers sell to us but that we often happily sell to ourselves.”
“Girl power” may actually limit young women’s identity development. There are numerous examples of how the media presents a narrow definition of what it means to be a girl today. A common and overused example is Mattel’s Barbie
Barbie
Barbie is a fashion doll manufactured by the American toy-company Mattel, Inc. and launched in March 1959. American businesswoman Ruth Handler is credited with the creation of the doll using a German doll called Bild Lilli as her inspiration....
. The recent “I can be” Barbie embodies this concept of “girl power”: that little girls can be anything they want when they grow up, but ultimately, it could be argued that identity options are narrowed by Barbie’s image and superficial values.
See also
- List of female action heroes
- Xena: Warrior Princess in popular cultureXena: Warrior Princess in popular cultureXena: Warrior Princess has been referred to as a pop cultural phenomenon and feminist and lesbian icon. The television series, which employed pop culture references as a frequent humorous device, has itself become a frequent pop culture reference in video games, comics and television shows, and has...
- Buffy studiesBuffy studiesBuffy Studies is a term applied to the collection of written works about, and the university courses that discuss aspects of, the television program Buffy the Vampire Slayer and, to a lesser extent, its spin-off program Angel. It explores issues related to gender and other philosophical issues as...
- Girl HeroesGirl HeroesGirl Heroes: The New Force In Popular Culture is a 2002 text by Susan Hopkins. It is a cultural analysis of the contemporary archetype of the girl hero in popular culture....
- Women warriors
- Post-feminism