The Daily O’Collegian

I cried when Geri Halliwell, also known as “Ginger Spice,” quit The Spice Girls.

Go ahead; judge me.

But first, a little back story as to why, on May 31, 1998, I was a sobbing 11-year-old girl.

I was addicted to the Spice Girls from the moment I heard the hit single, “Wannabe,”

When I was in the sixth grade, my friends and I formed a tribute band called The Spice Invaders.

We had a pretty strenuous tour that consisted of local talent shows in Southeast Oklahoma and at McAlester’s Relay for Life.

I was Ginger Spice.

Halliwell will always be one of my heroes.

I picked her because she was so outspoken. She, of the five Spices, seemed to say the most profound things about “Girl Power.”

I have vivid memories of my friends and I ending notes we passed to one other in class with “Girl Power.”

Now that I’m older, I’ve begun to ask myself, “What is/was ‘Girl Power’?”

I don’t think I can say I fully believe the Spice Girls promoted feminism.

The Spice Girls, however, brought about the idea for some young girls, such as myself, that being a strong female leader was OK.

Geethika Jayatilaka, former head of policy and parliamentary affairs at the Fawcett Society, the UK’s leading campaign for equality, spoke about “Rebranding Feminism.”

In her speech, Jayatilaka spoke about the Spice Girls and Generation Y.

“…If you think Generation X need the hard sell then wait for generation Y — the tweenies, the phenomenon which have marketing departments rubbing their hands with glee, the big spending, media savvy, technologically skilled, most materialistic generation yet. They are used to being ‘sold’ an idea, of being convinced and will expect no less from us.

“But they were also the generation who grew up with ‘girl power!’ And there is a lesson to be learnt here — whatever you think about the Spice Girls. They showed that feminism could be repackaged and sold. Instead of looking down our noses at this phenomenon, we need to think about how to harness and use it.

“Yes, ‘girl power’ has failed if the extent of that power is to go and buy a set of dolls or to wear platform shoes — but it hasn’t if it enables young women to begin to think about their experiences and see them in a wider context and to begin to challenge inequalities in a safe environment.”

While I did buy all five Spice Girls dolls and also a pair of platform shoes, that wasn’t the extent of the Spice Girls’ impact on my life.

I was introduced into a way of thinking that my young mind hadn’t thought about before the Girls’ arrival.

Their lyrics talk about standing up for yourself and not putting up with a lover who isn’t treating you well.

In “Wannabe,” for example, they sing if a man wants to be one of their lovers, he has give because “taking is too easy.”

Susan J. Douglas, a writer for The Nation, wrote in an article in 1997 titled “Girl Power Puts a New Spice into Feminist Debate,” that when adolescent girls flock to a group, they are telling the rest of the world plenty about how they experience the transition to womanhood in a society where boys still dominate.

“…So while it’s easy as pie to hold a group like the Spice Girls in contempt, we should be wary when music embraced by preteen girls is ridiculed… The Spice Girls tell them that feminism is necessary and fun. Hey, when I was 10, we had ‘I Wanna Be Bobby’s Girl.’ Crass commercial calculation and all, the Spice Girls are a decided improvement.”

The Girls weren’t the leaders of a new wave of feminism.

Looking at who young girls have as role models nowadays, I feel lucky to have had them as role models.

Criticize the Spice Girls all you want, but you never heard about any of the Girls having a cocaine addiction. You never saw them grinding on a pole in a club. And they certainly didn’t have any sex tapes on the Internet.

Sadly, Britney Spears, Paris Hilton and Lindsay Lohan have yet to incorporate any sort of “Girl Power” into their agendas.