The Feminist is a Vamp

“My time is precious. Don’t waste it...If I don’t like you, I’ll leave...It’s easy to just take, but you have to give, too...if you want me, you have to want my friends, too.”

Le Tigre? Bikini Kill? You might think. But no. Those lyrics are reworded from...”Wannabe”. By the Spice Girls. Yes, those pop tarts, those purveyors of the often-hated-by-feminists girl power. It turns out that underneath the short skirts and makeup and superficiality are real, true feminist statements. It’s not just “Wannabe” that has them, although it’s worth noting that their most famous song is about how a guy has to not “bug” them, must be good to their friends, and has to give, not just take.

The Spice Girls are the biggest female group of all time. But more than that, they were absurdly successful, period. When they did a reunion tour, tickets to their London show sold out in--wait for it--38 seconds. (I personally managed via Facebook’s marketplace to get a pair of nosebleed seats, for an absurd amount of money, and drove down to see them in New Jersey and it was fantastic.) If nothing else, the Girls showed up and said to the world that women can be successful, women can inspire tens of millions of record sales, and hordes of screaming fans, and, dammit, they can look good while doing it.

While I recognize the criticisms of the Spice Girls--like that they’re overly concerned with their appearance and that “girl power” isn’t feminism at all but just a great way to sell records--and while I think that those criticisms have some legitimacy, I also think that the lyrics are what stick. I got my first Spice Girls album in probably 1996 or 1997. I can’t tell you what they were wearing. (Other than that I assume sky-high shoes were involved.) I can’t tell you who their boyfriends were (actually, I don’t think they had boyfriends at the time, and I know Geri “Ginger Spice” Halliwell was a single mother later on). What I can tell you is what they said. I can tell you that 8-year-old me heard that it was okay to say “What part of no don't you understand?” (“Too Much”), and that “she knows just what to do” (“Lady is a Vamp”), and one that I would understand better later on: that I would think my mama was “my only enemy,” but that really “every little thing [she] ever said and did was right for me” (“Mama”).

And yeah, I listened BECAUSE they were all wrapped up in pop; I wouldn’t have cared about Riot Grrrls. But the message I took away was real, and powerful, and one nobody else was giving, or has given since.