One of my friends suggested that I watch the movie
Spice World. I had always been meaning to see it, but every time I went to rent a movie with friends, no one wanted to rent it! They’d always say that was the last movie they’d ever want to see or that they understood I wanted to watch it as a joke, but that a full feature film would just make them annoyed. A music video was enough of a joke for them. I had only known five people who had seen it. Five guy friends from my high school each dressed up like a different Spice Girl and saw it in the theatre! (No, it’s not just the Lord-of-the-Rings people).
So, I decided to watch it by myself (My roommate wouldn’t even watch it with me and in fact went out of her way to
avoid watching it!). And, I thought it was a
great movie! It had all the elements. It was this fantasy boys’ club, except with girls instead of course. It’s funny that it’s the Spice Girls, because when you watch movies you automatically compare it to other movies in the genre; in this case I compared it to the Beatles’ movies like
A Hard Days Night. These aren’t exactly the kind of groups you would lump together, but on second thought they are alarmingly similar. In both movies the musicians claim to be a group of friends that are in a band and act “carefree.” As the viewer you automatically put yourself into the protagonist’s position. And in these instances it is everything that we seem to aspire to: wealth and being able to act carefree. I rather doubt that the Spice Girls didn’t want to listen to their manager and instead act like teenagers in high school rebelling against the authority figure. I’m sure they were doing everything they could to make their shows successful and were worried about how they presented themselves and how things would go over. After all, there were a lot of people in their stadium audiences. And I’m sure there are also many would kill for the chance to be in their position and would take any chance to watch them slip up and then swoop in to replace them.
It’s funny… one thing I’ve noticed when I peruse a magazine are all the ads. The ads seem to always portray a protagonist that we want to identify with because they are on their way to something glamorous. And these ads usually don’t take place
at a glamorous event. It’s always in route to. I’ve often heard people make the comment, “I just don’t understand why some girls—they just spend two hours on their clothes and make-up and then go get trashed and look awful. All those hours and then in no time they’ve spilled alcohol all over themselves and their mascara’s running.” But, it makes sense to me. You spend hours preparing to
pretend that you don’t care. Why? Nonchalance is cool and if you mess up you can save face. Plus, looking good really does take time and effort but trying too hard doesn’t offer the same fantasy: Thinking that one day you could wake up and it would be your turn to be thin, famous and talented and you didn’t have to do anything. Discipline isn’t sexy. But come on! The Spice Girls’ routine isn’t fooling anyone; it’s just a myth that we want to buy. After all, it’s a nice fantasy to have for an hour and a half—that your only problem is which Gucci dress to wear and no matter which one you pick, it’s going to be the right decision and everyone will love you.
(originally written on September 28, 2005)
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