INTERNATIONAL Women's Day this year coincides with international success for the Spice Girls. Their album and singles soar to the top of the charts, and discos and clubs up and down the country throb to their beat.
They have recently achieved success in the Us. and received two Brit awards, notably ones voted for by 'the people', not music industry moguls.
On the face of it, the Spice Giris phenomenon seems very positive lor young women, that of an all female band who display confidence and control of their lives. I ne music is loud, bouncy and virtually impossible to ignore. Their energy for life is enticing.
What lies behind this, though? Take the Spice Girls' slogan, "Girl Power". Does this "power" mean anything very much other than power to make noise and to assert yourself within the present system of relationships and families?
Their latest single, "Mama", endorses features of the family that are unhelpful and oppressiyc t0 you0s women, and to mothers. The words have the young women apologising for all the times they "crossed the line" and hurt their mothers by going to places they shouldn't have.
There's nothing wrong with mother and daughter having posiwre and stronk rciatonships. But this song forges such a relationship by having the daughter become subordinate to the mother.
It does nothing either to free the mother from her sole role as "carer" in the family. The Spice Girls end up уь t protcyt taesctoles trom any attacks.
You might think young women want some frecdom, and so do their mothers, they say, but actually we rather like things the way they are if we're being honest and sourd scarching about it.
Their political statements corroborate this view of their music. rusuy, lacy were deciarcd as Thatcherites by various newspapers. This has more recently been watered down to two of them being fans of Thatcher and believing her to have been the first "Spice Girl", while the rest either think they have no politics or a vague grasp of anarchy.
The idea that Thatcher was the first Spice Girl makes considerable sense. Her position as first woman Prime Minister in Britain, and her outspoaca and asscruyc mannct, led some to herald her as a feminist, Bur Thatcher did not support women's rights. She felt she had all tac Tupats sre necacd to speak out in lavour oi the status quo, ol women's oppression.
The Spice Giris also tap into this way of thinking. It is fine and casy for them to support the current organisation of the family, or indeed, of all relationships within it, because they have attained, through the music business, a temporary feeling of freedom from thesc con. straints.
They are in a position now to be choosy about their partners and to be apolorclic to their molners, knowing full well that they will not be forced back into a relationship that can hurt and trap both parties.
There is a crucial difference, though, and one for the Spice Girls to be very wary of. Thatcher constructed much of her own career and became the puppetcer in control of many others. The Spice Girls are the latest in a long line of bands constructed largely by men in the music business to make money.
"Girl groups" in the fifties and sixties were examples of this. Their careers were short-lived and we know little of what has happened to them since.
The former Shirelles talked last year of how one of their songs was just handed over to the all-male band, Manfred Mann, who had considerable success with it. The Shirelles were never acknowledged. All this was decided by backroom The Spice Giris were brought together to convey an image and an ideology not decided by them. Where will they be in the years to come, once the society and the system of relationships that they are endorsing have had their way with their carcers?
And what of all their fans, longing for women to be really challeng ing and assertive in the music business? So often, the fans' percep. tion of the band is way in advance of the band themselves.
It is necessary to promote music that is currently on the fringes, where women take control of their music, alongside their male colleagues, such as techno and dance music where new sounds are mixed and created from what has existed i tac past.
Such music may not always be so casy on the cars, bur in its very difference and its existence in a space quite other than that inhabited by the Spice Girls, it is at the very Icast a marker for change.