Girls and women who came of age in the 1980s became fed up with a combination of bad economic conditions, the explosion of AIDS, and a slow backlash against the progress made in the 1970s (which, according to this article, included a 50% increase in reports of violence against young women). Some also think that it galvanized the increase in women's participation in politics which was apparent as early as the 1992 national elections.īut clearly, this single public event wasn't the only force behind a whole new school of thought about gender. Although Thomas was ultimately still confirmed, the controversy raised awareness about the continuing problem of sexual harassment in the workplace.
The senior George Bush's new nominee, Clarence Thomas, was a more conservative African American, which raised the eyebrows of plenty of liberals.īut the much bigger twist was that during his confirmation hearings, a woman named Anita Hill publicly accused Thomas of sexually harassing her in the workplace when he was her boss. Marshall had been an important influence in decisions that upheld civil rights legislation.
That scandal unfolded when Supreme Court Judge Thurgood Marshall resigned after serving 24 years as the Supreme Court's first African-American appointee. Some say that feminism's third wave began with the Anita Hill-Clarence Thomas controversy in 1991. It was also a response to the perception that their mothers' brand of 1970s feminism (the so-called "second wave") was outdated. Feminism's third wave, a movement that began in the 1980s and gained traction in the early 1990s, was the response of some young people to the widespread backlash against feminism that thrived in the 1980s. In reality, the whole idea of girl power-and the catch phrase itself-emerged from what's known as the third wave of feminism. In fact, plenty of people have argued that they merely co-opted and commercialized it. The Spice Girls definitely didn't invent girl power. "If I Were a Boy" is a perfect example of the new kind of "girl power" that Beyoncé has based her career on, at least in part. And arguably, her unshakeable reputation as an emblem of girl power owes something to the legacy of 1990s girl groups ranging the Spice Girls to Bikini Kill. It's not the mid-1990s anymore, and Queen Bey's most important fanbase is definitely not pre-teens.īut differences aside, Beyoncé's career began on the tail end of late-1990s Spicemania.
#BEYONCE IF I WERE A BOY MEANING PROFESSIONAL#
On top of that, she's a genuine example of a powerful woman, at least on a professional and financial level. For one, she's significantly more talented. We know Beyoncé is nothing like a Spice Girl. "Why are you talking about the Spice Girls in a piece about Beyoncé?" Don't worry no confusion here. Love them or hate them, the Spice Girls' catchy 1996 debut album Spice made a noise that is still reverberating-and made "girl power" a household phrase. Yes, unfortunately we're talking about Sporty, Scary, Baby, Posh and Ginger: the Spice Girls. In 1996, they changed the group's name, picked five overly cutesy nicknames out of a magazine, and put out a huge hit album on Virgin Records that became the mark of the "girl power" music craze of the 1990s. Once upon a time, in 1994, a group of five singing, dancing girls were selected via a long audition process to become members of a new girl band called Touch.