Cheetah Girls- the new spice girls? May 4, 2007
Posted by Melissa in Cheetah Girls, Female Power, Girl Power, Pussycat Dolls, Spice Girls, bodies, female relationships, feminism, gender, general considerations, marketing gender, tween market.trackback
During a recent conversation with my little sister, she mentioned that her favorite music group at the moment was the Cheetah Girls. Intrigued, I looked them up online to discover that they were a disney creation, and hugely popular in the tween market. The group advocates sisterhood and girl power, much like the Spice Girls. What is noticeably different about this group however, is that this is the only group that advocates girl power being marketed toward the tween market that is age appropriate. Unlike the Spice Girls, these young ladies are all fully dressed and close enough in age to their audience so that they can actually be seen as feasible role models for young girls. What I like most about the girls is that in addition to promoting healthy relationships between women, they also promote the need for healthy relationships with ones own body. All four girls have different shapes, features, and skin tones- important differences that are mostly ignored in mainstream media but normalized and embraced within the group. Unlike the media’s acceptance of a few “extraordinary” people (read non-white and non-skinny), the group does its best to normalize the differences. While I do think they are incredibly corny (check you the music video below…its AMAZING- note the sarcasm) I am comforted by the idea that the Pussycat Dolls are not the future of the girl-power movement.
I agree with many of your points, but I think it’s also notable that there’s a lot of drama within the Cheetah Girls because Raven didn’t want to be with a group, and so she went solo. Also, since this is a Disney Channel creation, I have to wonder at what point tween girls will abandon the Cheetah Girls for the Pussycat Dolls…
Having taught 6th grade over interterm in the Bronx, I feel comfortable saying that in January the Cheetah’s were alive and well in the minds of all of the 6th graders at M.S.223. They were a HUGE fad, so much that a group of four girls in my special ed class identified themselves as the Cheetahs. I agree with what Melissa said, and am thrilled that the Cheetah’s are doing well (at least I think they are still doing well). The Disney channel shows are still huge and I think that young girls really like relating to girls closer their own age. The beats of the music are also really cute and poppy which helps too. :0)
[...] 10th, 2007 · No Comments There’s a post over at the main blog about the Cheetah Girls as a symbol of the Girl Power movement. As a Disney [...]
[...] a post over at the main blog about the Cheetah Girls as a symbol of the Girl Power movement. As a Disney [...]