I blame the Spice Girls.
Out they came, bounding onto our TV screens, all brash, bold and bossy, shouting ‘Girl power!’ It really was love at first sight. Don’t get me wrong I liked all 5 of them, but Ginger (a.k.a Geri Halliwell) spoke to me. Her steadfast quest for ‘girl power’ made me want to join them. That was that, if I were to be taken seriously as a girl-band wannabe I had to be kitted out too. The appropriate attire was needed for this girl gang mission. I had the pure white bomber jacket with SPICE GIRLS stamped on the back, the lovingly labelled monochrome crop top too - and those platform shoes. My adoration was unwavering, even when my granny protested: “Don’t waste your time. They won’t last long.”
But that’s the key to friendship, isn’t it? Time. Some of the greatest movies we remember from our younger years centred on the concept of friendship, spanning one glorious summer away from school, and all its innocence. Who didn’t love ‘The Stand’? Based on Stephen King’s novel ‘The Body’, a group of 4 young boys take off on an adventure in America – all childhood blood, guts and glory included. Leaving a quote that will forever resonate: ‘I never had any friends later on like the ones I had when I was twelve. Jesus, does anyone?’ Or what about ‘Now and Then’? As my all-time favourite, the summer drenched imagery of Thora Birch, Christina Ricci, Gaby Hoffman and Ashleigh Aston Moore in 70s styled perfection will forever be imprinted in mind. Facing the trials and tribulations of coming-of-age as they took off on an adventure out of town. We never quite discover the friendships we treasured as a child, unless we’re really lucky, do we?
Yes, my granny was right about the Spice Girls. 2 years later and the news broke of Ginger’s departure and girls around the world mourned their wannabe ginger manes, union jack dresses and the demise of the phenomena that was girl power (with an added peace sign). But my granny was wrong about girl groups.
Why do people always assume a large group of girls won’t stay together? That their friendship is fickle and it’ll flounder as quickly as it was found? Let’s go back to those childhood-based friendship films. We loved them because they were based around adventure. The adventure of the unknown: the wilderness, a long hot summer, growing older, removal of our parents and the surprising capabilities of our friends. In Gloria Steinem’s recently released memoir ‘My Life on the Road’, she cleverly highlights the varying definitions between men and women when it comes to adventure: “… adventurer as “a person who has, enjoys or seeks adventures,” but adventuress is “a woman who uses unscrupulous means in order to gain wealth or social position.” Whilst reading this on my daily commute, I instantly thought this can be applicable to the media’s portrayal of Swift and her squad. Swift has actively set herself up as the ringleader of a sisterhood of actors, models and singers, such as Selena Gomez, Kendall Jenner, Cara Delevingne and Karlie Kloss, referring to them as her “girl squad”. Swift has out sold her contemporaries on an immeasurable scale. With talk of her having earned over a million dollars per day, 2015 witnessed the rise of one of the music industries biggest stars (according to Forbes, Swift raked in $80 million last year), and a woman beginning her own adventure. Whatever the correct figure, the fact is clear: Swift is on her way to world domination – but not without the help of her female friends.
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I’ve lost count of the number of printed images of Swift and her squad throughout last year. But the one that truly sticks in my mind is her stage squad surrounding her during her 1989 world tour in New Jersey in July. Lily Aldridge, Gigi Hadid, Hailee Steinfeld and Lena Dunham all stood side-by-side with her facing Swift’s thousands of adoring fans. In her own right, Dunham has paved a way for the power of female friendship. In April 2012, the first ever episode of HBO’s ‘Girls’ aired across TV screens throughout the USA. And the women of the world sat up and took note. From their blatant normality to their deep-rooted friendships, Dunham presented a reminder of the power of female amity. The 29-year-old creator and star of the series has said (at the time) that even though her characters may all date men, female friendship is “the true romance of the show”. Similarly, 90s hit-show ‘Sex and the City’ spoke to thirty-something women in the same way as the show revolved around the friendship of four women. As they sat in their usual coffee shop in New York City, they agreed: ‘Maybe we can be each other’s soul mates. And then we can let men be just these great, nice guys to have fun with.’ But Dunham’s squad even stretches to the brains behind her show. She writes each season with Jenni Konner and Sarah Heyward, and has set up ‘Lenny Letter’ – a site that discusses everything from style and health to politics – with Konner. Judd Apatow, the series producer, also produced all-star female comedy Bridesmaids. Who was it again that proclaimed women weren’t funny?
But as Swift’s squad grows larger by the day, it does make me think back to my high school days. We all suffered at the hands of the ‘mean girls’, and if you didn’t suffer then you must have been the one doing the suffering. I admit it: There can be an element of elitism projected from a squad. If you weren’t picked to be part of the ‘squad’ then you sat on the side-line, a lonely place for many a high school nerd longing to be seen as ‘cool’. Camille Paglia, known for her seminal feminist works such as ‘Sexual Personae’, recently wrote a scathing critique of Swift, calling the singer an “obnoxious Nazi Barbie” whose “twinkly persona is such a scary flashback to the fascist blondes who ruled the social scene during my youth.” Writing for the Hollywood Reporter at the tail end of last year, Paglia denounced the entire concept of being part of a squad: “Young women performers are now at the mercy of a swarming, intrusive paparazzi culture, intensified by the hypersexualisation of our flesh-baring fashions. The girl squad phenomenon has certainly been magnified by how isolated and exposed young women feel in negotiating the piranha shoals of the industry […] Girl squads can help women advance if they avoid presenting a silly, regressive public image – as in the tittering, tongues-out mugging of Swift’s bear-hugging posse […] For women to leave a lasting mark on culture, they need to cut down on the socialising and focus like a laser on their own creative gifts.” Are we simply really intimidated by an uber-ambitious gal pal group? Do we need to cut down on the socialising? Should we act prim and proper as to ensure we’re taken seriously? Or can we just have some fun with friends? I’m pretty certain having a firm female group around you can only be a good thing. Women mentoring each other as our careers develop, as we face life’s ever-changing challenges, as we grow older (albeit wiser) just like our childhood days.
Time may be a contributing factor to a friendship’s success, but the rise of Swift’s girl squad is a sign of the times we’re living in. As we ride together on a new wave of feminism, now is the time for the #GirlSquad to stay put. The word feminist, and the concept of feminism, is being talked about like never before. Journalist Hadley Freeman, writing for the Guardian newspaper, put it simply: “I wish feminism were more complicated because it would explain why so many people misunderstand it. But it is actually amazingly simple: it is a belief in gender equality. There are complications within it, but that’s all it is. The reason it has a special name is because equality is not the human race’s default position and only a very wealthy, white, heterosexual man could possibly think otherwise.” And it’s trickling across all aspects of society. Even throughout SS16 fashion week season, women were photographed now more than ever in pairs or groups. Celebrity female friendship groups - such as Cameron Diaz, Gwyneth Paltrow, Nicole Ritchie and Drew Barrymore - are often seen out and about together. From ‘Pitch Perfect’ to ‘Bridesmaids’, the biggest selling films in recent years have turned to female friendship, in groups. As Hillary Clinton runs for US presidency, claiming “I believe the rights of girls and women is the unfinished business of the 21st Century”, and as hashtags such as #SquadGoals (an aspirational term used on social media to highlight something you and your friends want to accomplish) and #GirlSquad continue to trend into this year, being part of a #GirlSquad is like taking a cue from the cosmos. But I don’t blame Swift; I want to join her.
