The Spice girls were back….briefly…yelling..um i mean singing…into the microphones at the Olympic games closing ceremony. Apparently its just a one off reunion. *collective sigh from all humankind*
Anyway the presenter of the games shouted in her enthusiasm “they really are the ultimate in girl power!’ …girl power its one of those catchphrases that we hear over and over again. Its bit like when at school we used to use the word ‘nice’ in a sentence. My english teacher would always roll his eyes and suck in his breath and say ‘nice is not a descriptive word, it means nothing!’ and it got me thinking..Has that term ‘girl power’ just become a term we use now for strong, positive, women or has it become merely a tag line for a bunch of loud, up too high, out too far, women with just a bit too much mouth?
In the weeks preceeding the closing ceremony, throughout the fantastic sporting spectacle that was the Olympic games things like this were popping up all over twitter and facebook:
Jessica Ennis is such a wonderful role model for young girls, none of this TOWIE rubbish, we need more Jessicas! – this comment alone got retweeted over 1000 times!
and:
and i wondered if really the sort of ‘girl power’ that the likes of the spice girls demonstrate and exhibit is really the sort of ‘girl power’ we should be shouting about and laying down as an example for our young women. It seems like there are a LOT of us who think that there is a very different type of woman that we would like to aspire to and more importantly that the new eyes of the young generation should notice above the nonsense, reality TV, be famous because you can puke on the pavement type person.
There didn’t seem to be many tweets of ‘how inspiring are those fabulous spice girls careering around a stadium on a flashing black cab!’ ‘ from what i can see they are fairly miserable, constantly starving and self obsessed individuals. Looking for the quick and easy way to make money, loose weight, look browner, thinner, younger, cooler….
None of those characteristics i see in the 30 something Olympic rower who despite coming runner up with silver in the last couple of Olympic games, dedicated herself to getting her dream gold and for four years trained to get it.
I can’t imagine that any of those cyclists care for a micro-second what they look like when they are being interviewed after their dream has seen it fruition after so much work. Im thinking in the super hot and humid environment of the velodrome frizzy hair and no make up is probably standard anyhow!!
Their achievement is built on the fundamentals of dedication, committment, hard work, enduring through pain, setbacks, knock downs and holding fast to your dream no matter how far off it might seem, despite there being no ‘get there quick’ option. It is just all down to how much effort you, yourself put into it.. showing up, sticking with it…every.single.day.
In my opinion that is the sort of ‘girl power’ i want my little girls inspired by.
This is my very sadly very late link up with my friend over at the Wednesday Witter. Go check out some other ideas of the week.
