SiMH❤ Ode to Girl Power

Once upon a time, in another life I was a crazy Spice Girls fan. Who am I kidding I still am. I have been known to rock out to Spice from time to time (I know you do it too but won’t admit it). My friends and I used to pretend to be the Spice Girls and I was Baby Spice (if I could do it again I would definitely be Ginger). It’s really funny to think that those five British ladies inspired a generation but they really did. The term Girl Power became something young girls could say with pride and as a part-time feminist I love that  fact.  Before Britney Spears and Jennifer Lopez, the Spice Girls were the music industry’s very first brand with watches, colouring books and lollipops, and who didn’t want to wear those huge platform shoes (I had 3 pairs). Now in terms of talent, the Spice Girls aren’t your Mariah Careys and Christina Aguileras, but they worked. The were fun, in your face and easy on the eye. These gals bought the energy and attitude of rock music to pretty, squeaky clean pop. The Spice Girls are probably one of the reasons I wish to explore a career in music. They had their drama but it was nice to see a group of girls drive so many people crazy. They came, they saw and conquered the global music industry, and although fame conquered them they held the top spot well. It’s sad that they have been reduced to bad jokes and Halloween costumes but let’s be realistic something that big was bound to fall at some point. My favourite Spice Girls tracks are Stop, Spice Up Your Life, That Love Thing and Too Much. I don’t really like Wannabe but I get the appeal. Without these girls, pop music would be a totally different genre. They deserve respect for ruling and redefining it.

Feature Article:Let’s Play (Virtual) Dress up

Valerie isn’t even 21 yet but her wardrobe would make Kim Kardashian green with envy. You wouldn’t believe that this wardrobe belongs to a student. She has 25 pairs of Christian Louboutins. In total she has about 188 pairs of shoes and over 500 outfits I kid you not. On top of this she amassed these things in less than one month. YSL, Chanel, Cartier, Burberry you name it, she has it. So how does a 20 year old student manage to accumulate a wardrobe of Mariah Carey proportions? Welcome to the world of virtual possessions, virtual wardrobes and Polyvore.

A blog about virtual possessions quotes a Professor John Zimmerman who said, “Over the past several years’ people have increasingly acquired virtual possessions. These include both possessions that are losing their material integrity (books, photos, music, movies) as well as things that have never had material form (e.g. email archives, social networking profiles, personal behaviour logs).”Everyone has virtual possessions, music and pictures on iPods; movies and series on computers. All these are examples of virtual possessions and let’s face it; we treasure these like the tangible things we own like our bags and shoes. Facebook and MySpace ushered in the age of virtual friendships and thanks to Google images and other photo sharing websites like Istock photo and Flickr virtual possessions have become another facet of social media.

Human beings love things, they love buying them, collecting them and possessing them so the internet and social media just created another place for people to own things. Going on the internet and downloading pictures of what Blake Lively wore to the 2011 Met Gala feels as natural as going to Woolworths to buy a sweater. On top of that some websites allow people to also modify and play around with these virtual possessions. Polyvore, a fashion website which was popularised on Facebook, is one such website. Signing up for it, opens one up to a vast wealth of designer clothing and images that you can use to create a “set” or in other words a virtual outfit. Many young women use this website to perfect their styling skills or to just have fun creating interesting outfits.  Valerie swears by Polyvore. In fact she calls herself an addict. She logs in almost every day and spends hours on it creating sets and posting them to her blog. Polyvore is a very large community with members from all arou