Maybe a Spice World Is Not So Bad for Little Girls After All

I was an object of pity among my friends, consigned to spend a Friday night surrounded by a bunch of giggling little girls, deep in Spice Girls territory.

Even my 12-year-old felt sorry for me. She agreed to come along to see “Spice World” to help me manage her two little sisters and the exuberant herd of 7-, 8- and 9-year-olds they’d invited along.

She had only one request: a paper bag to put over her head, in case she saw anyone she knew. So that she wouldn’t have to die of embarrassment.

Oh, and one more thing. Eye holes in the bag. So she wouldn’t miss a minute of “Spice World.”

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It’s a curious thing, this Spice Girls phenomenon.

Five young British women with undistinguished voices, singing uninspiring lyrics, dancing badly in outlandish clothes.

And capturing the hearts of preteen girls around the world.

Critics love to belittle them. But their two albums have topped the charts, their movie showings are packed with fans, and their televised concert last month was the highest grossing pay-per-view musical special--beating out the Rolling Stones and Guns N’ Roses--since the New Kids on the Block concert eight years ago. It’s not clear what this fanaticism says about girls so young they are typically beyond the reach of rock stars.

There’s been plenty of hand-wringing about what inappropriate role models the Spice Girls are. And they’ve been blamed for everything from the sexualizing of childhood to eating disorders among teenage girls.

But it seems to me the Girls reflect, rather than promote, our societal preoccupation with glamour and glitz.

And when I look hard at their shtick--past their feather boas and bikini tops--I find some redeeming messages about what we used to call “sisterhood” . . . messages that girls rarely hear in this post-feminist era.

If their “Girl Power” credo is more than a gimmick, it’s about friendship and respect, about moving through life on your own terms.

“We don’t claim to be perfect,” says the one who calls herself Baby Spice. “We’re not beautiful. . . . We’re just normal girls. And fundamentally, we are friends.”

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Without giving away too much of what passes for “Spice World’s” plot, the film revolves around the girls’ efforts to break free from their busy schedule to spend time with an old friend, who is about to deliver a baby sans pere.

(The father, Trevor, has run out on her. Men are mostly absent from the movie, except as ogres or dolts.)

Despite my misgivings, the movie was fun to watch. The group radiates energy and good humor, and it’s not hard to see how a little girl could want to be a Spice Girl when she grows up . . . just as I wanted to be a princess.

The Spice Girls themselves are an eclectic collection of female pulchritude.

There’s the requisite sexpot cachet, provided by Ginger Spice, with her push-up bras and streaked red hair, and Posh Spice, in stiletto heels and short, tight skirts. But there are also Baby Spice, the sweet, blond ingenue; Sporty Spice, the quintessential tomboy-next-door; and Scary Spice, the exotic diva.

And if I thought Ginger was a little plump, Baby had a big butt and Sporty was as flat as a board . . . well, my girls thought they were all beautiful.

And I came to feel pleased, as I sat in the theater with my little brood--black, white and Korean, junior artists, scholars and jocks--that they could all see glimpses of themselves on that screen. That in “Spice World,” they’d all have a chance to fit in.

And when it comes to their music . . . well, it might not be Barbra Streisand, but at least they’re not singing about women done wrong. It’s not LeAnn Rimes, wondering how she’ll get through the night alone. Or Toni Braxton, who’ll never breathe again if her man leaves.

No, this is Girl Power . . . as they sang in their first hit, “Wannabe”:

“If you wanna be my lover/

You gotta get with my friends/

Make it last forever/

Friendship never ends.”

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Sandy Banks’ column is published Mondays and Fridays. Her e-mail address is sandy.banks@latimes.com.