Melanie C says it was sexism that sparked the Spice Girls to adopt the "girl power" mantra.
“We were just five girls, we wanted to be famous, we wanted to be pop stars and quite quickly we were being told girl bands don’t sell records, you can’t be on the front cover of magazines because girls buy records by boys,” the singer said on Table Manners.
“We were like, ‘Seriously, don’t say that to the Spice Girls, that’s like a red rag to a bull.’ So that’s when we started talking about girl power and we knew, actually, we had a really important point to prove, and it was great because it gave us a fire in our belly.”
This attitude soon expanded to others who felt excluded. "We quite quickly realized that we had quite a big gay following, and it became more than girl power,” said Melanie C. “It became people power. It became about equality. And we knew that at the time, but we didn’t realize how important it was and the impact that it was having.”
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While there was sexism, Melanie C said there wasn't any sexual harassment because men were scared of them.
“I get asked quite a lot about the #MeToo movement and about that within the music industry and if I ever experience anything,” she said, “and I’m like, ‘Are you kidding me?’ No one would come near the Spice Girls because they were petrified of us.”
Melanie C, who was known as Sporty Spice, said some of her group mates were vulnerable “but because you knew if you messed with one of them, you’d have to deal with the other four.”