3 - Love in the Nineties

Summary

Love in the nineties

Is paranoid

On sunny beaches

Take your chances

Looking for

Girls who are boys

Who like boys to be girls

Who do boys like they’re girls

Who do girls like they’re boys

(Blur 1995)

The lyrics from Blur's ‘Girls and Boys’ advertise a simultaneously troubling, ambiguous and celebratory reading of love and sexuality in the nineties. The clip that accompanied the song revels in the festive and (apart from two ambiguous shaven headed figures tongue kissing) the heterosexual, mostly featuring partying British teenagers and twenty-somethings. The words that precede those quoted above – ‘Streets like a jungle / So call the police / Following the herd / Down to Greece / On holiday’ – explain the paranoia somewhat, while presenting a garish snapshot of the slightly mindless hedonism of British youth. The words immediately following those quoted above – ‘Always should be someone you really love’ – sanction sexual freedom, while requiring some level of emotional responsibility. The playful and slightly risqué ambiguity of girls who are boys who like girls to be boys also reflects the increasing acceptance of diverse sexualities. This broadmindedness was not necessarily indicative of the nation as a whole, where Section 28 of the Local Government Act of 1988, prohibiting the promotion of homosexuality by schools and other government-run institutions, remained the law of the land. If Blur's popular laddishness addressed facets of nineties sexual politics, the far more commercially successful Spice Girls conjured up others, their debut hit single ‘Wannabee’ (1996) mixing ‘Girl Power’ solidarity – ‘If you wanna be my lover / You gotta get with my friends’ – with a confident sensuality – ‘If you wanna be my lover / You gotta, you gotta, you gotta, you gotta, you gotta / Slam, slam, slam, slam (make it last forever).’ Girl Power was one of the slogans of the nineties, but the question remained whether it offered young girls, especially, confident role models, or represented a robotic mantra that masked consumer-driven sexism. The more strident and subversive Grrrl Power of the same time provided something more radical, aggressively challenging gender norms and larger social realities, while exuding a self-assured knowingness about the need for conscious public action.