Girl Power!

The term girl power emerged as a cultural phenomenon in the last decade of the 20th century, thanks to the British pop group Spice Girls. It is often linked with the third wave feminism. In 2001 the Oxford English Dictionary defined this term as a ‘kind of power used by girls and young women to manifest their assertiveness, ambition and individualism’. Also used as a slogan, it is linked with pop music and Riot Girl (or Riot Grrrl) movement in the United States. Professor Susan Hopkins, in her 2002 essay Girl Heroes: the New Force in Popular Culture, noticed the correlation between girl power, Spice Girls and the female action heroes (e.g. Lara Croft, Elektra etc.) phenomenon in the popular culture of the late 20th century. The media theorist Kathleen Rowe Karlyn in her essay Scream, Popular Culture, and Feminism's Third Wave: I'm Not My Mother and Irene Karras in The Third Wave's Final Girl: Buffy the Vampire Slayer also suggest the connection of girl power with third wave feminism.

Frances Early and Kathleen Kennedy in the introduction to Athena’s Daughters: Television’s New Women Warriors discuss the relationship between girl power and the new image of the woman-warrior in popular culture. Very important aspect of the girl power phenomenon is the simultaneous manifestation of sexuality and assertiveness.

„Girl Power!” exhibition in Arsenal Gallery in Bialystok presents the works of Poznan Academy of Fine Arts Faculty of Multimedia Communication’s graduates (2009): Marta Marianska, Aneta Ptak, Zuzanna Pyda, Ada Kaczmarczyk, Virgin Deluxe Editions group and Dominika Olszowy. Their works fit perfectly within the scope of “girl power” – they combine youth, independence and assertiveness. They move freely in the fields of popular culture, music and cinema. They are also interested in defining the area of their own identity in its gender, individual and social aspects. Their works combine youth energy and high quality with detached perspective, sense of humor and intelligent provocation.