Are we about ready for some earnest Spice Girls nostalgia? I assume so, given that it was exactly 20 years ago that they were becoming a massive phenomenon when Spice was released. But it’s not just cheesy romanticizing – what’s become obvious in the 20 years since they first started trumpeting about Girl Power is that, despite being a ‘constructed’ group, with all the shade that was thrown at them back then, they were nonetheless the right women to embody the spirit of ‘Girl Power’. Remember that clip that flew around a few months ago of them yelling at an advertising exec who wanted them to show a little more cleavage during a shoot? How many young stars today would have the balls to fight back like that?
Whether because they filled a vacuum and we needed them or they were too young to know better or they had total strength in numbers, I look back and think they were authentically loud and proud, and for the most part they’ve maintained that. Last week on the Show Your Work podcast, Lainey and I talked about how surprisingly touching Victoria Beckham’s letter to herself was – there’s a good deal of self-reflection, but also a healthy f*ck you to the critics.
And now the announcement of the birth of Geri Halliwell’s second child, Montague George Hector Horner.
YESSSSSS. Yeeeessssss.
ALL of the names! All the names people never dare to use! Or just one, since George and Hector are in relatively current rotation, but Montague isn’t, and really, why not? How is it different from Oliver except that she’s daring to use it where others haven’t? Say it over and over again in your head. Montague, Montague, Montague. What’s so objectionable? “Monty?” What makes it markedly different from Louis?
This is a woman who named her daughter Bluebell Madonna , which I side-eyed then, when the internet was a baby, and also now—but she doesn’t care what I think! She’s choosing names that make her happy, along with the rest of her family, presumably, which makes the name bulletproof, and also, highly improbably, eminently reasonable.
