It was one of the biggest selling albums of the 80s, also the biggest selling album of a newcomer.
Even more important, it offered a new approach of feminism - outside of the scientific world.
"Girls just want to have fun" was a hymn for the "new girls". Instead of singing songs where women demand "new men", as a lot of her feminist colleagues in Europe did, she turned the slogan around 180 degrees. Why waiting for "new men" ? This can last an eternity. Instead of moaning, do what you want and what you like, without feelings of guilt.
" Girls just want to have fun " has only very little sexual insinuations, but it can also be interpretated sexually. In some dutch teen porn movies of the mid-80s, the song is played in the background, ( I am sure they havent paid royalties, so psssst ), and a few porn movies even had this title " Girls just want to have fun ". This simple single sentence sums up, what I demand from good porn.
Almost more interesting is the title She-Bop, with is a song about female masturbation.
This was a big taboo in the USA in 1983 - and even is today, I fear.
Looking at a mag with pictorials of attractive man - and "bopping" - this was to much for many conservative radio stations in the USA, they refused to play this title. Now this "scandal" was in the press and discussed at talk shows, the public interest was big and it boosted sales.
Conservative feminists attacked Cyndi Lauper, because they castigated it as "fun feminism" or "Pop feminism without responsibility". In fact, "Girls ..." can also be seen as one of the first pop hymns of extreme individualism, which was later continued by other female pop stars, mostly without the feminist approach. But there are also many social-criticially songs on this album, like "Money changes everything", "Witness", "Time after Time", so these critics are very unfair.
Conservative feminists also criticized, that sex played a major role in her songs, but that she wasnt singing about the sexual surpression of women.
I think, she was indeed doing this, but in a way the conservative feminists dont liked.
Instead of singing about sexual crimes, her songs are about having fun while having sex.
Maybe many conservative feminists cant grasp it anymore, that sex isnt always connected with sexual crimes.
Ironically, quite a lot of conservative male journalists in Europe, especially in England, analyzed every sible of "Girls" and "She-Bop", as if it was high literature, and came to the conclusion, that Cyndi Lauper more often sings about "being alone with herself", as with other men. So she was enforcing "sex without men". They also criticized her crazy look and her shrill voice, also her disaffirmation of "family values".
This wasnt true also, she only criticized the conservative role model.
With the release and the following success of this record, Cyndi Lauper sowed the seeds for other female pop stars, who were singing about an independent way of life and were breaking taboos with songs about female sexuality. It also generated more interest into a different form of feminism, that was very underdeveloped in the USA at this time.
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Copyright : 1983/2008 CBS/EPIC Records
