ABSTRACT
What was it in girl group music that has led second-generation feminists like Susan Douglas to identify it as a crucial precursor to the Women’s Liberation movement of the 1970s? Given the overwhelming preoccupation with respectability and conservative patriarchal values that I have identified as central themes in this music, locating proto-feminist strategies and messages might seem a hopeless task. When the subversiveness of the Ronettes’ “I Saw Mommy Kissing Santa Claus” (discussed in Chapter 9) can be attributed largely to its titillating undertones, the recording might not qualify as a shining example of feminist activism. To be sure, the very configuration of a girl group can be interpreted as an example of female collectivity and solidarity, but when the music is so obviously governed by concerns about being a “good” girl, then how effectively could it encourage listeners to rail against the strictures of containment and domesticity?
