#SQUADGOALS (29)
By:
July 19, 2017
One in a series of enthusiastic posts, contributed by HILOBROW friends and regulars during 2017, on the subject of our favorite squads.
One of the best girl groups I ever saw only performed on Saturday mornings. Does it matter that Jem and the Holograms weren’t real?
When her music mogul dad dies, teenager Jerrica Benton inherits Synergy, a top-secret talking computer that projects ultra-realistic holograms. She controls this pink behemoth with a pair of star-shaped earrings. (Because Salvador Dalí’s got nothing on Saturday morning cartoons.) How does Jerrica harness the power of this supercomputer? The same way any teenage girl would: She transforms herself into a superstar.
Shifting between Jem and Jerrica, she fronts a band, runs a record label, oversees an orphanage and travels around the world performing to adoring crowds. Before girl power became an advertising slogan swaddled in a sparkly pink halo of commercialized self-love, one pop star was its glamorous embodiment. I could talk about how rare that was in 1985 and how few female characters, cartoon or otherwise, displayed that level of agency. But my love for Jem was far less intellectual.
I loved her because she was cool. Cool clothes. Cool adventures. (How often do you get to hug a Yeti while hunting for magic bongos in the Himalayas or travel back in time to hang with Mozart and Hendrix?) Most of all, cool friends.
Jem would’ve been nowhere without the Holograms — Aja, Shana and Kimber. More than bandmates and besties, they were sisters, both adopted and biological. (Raya, the Scrappy-Doo of the bunch, came later and wasn’t kin.) Not only did they get to live the dream of so many girls by becoming a literal girl group, they were a model of female friendship. More than a truly, truly, truly outrageous cartoon, “Jem and the Holograms” was the first pop culture confection that gave sisterhood a rock star swagger.
#SQUADGOALS: Annie Nocenti on THE WILD BUNCH | Alice Boone on PRETTY LITTLE LIARS | Gordon Dahlquist on BOWIE’S BAND | Rob Wringham on THE HOME GUARD | Jennifer Krasinski on WATERSHIP DOWN RABBITS | Annalee Newitz on ROBIN HOOD’S MERRY PALS | Adrienne Crew on THE BLOOMSBURY GROUP | Mark Kingwell on THE HONG KONG CAVALIERS | Adam McGovern on KAMANDI’S FAMILY | John Overholt on THE CLUB | Greg Rowland on THE VULTURE SQUADRON | Sara Ryan on BETSY, TACY & TIB | Chelsey Johnson on VI ÄR BÄST! | Brian Berger on THE JOHN FORD STOCK COMPANY | Sherri Wasserman on THE WARRIORS | Jessamyn West on FAREYNIKTE PARTIZANER ORGANIZATSYE | Josh Glenn on DADA | Matthew De Abaitua on THE TIME | Mandy Keifetz on THE FOUNDING FATHERS | William Nericcio on ZOOT SUIT PACHUCOS | Deb Chachra on FIREFLY CREW | Matthew Battles on THE ANIMAL FAMILY | Ingrid Schorr on THE HARLEM GLOBETROTTERS | Joe Alterio on THE USUAL GANG OF IDIOTS | Dan Reines on THE BREAKFAST CLUB | Rob Walker on LES TROIS INSÉPARABLES | Devin McKinney on 1975 RED SOX | Steph Burt on DAMAGE CONTROL | Elina Shatkin on THE HOLOGRAMS | Chris Spurgeon on THE ALKALI METALS | Carl Wilson on NEW YORK SCHOOL POETS | Barbara Bogaev on THE MOD SQUAD | Franklin Bruno on THE AACM | Judith Zissman on THE FUTURIANS | Mimi Zeiger on ARCHIGRAM | Jacob Mikanowski on THE RATBASTARDS | Lynn Peril on THE DALY SISTERS | Anindita Basu Sempere on MEG MURRY’S FAMILY | Libi Rose on THE ENIAC TEAM | Gary Panter on THE TRIBE OF HIPPIES | Peter Doyle on CORNEL WILDE BOYS | Ken Layne on THE MONKEY WRENCH GANG | Molly Wright Steenson on BAUHAUS | Katie Hennessey on BEAT POETS | Mimi Lipson on THE RUNAWAYS | Jordan Ellenberg on BOURBAKI | Michael Campochiaro on THE SUICIDE SQUAD | Deborah Wassertzug on THE BLOODHOUND GANG | Colin Dickey on ACÉPHALE | Douglas Wolk on SEVEN SOLDIERS OF VICTORY | David Smay on THE MYSTIC KNIGHTS OF THE OINGO BOINGO | Karinne Keithley Syers on BLACKLIPS PERFORMANCE CULT.
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