In an industry that markets girl bands as straight, Mel B’s fling with Geri Horner could change everything

During an episode of Piers Morgan’s Life Stories recorded this weekend, Melanie Brown delivered a revelation that might change how some people view the Spice Girls. In a clip which has since whipped the media into a frenzy, the pop star disclosed that she previously slept with bandmate Geri Horner.

Whether or not you believe the statement or think its a hoax designed to get bums on seats for their reunion tour, Brown may have unwittingly changed the face of pop music. Admittedly, sexual fluidity lost its shock value long ago and the incident was just a “one time thing”, but Brown has pierced the heteronormative atmosphere which has stuck so uncomfortably close to girl bands from the beginning.

I wouldn’t let all the songs about badly behaved boyfriends lead you on; girl groups are thoroughly queer. Associated with declarations of everlasting devotion, unwavering support and a lot of on-stage hugging, bands like the Spice Girls emblematise the kind of no-compromise friendship that could easily be coded as closeted desire.

This is something that groups sometimes indulge, visually flirting with the boundaries between homosocialism and homoeroticism whilst vocally pledging allegiance to the cult of heterosexuality.

Just think of the “naughty sleepover” narrative which the video for Little Mix’s “Hair” plays into. With the four bandmates dancing around in their underwear, and indulging in ritualised feminine bonding, it exhibits a performative intimacy which is one hair flick away from a cliche pillow-fight sequence.

Whilst this queer subtext can never truly be erased it’s also never really enunciated. It seems that in order to push back against this homoeroticism, bandmates are forced to work harder in other aspects to confirm that they conform to heterosexuality. Straightness is reaffirmed not just in their song lyrics, but in press interviews and on their social media too.

Whenever presumed heterosexuality comes under threat – as is the case for Mel C, whose “sporty” reputation adheres to certain lesbian stereotypes – queerness is actively and vehemently denied.

Same-sex desire is positioned as antithetical to the homoerotic space of the girl band, a possible threat which would, if ever vocalised, rupture the “innocent” nature of these displays of female intimacy.

Never mind the fact that “if you wanna be my lover, you gotta get with my friends”, sounds like an initiation into bisexual polyamory, the powers that be in the music industry are hell-bent on the idea that girl groups reflect the universalised heterosexual subject rather than an outsider queer perspective.

Namely because, marketed as they are to young girls and teens, female-fronted pop groups are part of a cultural landscape that grooms youths into heterosexual hegemony. Consequently, girl bands have heretofore remained firmly in the closet – even in the case of the few musicians, like Fifth Harmony’s Lauren Jauregui, who have been vocal about not being straight since leaving.

Mel B’s revelation, however, forces straight audiences to confront the homoeroticism, always just below surface level, integral to the girlband. Rather than being able to separate the artist from the art, the news of her one night stand with Horton centres non-heterosexuality in the public’s understanding and perception of the group.

This, we can only hope, encourages people to take a second look at the Spice Girls’ career to date and reassess their heteronormative assumptions about what was going on during their heyday.

Paving the way for other artists who have previously only been appreciated within a heterosexual frame, straight audiences might now be more alive to the multiplicity of experiences that lie outside of the socially approved norm.

For the queer women who have traditionally been excluded from mainstream pop, it might feel like the walls barring their entry are beginning to erode. This, rather than the tokenistic “queer baiting” exemplified by Ariana Grande’s “Break Up with Your Girlfriend I’m Bored” video, is the best way to bend girl bands’ poker-straight reputation and reinsert queer women into their narratives.