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NOTE: Although this is a site about the Spice Girls, and not a very serious matter, it is only intended to contain correct facts and information. Much of which is already well known by many people through the media.

Why is this site offending the Spice Girls?

It's not about offending the Spice Girls. But rather about defending Jem and it's trademarks and copyrights. It's nowhere near as rude as an actual hate-site about the Spice Girls would be. It's sticking to facts, and doesn't make fun of every aspect of the Spice Girls.

So, if this whole idea is paranoid, and if Jem is just a silly cartoon, then why is it so offensive to so many to suggest the Spice Girls copied Jem?

Why would the Spice Girls want to be like a cartoon or dolls?

Ask them!

And how serious was the Spice Girls image compared to a cartoon anyway? Using features from Jem is obviously not the same as using features from the Smurfs (no offense smurflovers).

Maybe they like Jem. Alot of famous singers and actresses have said they do, like Destiny's Child, Gwen Stefani, Shampoo, Kirsten Dunst and even Chris Pratt.

Jem was a finished concept. The Jem TV-series and books explored a world of many themes and scenarios in the music industri. Jem was giant project created by the worlds biggest toy company and alot of talented people in the animation and music industry.

As for the Spice Girls, they didn't have to do all that work if they copied Jem. On top of that, copying a cartoon is not as obvious as copying non-cartoon singers, so it's easier to get away with.

How do you explain these similarities? Are you saying Mel B changed her skincolor from white to black, and Emma changed her last name?

No, of course not. But the Spice Girls group didn't grow up like a plant. They were put togheter to form a certain concept, whether it was a concept copied from Jem or not. If the intention is there, it might aswell have been since the Spice Girls were put togheter. Because that's where the suspicious similarities begin.

Didn't the Spice Girls just follow the market?

The Spice Girls always claimed they were unique, that they invented all of those features which got them the attention, like the phrase "Girl Power" and their image, and they claimed that no girlgroups were around when they came along.

But the Spice Girls weren't forced to market it that way. Everyone who has that target audience does not have to do the same or similar. Sure we can generalize it to make it all sound unavoidable, some colors, pop... but that's not a finished concept. Lets compare the finished concepts.

Was the intention of the Spice Girls only to copy Jem? Aren't these similarities weak enough to have been coincidences, or subconscious?

Of course the Spice Girls wouldn't have big meetings to look through Jem episodes and discuss what to copy. And everything that was similar, wasn't copied from Jem, some things were simply coincidences. But when the similarities went as far as being against the law, repeatedly, it revealed that this was more than coincidences.

Even subconsciously, breaking a trademark is definitely against the law, and earning many millions makes it even worse. It's quite questionable that it was just their subconsciousness who wanted to make all those millions.

Did the Spice Girls really control their own career moves?

The ideas might have originated from a manager or just one of the members. But the Spice Girls surely were controlling in those days. They created special rules for photographers and even for the meetings with their own fans. When they had dolls made of themselves, they demanded that Victoria's doll would be remade to resemble her more. So apparently they cared quite alot about their dolls even. They actually left their management twice to get more power, until they controlled just about everything around them themselves, all according to themselves.

What makes the Spice Girls stand out among groups who copy?

Did you ever hear the expression "several wrongs doesn't make a right"? They don't have to stand out as long as they're are doing something wrong and illegal. Yet this amount of similarities makes them stand out strongly. They may not be the group who copied most of another group in all history. Or maybe they are. And you can't count imitators, cause they don't hide their origin. But this situation is a very coward attempt to cash in on something that isn't known in the same market and generation nor as known worldwide.

Didn't Jem copy the 70's doll line Darci, Barbie and the Rockers or the real life group the Misfits?

The Darci dolls were made by the toycompany Kenner, which is part of the toycompany Hasbro, who made the Jem dolls. Therefore they were made with similar molds.

Barbie and the Rockers were released after Jem, as a response to Jem, by Mattel. Even the idea of fashion dolls to begin with, wasn't originating from Barbie. It is wellknown in the history of the Barbie doll, that the creator of Barbie, Ruth Handler, got the idea of Barbie 1959, from the German fashion doll Bild Lilli which was first marketed in Germany in 1955, and it looked pretty much exactly the same as the first Barbie dolls.

"Misfits" is a an existing word, contrary to "Jem". The real life Misfits weren't more original with the name themselves. Glenn Danzig, named the group after the singer Marilyn Monroe's last completed movie "The Misfits". Although the groups share the name, the real life Misfits don't have the same grounds. They're a male band and they don't make the same genre of music. The only male singing character in a band in the Jem cartoon was the blonde longhaired Riot, who was not in the Misfits. However, according to a real-life Misfits site, Jerry Only, of the real-life Misfits, talked to Hasbro about the cartoon Misfits, and a legal "loophole" was found, which means it was legal. The main writer of the Jem cartoon was asked by Jem fans about the real life Misfits some years ago, and answered that she thought the cartoon pre-dates the real-life group. Which it doesn't though, but the people who created the cartoon Misfits, already had a job at a big company, and would only have had a few years to find out about the other Misfits, and in those years those Misfits hadn't become as generally known yet. The Spice Girls on the other hand, were nobodies, and had 9 years to find out every detail about Jem, or 11 years before they released their first single, and the new group called "Jem" had 16 years.

If 'NSYNC was shaped after their initials, why couldn't the UK group JEM have been?

In many cases where the band shaped their name after their own names, they adjust their name slightly, because they want a certain name for other reasons. They don't follow their own rule or go by the name they formed their groupname by. Would they have went with something they didn't want, just to form their name by some initals?

TLC named themselves after the first letters of their nicknames.

The name 'NSYNC was supposedly shaped after the last letter of the members' first names. With several exceptions! Joey's name is really Joseph, which ends with H. Chris' name is Christopher... R. So they went with the last letter of their nicknames? No. Although Lance is a nickname one of the members goes by, he used his real name Lansten to get the N. Then there's JC which isn't even a nickname, but initials used to get the C from his last name, which forces a third version and ruins the idea, and probably is what forced him to call himself JC (Joshua Chasez) so it would make any sense. Lots of letters to play with.

I'm not complaining on TLC or NSYNC, but on anyone who claims that forming a name after initials is "meant to be". How does "JEM" represent a UK girlgroup when it doesn't mean anything? How did Jimmy Gulzar intend to get back at the Spice Girls with a group called "JEM"? By exposing that connection to the cartoon Jem perhaps...?