Active discussions

Meet the Other Phone. Flexible and made to last.

Meet the Other Phone.
Flexible and made to last.

Buy now

Please or to access all these features

Talk
AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

Original poster

To think Hannah and Tina were as pretty as Rachel (S Club)

75 replies

Sallybegood · 27/12/2023 00:27

Really random but I’ve always thought this, an S Club song came up on my shuffle recently and was making me wonder if anyone else thought the same. Rachel Stevens was attractive but I never really got why she was treated as the sex bomb of the group and the other girls ignored? Facially I would have said Hannah was the conventionally prettiest, was it just that she had more of a beanpole figure/children’s TV presenter energy and Rachel was a bit more sultry so the men’s mags focused on her? Personally I actually thought Tina was the most striking, especially early on with the straight black bob.

OP posts:
ChocolateTVandbaby · 27/12/2023 09:51

I agree with you to a degree. I thought Jennifer Anniston had a similar treatment in fiends. Or maybe these women are just sexier rather than prettier. They are all lovely though.

CharlottePimpernel · 27/12/2023 09:53

I always had a big crush on Hannah. They're all lovely looking.

Youregoingthewrongway · 27/12/2023 09:54

They were all very pretty, but Rachel just had the look that the vast majority of boys find appealing. Not too unique looking, and neither too vampish nor too cute. That perfect happy medium.

Bbq1 · 27/12/2023 09:56

Never thought Rachel was anything special. Couldn't see the appeal.

minicheddars87 · 27/12/2023 09:59

Tina certainly has them all beat these days. Quite literally still looks 21.

Friedtofuandbeans · 27/12/2023 10:01

I always thought this about Jennifer Aniston on Friends too. Arguably Courtney Cox is more conventionally attractive but people just raved (& still do) about JA. Sometimes it’s more of an ‘aura’ about someone I think, rather than their actual looks. Maybe S club Rachel looked more fun/interesting? I used to know someone who knew Tina and said she was thick as mince, maybe that came across?!

ElizaGolightly · 27/12/2023 10:07

Tina's doin' her dance
Jon is lookin' for romance
Paul's getting down on the floor
While Hannah's screamin' out for more (ooh, ooh)
I wanna see Bradley swing
Wanna see Rachel do her thing
Then we got Jo, she's got the flow
Get ready, everybody, 'cause here we go

It was marketing. Rachel was always played up as the love interest on their show doing slightly batty things and needing help to solve problems from the guys of the band. Tina was marketed as a dancer and Hannah played up the adorable Baby Spice angle always fun, cheeky etc. The lyrics above (with implied Rachel sexy dancing) showed the massive lush on the 'personas' of the band.

Rachel's persona in the band was solidified by her solo singles also.

Original poster
Sallybegood · 27/12/2023 10:11

SleepingStandingUp · 27/12/2023 01:03

Hannah was the baby Spice equivalent - cute rather than sultry.
Tina i'd say the Posh one, a bit standoffish
Jo a bit more Ginger / Scary.
Rachel was Def pushed as the sultry sext one.

Well the thing about the Spice Girls from what I remember is that there were men who fancied Baby Spice, there were men who fancied Posh, I think there were men who fancied Ginger, and I know at least one man who fancied Sporty, although I don’t remember much conversation around Scary (90s racial bias maybe? Mel B is gorgeous). Which makes sense to me, because they were all attractive in different ways. I find it strange that it wasn’t the same for S Club.

Not meaning to erase gay women on this thread btw - obviously there were women who fancied them too, but the cultural conversation at the time tended to be very men’s mag oriented, and I’m just curious why it was so exclusively focused on Rachel.

OP posts:
ChatBFP · 27/12/2023 10:13

Yes, all attractive, but just different marketing.

Also, though, in the 90s there was this very weird misogyny of the fetishised "girl next door" (she's all that etc) where you have the conventionally attractive girl who is dressed down and needing of a man's help/love to be super sexy suddenly.

So being more distinctive was kind of "punished" - very conventionally attractive but non threatening was very much what was pushed. See also Holly Valance, Britney initially exploded as a schoolgirl, Rachel from friends would not have been the phenomenon had she been launched as the career woman from the start.

ChatBFP · 27/12/2023 10:15

Rachel from s club 7 is stunning, to be clear, but the marketing was very much "she wears jeans and is a good girl, but underneath all that...."

Comedycook · 27/12/2023 10:15

Friedtofuandbeans · 27/12/2023 10:01

I always thought this about Jennifer Aniston on Friends too. Arguably Courtney Cox is more conventionally attractive but people just raved (& still do) about JA. Sometimes it’s more of an ‘aura’ about someone I think, rather than their actual looks. Maybe S club Rachel looked more fun/interesting? I used to know someone who knew Tina and said she was thick as mince, maybe that came across?!

Interesting.

Actually Jennifer Aniston and Rachel from a club always reminded me of each other. It's a similar look.

I think that's the look which was in fashion back then...the highlighted hair etc

I think nowadays they'd probably bring hair and make up in in a much bigger way and Hannah and Tina would look very different to what they looked like then. Girl bands are so much more styled now.

MaryQueenofKnots · 27/12/2023 10:22

It's the eyes. Rachel A and Rachel S both have the sexy eyes. They just radiate pure filth, same with Amanda Holden. Straight women don't get it as it goes past beauty and physical hotness. There are women who straight women think are beautiful beyond words who just leave the rest of us cold (Gwen Paltrow, Kate Middleton) they just don't look like they'd be very adventurous.

MimiSunshine · 27/12/2023 10:27

They were equally as attractive but had a couple of individual qwerks that meant they weren’t seen as conventionally attractive.

take a look back at One Direction boys at peak fame. Most of the boys are more beautiful than Harry but he was the one that was most popular. However he’s the most average looking really.

its that thing you can’t quite put your finger on that makes one person stand out of another. And usually that person is actually quite average and therefore attainable but somehow not at all average or attainable at the same time .

Crushed23 · 27/12/2023 10:33

It’s softness of features.

Courtney Cox and Tina Barrett are both gorgeous, but what they don’t have that the two ‘Rachel’s have is an overall softness to their face framed by beautiful highlighted ‘bronde’ hair which was very in at the time.

missmollygreen · 27/12/2023 10:35

quisensoucie · 27/12/2023 08:58

Women judging women
I thought we were in the 21st century

LOL!
Have you not met many women?

quisensoucie · 27/12/2023 10:35

@missmollygreen I beginning to think I haven't!😀

Crushed23 · 27/12/2023 10:37

MaryQueenofKnots · 27/12/2023 10:22

It's the eyes. Rachel A and Rachel S both have the sexy eyes. They just radiate pure filth, same with Amanda Holden. Straight women don't get it as it goes past beauty and physical hotness. There are women who straight women think are beautiful beyond words who just leave the rest of us cold (Gwen Paltrow, Kate Middleton) they just don't look like they'd be very adventurous.

Interesting!

What is it about the eyes? Because JA and RS have quite different eyes, IMO.

pandarific · 27/12/2023 10:41

I’m attracted to women as well as men, and yes, Rachel is the most attractive to me. Her face is beautiful but she has the loveliest eyes too.

Original poster
Sallybegood · 27/12/2023 10:45

quisensoucie · 27/12/2023 08:58

Women judging women
I thought we were in the 21st century

yeah women saying ‘she’s pretty and these other women were pretty too’. How hideous.

OP posts:
FortheBeautyoftheEarth · 27/12/2023 10:45

They were all v attractive. Rachel just had that tanned/highlighted look that was the v popular 'hot girl' look (not criticising, I copied it!) + there were more camera shots of her in videos etc.

quisensoucie · 27/12/2023 10:51

@Sallybegood And who are you to judge?

LolaSmiles · 27/12/2023 10:55

There were definitely certain looks that we're pushed at the time S Club were on the scene. I agree with PP that women in the public eye were placed there, given a role to play (usually a variation on what men would find attractive), and then they were expected to play that part.

It was everywhere in films, TV and music, just some examples:
The cute, innocent one who plays coy
The helpless girl next door who needs the men to help her plug a kettle in
The fetishised girl next door who might look pretty but it's heavily suggested she's brilliant in bed or has a hidden sexy side
The female neighbour who really isn't interested but if the man who crushes on her persists enough she'll be worn down and he gets the girl
The mother/older sister of male main character who is meant to be the Mrs Robinson figure

It's another reincarnation of the Madonna-Whore complex.

Evanesy · 27/12/2023 10:56

VainAbigail · 27/12/2023 09:29

You don’t like Jo very much, do you! Not mentioned her at all until you say you’re not ‘dissing’ her and you mention her voice. That’s it. She doesn’t fit your mould of ‘pretty’ and you clearly dislike her. Also she was on BB in 2007! Nearly 17 years ago and you’re bringing up her ‘behaviour’?! Let it go op, she’s changed since so get over it and stop sounding like a bitchy teenie bopper.

No indication that she changed. She was the most vile on BB. She then disappeared from the public eye for a while and focussed on being in S Club again, hoping that everyone forgot what she was really like.

I think her behaviour was a lot more important than how she looks.

SnowRoomAtTheInn · 27/12/2023 10:58

I always thought Tina was by far the most beautiful. Rachel & Hannah both very pretty, but Tina was stunning and she has aged amazingly,

SnowRoomAtTheInn · 27/12/2023 10:59

Forgot about Jo. Bless her, she was never as good looking as the others.