{"id":2788,"date":"2011-06-10T09:45:16","date_gmt":"2011-06-10T14:45:16","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/girlwpen.com\/?p=2788"},"modified":"2011-06-10T09:45:16","modified_gmt":"2011-06-10T14:45:16","slug":"pop-goes-feminism-tina-fey-makes-feminism-safe-for-the-masses-a-review-of-bossypants","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/thesocietypages.org\/girlwpen\/2011\/06\/10\/pop-goes-feminism-tina-fey-makes-feminism-safe-for-the-masses-a-review-of-bossypants\/","title":{"rendered":"POP GOES FEMINISM: Tina Fey Makes Feminism Safe for the Masses (A Review of Bossypants)"},"content":{"rendered":"

If you wanted to convince the remaining unconvinced populace that the F word is not so scary, Tina Fey would be the perfect conduit. In her new book, Bossypants, <\/em>Fey, like a jocular Mary Poppins, gives readers many spoonfuls of sugar to make the feminist medicine go down. Coating incisive points about sexism with sweet comedic flare, her prose is easy to swallow, much like her infamous Sarah Palin impersonations, of which she writes \u201cYou all watched a sketch about feminism and you didn\u2019t even realize it because of all the jokes. It\u2019s like when Jessica Seinfeld puts spinach in kids\u2019 brownies. Suckers!\u201d (216-7).<\/p>\n

In the introduction, Fey explains the book\u2019s title, noting that as an executive producer people often ask \u201cIs it hard for you being the boss?\u201d to which Fey deadpans \u201cYou know, in the same way they say, \u2018Gosh, Mr. Trump, is it awkward for you to be the boss of all these people?\u201d (5).<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Many sections mock female beauty norms, as when Fey discusses \u201cTwelve Tenets of Looking Amazing Forever.\u201d In the chapter, she relates an embarrassing mother-daughter bra fitting story, admitting that \u201cThis early breast-related humiliation prevented me from ever needing to participate in \u2018Girls Gone Wild\u2019 in my twenties\u201d (104). Here, Fey alludes to lots of big feminist ideas \u2013 the institution of motherhood and how mothers often enforce patriarchal norms that are detrimental to themselves and their children, the hyper-vigilance expected of the female body, and the mainstream media\u2019s sexualization of women \u2013 all in a simple couple of sentences that most who have ever worn a bra can likely relate to.<\/p>\n

Though a celebrity herself, Fey ridicules the cult of celebrity throughout, framing it as a ruse. In her typically understated tone, she advises \u201cYou have to remember that actors are human beings. Which is hard sometimes because they look so much better than human beings\u201d (122). Her section on magazine cover shoots reveals all the effort and artifice that goes into celebrification. Noting \u201cat five foot four I have the waist of a seven-foot model,\u201d Fey pokes fun at body ideals promoted in the media, offering a sort of ode to Photoshop, which she names \u201cAmerica\u2019s most serious and pressing issue\u201d (157). Acceding that \u201cRetouching is here to stay,\u201d Fey puts a comical spin on the inanity, arguing \u201cAt least with Photoshop you don\u2019t really have to alter your body. It\u2019s better than all these disgusting injectibles and implants. Isn\u2019t it better to have a computer to it do your picture than to have a doctor do it to your face?\u201d (161).<\/p>\n

Later, in the same vein, she laments \u201cI\u2019ve never understood why every character being \u2018hot\u2019 was necessary for enjoying a TV show\u201d (193), admitting \u201cI personally like<\/em> a cast with a lot of different-shaped faces and weird little bodies and a diverse array of weak chins, because it helps me tell the characters apart\u201d (192).<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Perhaps my favorite section is \u201cDear Internet\u201d in which Fey answers some of the more insulting missives directed at her online. To \u201cjerkstore\u201d who claims \u201cshe completely ruined SNL\u201d by virtue of being too celebrated because she\u2019s a woman, Fey sarcastically agrees \u201cWomen in this country have been over-celebrated for too long\u2026I want to hear what men of the world have been up to. What fun new guns have they invented? What are they raping these days?\u201d<\/p>\n

Her mantra \u201cDo your thing and don\u2019t care if they like it\u201d (145) coincides with what she titles her \u201cBossypants Managerial Technique\u201d:<\/p>\n

\u201cI hire the most talented of people who are the least likely to throw a punch in the workplace. If this is contributing to the demasculinization of America, I say hold a telethon and let me know how it goes. I don\u2019t ever want to get punched in the face over a joke \u2013 or even screamed at\u201d (175).<\/p>\n

Lamenting that women, especially comedians, are labeled \u201c\u2019crazy\u2019 after a certain age\u201d (270), Fey offers the following theory on Hollywood\u2019s infamous inability to write roles for females \u2018of a certain age\u2019: \u201cI have a suspicion that the definition of \u2018crazy\u2019 in show business is a woman who keeps talking after no one wants to fuck her anymore.\u201d<\/p>\n

Fey is particularly astute about how the media (and society) is more critical of women than men, relating \u201cThere was an assumption that I was personally attacking Sarah Palin by impersonating her on TV. No one ever said it was \u2018mean\u2019 when Chevy Chase played Gerald Ford falling down all the time. No one ever accused Darrell Hammond or Dan Aykroyd of \u2018going too far\u2019 in their political impressions. You see what I\u2019m getting at here. I am not mean and Mrs. Palin is not fragile. Too imply otherwise is a disservice to us both\u201d (234).<\/p>\n

Neither is Fey the overbearing ball buster indicated by her title \u201cBossypants\u201d \u2013 it is just that our society, as her book so humorously reveals, still likes it women in certain types of boxes \u2013 and the boss box\u00a0 isn\u2019t one of them. But, and let me put this in my bossiest tone, \u201cDo yourself a service! Read this feminist comedic treat!\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

If you wanted to convince the remaining unconvinced populace that the F word is not so scary, Tina Fey would be the perfect conduit. In her new book, Bossypants, Fey, like a jocular Mary Poppins, gives readers many spoonfuls of sugar to make the feminist medicine go down. Coating incisive points about sexism with sweet […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1921,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[21110],"tags":[21205,245,9205,1008,21941],"class_list":["post-2788","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-pop-goes-feminism","tag-bossypants","tag-feminism","tag-tina-fey","tag-workplace","tag-writing-life"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/thesocietypages.org\/girlwpen\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2788","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/thesocietypages.org\/girlwpen\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/thesocietypages.org\/girlwpen\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thesocietypages.org\/girlwpen\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1921"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thesocietypages.org\/girlwpen\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2788"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/thesocietypages.org\/girlwpen\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2788\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/thesocietypages.org\/girlwpen\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2788"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thesocietypages.org\/girlwpen\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2788"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thesocietypages.org\/girlwpen\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2788"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}