I don't have much time to watch TV these days, but when I do, it's always 30 Rock. 30 Rock represents everything I look for in my perfect TV show: pure intelligence, lightning-fast wit, plus the occasional fart joke. But lately I've been thinking a little more deeply about 30 Rock and Tina Fey in particular. After reading a blog post on Ms. about Fey's new book, Bossypants, the show's feminist perspective became a little clearer to me. All of a sudden, seemingly casual jokes revealed a harsh look at the very untraditional role of women in Liz Lemon's and Fey's field. Take, for instance, the fact that 30 Rock centers around a sketch comedy show originally called "The Girlie Show." Even the first two episodes of 30 Rock spoke to the difficulties women face in comedy: "The Girlie Show" was dying out, and the man (Alec Baldwin) in charge of programming forces the show to take on a male lead (Tracy Morgan), rebranding it "TGS with Tracy Jordan."
If you have Netflix or if it's still up on NBC's site by the time you read this, I suggest you take a look at the episode "TGS Hates Women." Here's the rundown: at the beginning of the episode the writers discover that a feminist blog ("where women talk about how far we've come and which celebrities have the worst beach bodies... Ruth Bader Ginsburg!") has named TGS an anti-feminist show. Cue flashbacks of countless menstruation jokes. Wanting to promote women in comedy, Liz invites Abby Flynn to join the writing team. The antithesis of what Liz expects of a female comic, Abby arrives complete with blond hair, pigtails, skimpy clothes, and thumb-sucking. Disappointed, Liz decides she must "fix" Abby by pointing out that what she wears and how she speaks (only in baby-talk) reflects poorly on all female comics who've worked hard to get where they are. Jenna, in her characteristic fashion, feels the need to out-show Abby rather than teach her a lesson. Liz fails to turn Abby into something else and accidently reveals Abby as a fake--a disguised Abby Grossman running from her homicidal ex.
I think the funniest and truest aspect of this episode is the juxtaposition of Liz's and Jenna's reaction to Abby--both of which, in the end, are anti-feminist. Anecdotally, I've found these two reactions to be perfectly natural: women who feel threatened by another will find ways to tear her enemy down while other women will try to show her counterpart the error of her ways, all in the name of feminism. The episode explicitly spoke to the former: when Liz rejects Jenna's way of dealing with Abby, she asserts, "That's exactly the problem. Men infantilize women and women tear each other down." On the other hand, isn't trying to "fix" a seemingly frivolous and vapid woman counter to the cause of women too? Why can't women just let women live? The episode plays off the fact that Liz's reaction is equally as damaging as Jenna's to women like Abby. I refuse to believe that all women who dress and behave as Abby does do it without a reason--reasons that might include adaptation in a male-dominated field or an genuine liking of behaving in that way. Abby's reason--to hide from a crazy and homicidal ex--is ridiculous, obviously worst-case-scenario and only adds to the beauty of the episode. The absurdity of the ending (Abby must once again reinvent herself and go into hiding) serves to highlight the fact that "fixing" women isn't all it's chalked up to be when it comes to furthering the feminist cause.
In researching what I wanted to write about for this entry, I came across an LA Times article about the same episode. The author claims, "the lesson from this '30 Rock' is that for women who try to live by their feminist beliefs, it's a case of 'damned if you do, damned if you don't.'" But I completely disagree. Lesson: women aren't stupid. Women don't just play into stereotypes for male attention. And women who do don't need to be fixed into a perfect, feminist ideal. I am certainly guilty of the reactions of both Jenna and Liz. But before watching this episode, I had never thought seriously about how detrimental both are to women. For Jenna: it seems to me that we could get a lot further as a gender if we were to concentrate on things other than what our "competition" is wearing. And at the end of the day, women are only competing with other women if we as a gender decide that's what we want to do. For Liz: trying to change women into your ideal is equally as demeaning as men trying to change women into their ideal, even if you think it's to women's own benefit. The good Liz and Abby could have done together (i.e. teaming up to make TGS what it originally was, "a show for women starring women") never materializes because of petty squabbling and efforts to persuade each side of what a woman should be. Think of the good women in general can do if we put pettiness aside and unite.
Some Saturday Night Live alums, including Tina Fey and Tracy Morgan, recently guest starred on The Oprah Winfrey Show. Jane Curtin (who plays a lead role on one of my other favorite shows, 3rd Rock from the Sun) spoke about the sexist environment that was SNL in the 70s. She even revealed that John Belushi--a beloved SNL star who famously portrayed the frat boy of all frat boys in Animal House--tried to sabotage female writers' pieces because he believed, as Curtin explained, that "women are just fundamentally not funny." Oprah then turned to Fey, asking about her experience. Fey credited female groundbreakers like Curtin for the ease of her career within SNL. And this is what I'm talking about: if women work with women, for women, things will change.
I love 30 Rock and hopes it continues on its successful and illustrious path. Honestly, the only thing I don't like about the show is the sexist commercials I have to watch... but more on that later.
Edit: immediately after posting, found this.
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