Tina Fey: F@cking Funny AND A Feminist!

Tina Fey is a feminist. That much becomes almost immediately evident after picking up Bossypants.

As I had always hoped she would be, Fey is all about the sisterhood. Her autobiography tells us never to be tricked into believing women are in competition with each other or to buy into the idea that there’s a finite amount of female success to go around. She tells us we can have it all. She tells us Heidi Klum’s bum crack hangs out the back of her safety-pinned size-zero dress while she’s posing for the front covers of glossy magazines. She makes us feel better.

It’s not only advice Fey offers but also insight. Not by preaching or pretending to be a role model for other women, but by relating to us. She does so by casually discussing the age-old “taboo” topics — getting your first period, being wolf-whistled at by jerks in cars, feeling less than ecstatic about your facial hair or acne scars, and being dejected when breastfeeding isn’t as easy as you’d anticipated. “No more taboos and no more shame” is the message she seems to be sending. Laugh about it, then get over it.

Although she speaks out frequently against double standards and similar bullshit, Fey is pretty matter-of-fact and practical when it comes to dealing with sexism. Working women must never be seen in tubetops she says, and should never eat diet food in meetings. It may not be fair, but it’s the way it is.

She says:

“When faced with sexism, ageism, lookism or even really aggressive Buddhism, ask yourself the following question. ‘Is this person in between me and what I want to do?’ If the answer is no, move on.”

She says our time and energy are better spent fighting our way to the top.

It’s a fair point, yet her responses to such issues are a reflection of the success she’s had over the past decade. While Fey is undoubtedly talented, motivated and deserving of all she has received, not everyone is in a position as fortunate as hers; and allowing chauvinism to slide off your back just because it doesn’t directly affect you isn’t exactly ideal.

What is most striking about Bossypants is how unashamedly Fey assumes the audience to be female. At first I couldn’t put my finger on what it was, but then it hit me; I found myself thinking “Would men be enjoying this?”  I promptly kicked that attitude in the ass because, for the vast majority of history, the vast majority of literature has been directed at men and assumed male readership. Those books, their readers and writers, rarely stopped to ask themselves, “Would women be enjoying this?” For if something is directed at men, it is considered neutral — it is expected women will enjoy it, if only as outsiders. Direct something at women however, and men are allowed to reject it on the basis that it is “women’s interest.”

It’s hard to tell whether this was a conscious move by Fey, or whether her language and content just naturally appeal to women. But toward the end of Bossypants she actually addresses men, writing blatantly,  “Thank you for buying this book,” as if she knows it can’t have been easy for them. Something tells me if Conan O’Brien or Alec Baldwin had written a book, they probably wouldn’t have felt the need to thank female readers for buying it.

But don’t be expecting reams of “girl power” content.

There are pages, chapters even, where Fey keeps us at arm’s length, not wanting to reveal too much of herself, in that self-deprecating way funny people often do; hiding behind the humour. That’s OK though, because she has some pretty great redeeming moments. When she writes of her daughter, her husband, her father, her close friend and colleague Amy Poehler, her fear of the future, her sadness at women’s invisibility as they age, and her support for gay marriage and adoption, her personality comes through loud and clear.

That person seems to be someone who has fought hard to get where she is, and would like to help other women get there too; someone who’s comfortable enough with herself that she’s not losing sleep over a bit of airbrushing or scrutiny of her hip measurements; someone who has seen quantifiable change in the way women are treated in the entertainment industry over the past decade; and someone who has a strong message for her own daughter, and perhaps a metaphoric one for all young women:

“May she play the drums to the fiery rhythm of her own heart, with the sinewy strength of her own arms, so she will need not lie with drummers…When the chrystal meth is offered, may she remember the parents who cut her grapes in half, and stick with beer…guide her, protect her.”

Read it. It’s good.

Contact the author here: brianna@morningquickie.com