I’ll admit some of my reasons for writing this post are rather selfish. Parks & Recreation has quickly become my new favorite comedy (I’m sorry Community. I still love you), and I want others to understand its awesomeness (or at least give it a fair shot). Regardless, the show has a lot of good traits that I think are worth talking about. So here I give a few thoughts on what makes this show so fantastic.

Leslie Knope is Awesome!

I am not the first to fall in love with the charming, good-hearted, optimistic Deputy Parks Director. I could tell you what makes her so amazing, but others have said it so much better. Sady, over at Feministe.com, wrote a list of why she loves Leslie and it included things such as “You invented Galentine’s Day” (an annual celebration during which Leslie tells all the women in her life how much she loves and appreciates them), “you love your job without shame or reservation,” “you have a best friend, and she’s a GIRL!” and “you care.” Sady expands on all these ideas in her post, and she also takes some time to explore the differences between Leslie Knope and Liz Lemon.

Liz Lemon, the oft-discussed lead on 30 Rock has been the subject of much debate. Is she a feminist icon or not? What do we do with her? Sady suggests Leslie Knope may be a less frustrating alternative to serve as fictional feminist role model, and she offers a lot of convincing support. I recommend you read it if you haven’t. But then I recommend you read an article written by Kate Dailey on Newsweek.com. She echoes a lot of the same sentiments Sady expresses and offers some her own reasons for admiring Leslie. Dailey points out that Leslie is competent, and admired and supported by her colleagues. Leslie is also concerned with more than weddings and babies and the relationships she has are mature and genuine and they end just because they’re not right for each other, not because either party is crazy or neurotic. Many of these things are brought up specifically because they are the opposite of what we see from Liz Lemon, so Dailey takes things a step further and asks the question, “So what would Leslie Knope think about Liz Lemon?” and I think her answer is awesome;

That’s the best part, and the most telling: Leslie would be proud of Liz’s accomplishments. She would respect her desire for a husband and baby, and admire her career achievements. She’d encourage her efforts to get more respect as a female executive, while encouraging Lemon to reach out to the other women in her office. Leslie Knope understands that women’s advancement is about the advancement of all women, and that women need support from one another just as much—in fact, much more—than they need approval and access from the men that surround them. She might get frustrated with Liz; they may butt heads or disagree on certain points. But at the end of the day, Leslie realizes that she doesn’t need to compete with “Liz Lemonism,” and she’s not interested in besting Liz, shaming Liz, or proving Liz wrong. Instead, Leslie wants for Liz exactly what Liz wants for Liz: the freedom and confidence [to] make choices, the ability to command respect, and the opportunity to achieve all her goals.

Because Leslie Knope, overambitious dreamer that she is, believes that all women deserve those same advantages.

The other characters rock too Read the rest of this entry »

It’s been discussed to death, and I haven’t read everything that’s been written (I don’t have that kind of time), but I want to make a few comments about the Daily Show/Jezebel/Olivia Munn situation.

I take that back. I have nothing to say about Olivia Munn. I’ve never seen her perform and while I’ve read some quotes attributed to her that rub me the wrong way, I also realize I read those quotes in a very negatively biased context and thus I’m slow to make any sort of judgement based solely on them.

What I would like to respond to is the original Jezebel post written by Irin Carmon, and the response by the women of The Daily Show.

I’m a big fan of questioning what part of the story I’m missing, and there were many times while reading the Jezebel piece that I wondered what part of the story was being left out. For one it seemed as though no one who has worked there within the last seven years was involved in the piece. Not to excuse any negative behavior or experiences of the past, but seven years is a long time, and there may have been some important changes in attitudes or how things are run.

Another thing that struck me was the connections that were made. One person interviewed said that the real Jon Stewart is nothing like the guy on TV. The guy in reality “runs the show with joyless rage.” Also included in the piece is an anecdote about Mr. Stewart throwing a script in the face of an executive producer. While I don’t want to condone any such behavior, I am left wondering if that type of behavior is directed solely at women. If he really runs the show with joyless rage where is our evidence that every writer hasn’t at some point had something hurled in their direction? And was there perhaps something that instigated the script-throwing behind the fact the victim was a woman? It is not good behavior, certainly, but it is also not necessarily sexist.

Read the rest of this entry »

Yesterday I stumbled upon this short over at Sociological Images:

Girls suck at video games / Les filles sont nulles aux jeux vidéo from Stéphanie Mercier on Vimeo.

What do you think?

I had a great time on Saturday night enjoying SNL live for once with some friends. Although SNL still has a long way to go before it’s easy to stomach, this episode was an improvement in many ways. First of all, Betty White was fantastic – she dismantled stereotypes about funny women and older women like a pro. Furthermore, many former cast members were there, such as Amy Poehler, Tina Fey, Maya Rudolph, Rachel Dratch, Ana Gasetyer, and Molly Shannon – short of Cheri Oteri these were the women of the SNL of my adolescence (hence, my SNL “glory days”).  Here are some roundups on the evening:

The Four Skits You Didn’t See On SNL Last Night [Jezebel]

SNL Homowatch: 5/8 (Betty White!) [hank stuever]

For whatever strange reasons you care to theorize about, the Betty White episode of “SNL” had the most gay jokes of any episode this season, more than I care to fully dissect. Between the end of Betty’s terrific opening monologue and Jay-Z’s first number, every sketch in the first half of the show had a joke about being gay.

Betty White hosts Saturday Night Live [feministing]

White is the oldest person to ever host SNL. She also represents an important step toward gender parity on the show: men have hosted 482 episodes, while women have only hosted 194. The numbers are improving this season, with 12 men and 11 women hosting.

Betty White Gets the Joke [ms. blog]

Try telling Betty White that women aren’t funny. She’ll kick your ass. Then she’ll bring in a posse of hilarious women comedians to finish the job, and together they’d put to rest that ridiculous and often-repeated myth about women’s humorlessness.

Did you catch the episode? What did you think?

I didn’t watch SNL last night, but got my recap today from Jezebel. As you know by now, I’m not sold on Tina Fey, and from what I gathered by the looks of last night’s skits, she’s not winning me over anytime soon. In fact, the more I pay attention to her, the worse my opinion seems to get.  Something in me really wanted Tina to be a super-feminist role model.  I wanted her to support other women and tackle the social structures that hold women down and pit them against one another - not rely on those structures to get a laugh.

The sketches from last night that I’ve seen capitalize on the following stereotypes:

• Single women need chocolate to fill the empty space in their lives left from the absence of a husband.
• Mistresses of married men are stupid, trashy, and immature (after all, they are the primary keepers of a husband’s fidelity, followed by the wife, and no responsibility whatsoever lies with the man himself).
• Relationships with parents are so uncool that even parents worry when their kids respect and admire them.
• Privileged white ladies are mean.  Actually, Tina is really giving this stereotype a leg to stand on.

Maybe it’s time for Tina to revisit that little movie she wrote a few years ago, you know, when she said: “You all have got to stop calling each other sluts and whores. It just makes it ok for guys to call you sluts and whores.”

Or maybe this is another one of those instances where feminism has cost me my sense of humor.  What did you think of Tina’s hosting job at SNL?

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“I’m a woman so I’m going to make stories about women because I understand them, but I’m also a boy and I can’t stand the term ‘chick flick.’ That turns me off. I’m as turned off by that as any guy because I am a ‘dude.’ I have a very male mentality — the comedy in the film is not little girl comedy. It’s boy comedy, it’s androgynous comedy.”

- Drew Barrymore

Oh Drew.  Boy-comedy-not-little-girl-comedy is not equal to androgynous comedy.  Those combined statements don’t work together.  And Whip It! was not boy comedy.  Nor was it little girl comedy.  And it was actually great without you trying to gender or neuter its form of comedy.  Quit while you’re ahead.  Stop with the “I’m part of the boys club” woman hating quotes.  Please.  [Mirror via Jezebel]

My partner has really gotten into 30 Rock lately, but I’m still not sold.  I couldn’t bring myself to dedicate my time to watching the other seasons the way I did for season 1, and the snippets I’ve caught here and there of other episodes leave me grouchy much more often than smiling.

I still think Tina Fey is great – at least, I want to (check out this fantastic video of her discussing her daughter Alice).  But I can’t get on the Liz train.  Sady at Tiger Beatdown has a great rundown of the multitude of conflicts I experience with Liz:

Because if smart women who know how smart they are intimidate men (and they do), and beautiful women who know how beautiful they are intimidate men (and they do), there is, logically, nothing more intimidating than a woman who is fully aware that she is both smart and beautiful. I mean, maybe a room full of tigers with machine guns! That could be scarier! Or, a smart and beautiful lady who makes jokes.

Which isn’t to say she’s all bad, or isn’t likable, as she also addressed with Amanda at The Sexist:

She shares the sins of a certain privileged feminist lady, and that is why we love her, and that is why we sometimes want to throw things at her. She just means so well and often knows so little.

Beyond Tina/Liz, I just can’t get comfortable with Tracy/Tracy.  I recently watched the episode where Liz and Tracy each agree to give up their preferential treatment at work.  This results in Liz constantly making a fool of herself in trying to complete manual work, and Tracy being “good” at his job – showing up on time, knowing his lines, but lacking his trademark personality.  This could be used to illustrate that equality doesn’t mean equal treatment – that understanding diversity and recognizing the strengths and weaknesses of all people is what makes the world so rich.  Instead, it’s played for a laugh, the two cave and go back to the way they were.  Which is traditionally understood as Tracy is a big child. (More from that post at The Sexist: )

My understanding is that Tracy Jordan, the character, is very much like Tracy Morgan, the comedian. But the way plots are structured around him, as a crazy irresponsible childlike black man who these white people have to look after and keep on track, are just kind of . . . uncomfortable-making…  The whole “Tracy Jordan IS Tracy Morgan” thing kind of serves to strip the actor of any credit for this character he’s created. The idea is just that he’s SO WACKY and they somehow manage to capture his innate wackiness on film.

Bust magazine recently announced that they will feature Tracy Morgan as the cover for their “Men We Love” issue.  I am always thrilled to pick Bust up in my mailbox, but I’m concerned about this one.  The clip that they link in their post about him starts out alright with a discussion of roller skating, but quickly dissolves into a mockery of “cripples.”  Yikes.  We’ll see what they have to say when the April/May issue hits stands.

However, in all the places that 30 Rock has been letting me down, Parks & Recreation is showing promise.  I’ve only seen season 1, and I’m waiting until I can watch season 2 in it’s entirety, but I’m impressed so far and hearing that it only gets better.  Where Liz talks the talk, Leslie walks the walk – confidently doing her best in a man’s world.  Check out Sady’s love-letter to Leslie Knope (Amy Poehler) at Feministe:

Since your life is about your work, and about feminism — not in the abstract, Liz Lemonist sense, either, but in terms of actually and truly connecting with and helping other girls — and about your ideals and your friends and your goals for the city of Pawnee and for yourself, and very definitively not about any one dude or dudes in general, having Your Life Minus That One Dude was simply not a very big deal.

My life needs more Leslie Knopes and less Liz Lemons.

[This was originally posted on November 12, 2009.]

Although Tina Fey has let me down with 30 Rock, I am continually impressed with Amy Poehler.  Her straight-to-dvd film Spring Breakdown is much better than The Man wants you to think, although it does sort of feel like it’s more along the lines of A Night at the Roxbury or Superstar than anything in theaters today.

Amy and her friends go to Spring Break to keep an eye on the daughter of a political hotshot and protect her (mom, that is) from the press.  In the midst of the excitement, Amy and Rachel Dratch get pulled into the crazy partying, only to later realize the importance of true friendship and self-respect.

It’s kind of refreshing to see Spring Break mocked for its ridiculousness instead of paraded as soft-core porn, not to mention the beauty of a film about women that is about more than chasing a dude (although that is how they end up there in the first place…).  Either way, I recommend Spring Breakdown if you liked the SNL Feature Films of the 90s, or if you like your women short, sassy, and spunky.

I wasn’t expecting a lot when I Netflix’d Baby Mama. The movie seemed to come and go when it was released and the lack of buzz took it off my radar pretty quickly. However, I love funny women so I gave it a shot, and I’m glad I did.

About a month ago I watched Bride Wars with my friends. I feel like that movie and Baby Mama could be categorized together, in that they’re both movies about women with stereotypical feminine desires, and both have over the top happy resolutions. They’re the kind of movie you’d watch on a lazy Friday night with a few friends and a bottle of wine (or beer). The difference between the two is one of them made me weep for humanity and the other just made me wish for a slight change of ending.

[Spoilers Ahead] Read the rest of this entry »

Diablo Cody has done it again, folks.  The United States of Tara is complex, smart, progressive, and entertaining, and well worth your time.  The show is about a suburban family coping with the typical stresses of work, school, and relationships with a twist: Mom’s got four personalities.

Tara’s persona’s aren’t the most accurate representation of mental illness, although they do manage to use accurate terms: Dissociative Identity Disorder rather than Multiple Personality Disorder – something that Tara regularly has to correct others on.  Instead, her persona’s illustrate the various stereotyped roles women navigate – T, the wild, rebellious, and promiscuous teenager; Alice, the overly-sweet but passive-aggressive 50′s housewife; Buck, the grungy, rough and tough masculine side; and Tara herself who is trying to live a “normal” modern life with her husband and two children while coping with a buried childhood trauma that led to the development of these personas.  As Tara gets closer to that lost memory a fourth alter arises: Gimme, the animalistic child.

But the show isn’t just about Tara.  It’s about family.  Read the rest of this entry »