A little more for you all on one of my heroines, the lovely and talented Tina Fey. She’s on the cover of Entertainment Weekly this week. Check out the story here.
Also, a few sort of unrelated musings on Ms. Fey. I’ve been wanting to write a full review of “MILF Island,” but with finals next week, time is pretty short. So, some thoughts on that, Baby Mama, and my paper on 30 Rock.
I’m currently writing a paper on the ways 30 Rock is able to use humor and satire to further a feminist project. In that paper, I argue that the brilliance of 30 Rock is that it consistently exposes the way that the media ignores real issues, such as gender discrimination, debates about issues, etc. in favor of lowest common denominator programming. In 30 Rock, this often means that Liz Lemon (Fey) is prevented from doing “topical” or feminist humor, in favor of idiotic sketches (one about a bear fighting a robot comes to mind) or sketches designed to promote products (like a sketch about the GE Trivection Oven). In Liz’s struggles with Jack (Alec Baldwin), the humor often comes from the way that Lemon fights Jack to raise real issues and the ways that she is consistently shot down. Most of what I liked about the MILF Island episode is that it overdid the notions of sexuality in reality programming to make Fey’s point that people would rather watch sensational stereotypes and melodrama than programming that could teach them something. It is clear that the network also prefers these shows because of their high ratings and low production costs. For me, the brilliance of this technique is that it consistently makes viewers question the ways that Fey has been limited in creating 30 Rock. While it is often spot on about real issues, it some times could be more feminist (for example, Liz could be less of a pathetic, single 30-something woman). By exposing the network forces at work, Fey gives people the tools they need to examine the ways gender operates in the media. All of this brilliant thinking going on in 30 Rock might also be why the show struggles in the ratings, but it is cool that Fey is telling you why the show struggles and makes viewers critically examine the choices the media makes. “MILF Island” is an episode I loved because it proves my point perfectly! If you’re interested in this idea, I’d recommend checking out a few episodes, “Rosemary’s Baby,” “Greenzo,” and “The C-Word.” All the episodes are available at NBC.com.
On an unrelated note, I want to put in a plug for Baby Mama, Fey’s new movie with Amy Poehler, due in theaters April 25. The movie which has been categorized as a female buddy pic (which are not at all common!) is about the wacky hijinks that ensue when Fey’s character, a succesful single business woman hires a working-class woman (Poehler) to act as a surrogate for her. While I am eager for a female comedy that does not some how involve pregnancy (not that I didn’t enjoy Juno or Knocked Up), I’m excited for a comedy with TWO female leads that in my mind, will likely make us laugh while also addressing some gender and class issues.
