The patriarchy enablers
Originally posted at The New Agenda. Yes, I AM still pissed off about what happened last year. Why do you ask?
Tina Fey promoted sexist stereotypes with her parody of Sarah
Palin last year, depicting the Alaska Governor as a brainless bimbo.
As we all know, patriarchy bestows its smiles and kisses on the women who do its bidding, especially those women who take on the front-line enforcer jobs of shredding other women to bits. Last year a whole bunch of women signed up for duty on the Sarah Palin Evisceration Squad, none more prominently than Tina Fey. And the rewards for her efforts keep pouring in. She’s been on magazine covers, photographed by Annie Liebovitz for Vogue, and voted Entertainer of the Year by the Associated Press. Now “Saturday Night Live” has won a Peabody Award for political satire, largely on the strength of Fey’s ridicule of Sarah Palin. According to the Peabody Awards committee, “The late-night legend stole the election-year thunder from its satirical competition on cable and may have swayed the race itself.” Ya think? Having a Vice-Presidential candidate slandered and misrepresented week after week on national TV might have swayed the race? Gee, I never would have guessed.
The LA Times oozes that Fey’s impersonation of Palin was “spot-on” and “dead-on,” but it wasn’t. Physical resemblance, yes. Vocal resemblance, yes. But the rest of it was pure propaganda. Sarah Palin never said “I can see Russia from my house” — Tina Fey said that in a skit. But the jibe stuck, and millions of Americans believe the words were Palin’s. Sarah Palin’s real debate performance was impressive, but in the SNL debate skit, Fey-as-Palin refused to answer questions and instead announced that she would “demonstrate some pageant walking.” The audience roared.
The sad thing is that modern American feminism has become so anemic that Tina Fey probably thinks what she was doing was somehow compatible with women’s rights. And why wouldn’t she? The largest feminist organization in this country joined in the Palin-bashing too. Last fall NOW featured a suggested Sarah Palin Halloween costume, replete with pageant sash, “lots of hairspray,” and “a wardrobe that didn’t cost $150,000.” It’s incredible. If you had told me 30 years ago that NOW would be engaging in that kind of sexist mockery of a female politician, I wouldn’t have believed you. But that was then; NOW is different. If you follow the link on that costume page to learn “so much more” about the “horror” of Sarah Palin, it’ll take you to a Kim Gandy editorial that is full of bald-faced lies — lies that came straight from the Obama campaign. The rape kit smear, for example: a particularly ugly piece of disinformation spread by the Obama team expressly to discredit Palin among women voters. By helping to spread that lie — and others — NOW wasn’t doing anything remotely resembling feminism. It was functioning purely as an auxiliary of the Obama campaign, and using any means at hand to destroy the enemy. Patriarchy enablers.
As I wrote last year in “Stone Her”:
The other day I was talking to a young woman, a self-described feminist, who could not understand why defending Sarah Palin from sexist attacks was a feminist act. She really, truly could not understand that. Her argument was that because Sarah Palin is a Republican (a “bad” woman), the correct feminist response is to use any means necessary to destroy her. Why not stone the bitch? Why not call her a c**t? Why not make jokes about raping her? She’s one of those bad women! Bad!
I also wrote at the end of that post that I hoped it wasn’t too late to salvage the women’s movement. I wrote that I hoped we could “start feminism all over again.”
Well, we’re doing it. Look around.
15 Responses to “The patriarchy enablers”
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sister of ye says:
There have been women thru the years who I felt deserved ridicule. One was Phyllis Schlafly, who made a tidy living going around the country lecturing other women to stay home. But the ridicule would have been of her very real hypocrisy, not that she dared be politically involved.
Very disappointed in Tina Fey, who seemed to be a sincere supporter of Hillary Clinton. Perhaps that simply was a posture for a sketch, too. She should have taken a cue from Clinton, who refrained from slurring Palin despite egging on from the media to do so.
April 9th, 2009 at 11:22 pm EST -
Carmonn says:
I have more negative feelings toward Fey than I do toward any of the enablers who acted out of self-serving pragmatism, because I do get the impression that she may actually believe that she’s somehow helping feminism. I probably have that completely backward and should have more disdain for everyone who knew exactly what she was doing in throwing other women under the bus while pitying the clearly delusional, but I can’t help myself. It’s her smugness that galls.
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Branjor says:
Re ridicule of Phyllis Schlafley – She spoke at my college one day. When she got to the “high point” of her speech” – “There’s no such thing as discrimination against women!” – the whole room burst into a roar of laughter. It was great!
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yttik says:
Men are often perceived as being very intelligent, even when there’s no evidence of that being true. I remember being told Bush was a brilliant man and now I’m hearing the same thing about Obama. I must just be too stupid to understand what brilliant looks like, because I sure haven’t seen it in either or them.
On the flip side, women are of course, bimbos, stupid, folksy, and if none of this will stick, they’re cold hearted, unfeeling, and wonkish. It really makes me crazy that so many people perceive Palin, Governor of the largest state in the union, as stupid. And it’s sad that Tina Fey and Katie Couric get recognition, not because they did anything to improve people’s lives, but because they launched attacks on another woman. It’s almost as if the patriarchy were patting them on the head like you would do to an obedient puppy.
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gayle says:
SNL treated Clinton pretty badly, too. People remember Fey’s “Bitch is the New Black” monologue and they think SNL favored Clinton, but if you watched the other sketches, you’d have noticed SNL type cast her as an overly ambitious, calculating woman who would say or do anything to win.
One of the writers (I don’t remember his name) went on “Morning Joe” and said he was surprised by the thank you notes and emails they got from Clinton supporters. He thought they had been tough on Clinton. I agree.
They did spent a lot of time mocking the press for their ridiculous Obama obsession. At least it was good to see someone in the media take notice of that.
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gxm17 says:
Realizing how deeply mired in patriarchy the “feminist” movement has become felt like a blow to the stomach. All those good little “modern” women obediently beating up on female candidates for the approval of their masters. It was both nauseating and painful.
I prefer to give a lot of leeway when it comes to political satire. But in this instance, it was not so much satire as it was disinformation.
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Lori says:
Let’s lay some responsibility on the McCain campaign for the caricature that arose of Palin. They nailed her down, had her on a short leash and didn’t let her loose in the least. Being her first time on the national stage, she didn’t have the experience to expand. She was given canned answers she was obligated to use. She wasn’t allowed to talk freely about issues that were important to her. They didn’t give her a chance to reveal herself. And those restrictions are the parameters of the public’s impression of her capabilities.
I think Tina Fey was acceptable on Palin and SNL acceptable on Clinton. Their comedy ultimately illuminated Clinton’s capabilities, Obama’s incapability and the impression the GOP was trying to create of Palin.
I mean, my god, their opening skit of the Bush prsidency had W apologizing for breaking the Hoover Dam and barbequing in the Oval Office. Ford couldn’t stand up for an entire debate. Jimmy Carter talked peopele down from acid trips, advised them to listen to the Allman Brothers and helped fix a post office machine. Oh, and he tried to prevent a nuclear power plant accident, became a giant as a result of exposure to radition and married the cleaning lady who had mopped up the mess and was now a giant as well. They always riff on public impressions of politicians, and the riff they ran on for Clinton was that she was ultra-competent. The riff they ran on with Palin was that she was a good time, sports girl and that’s exactly how the McCain campaign put her forward.
If everyone else was doing their job, what transpired on SNL would be icing on the cake and just the fun it’s supposed to be. Remember, the Kossacks were furious with them for their portrayal of obama and Clinton. They had to be doing something right.
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Jackie says:
The patriarchy enabler vs. the patriarchy enabler. Don’t they cancel one another out?
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tinfoil hattie says:
Oh, and he tried to prevent a nuclear power plant accident, became a giant as a result of exposure to radition and married the cleaning lady who had mopped up the mess and was now a giant as well.
Oh my, yes, I remember how “funny” that was – the nuclear plant people sent the African-American cleaning woman into the space where the accident had occurred, and told her to mop it up, but not to bother waxing. Har har har! A real knee-slapper. Oh yeah, and Garrett Morris, as the only African-American on the show, had to dress in drag and act as the cleaning lady. Ha ha ha! Misogyny and racism on so many levels! Fun for all! There was even a bit where “Jimmy Carter” (Dan Aykroyd) kisses “Violet” (Morris) on the lips! Eeeeyew! Men kissing! Gross! Those GAYS!
When that show aired I was 18 years old, and at that tender age I was APPALLED at the skit. I could not believe people thought it was funny AT ALL.
SNL is and always has been a misogyny-fest. And the “riff” on Palin was that she was a bimbo, a (god forbid!) beauty pageant queen, a sexpot gun-toter, and so stupid as to think Russia was that close to Alaska. Why that’s funny, and not sexist, is beyond me.
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soopermouse says:
Russia is technically 20 miles from Alaska – behring Straits). Just saying
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donna darko says:
Yes, I AM still pissed off about what happened last year. Why do you ask?
It takes a lot of courage to be us. The friends and family we lost or who don’t understand us at all.
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Martha says:
Let’s lay responsibility, a poster says.
Before revealing she wasn’t paying attention at all.
Another says: “They did spent a lot of time mocking the press for their ridiculous Obama obsession. At least it was good to see someone in the media take notice of that.”
No, they did not.
They did ONE skit about how the press loved Barack Obama. ONE skit.
Ava and C.I. charted SNL while other sites — including ones linked to by Reclusive Leftist — posted videos of those embarrassing skits insisting that they were funny (they weren’t funny).
Ava and C.I. called out the sexist portrayals of Hillary long before the race was over. They called out the sexist portrayals of Sarah Palin.
And they are the only ones who pointed out that Tina Fey sexualized Sarah Palin.
No man was shown in a pose similar to Tina lifting her skirt as Sarah.
SNL attacked Hillary, they were vicious and disgusting and Seth Meyers (headwriter of SNL who gave the maximum to Barack Obama during the primaries and during the general election) made sure that they didn’t do Jeremiah Wright jokes or skits or anything. It was all off limits for Barack. But Hillary? They couldn’t stop dragging her through the mud. Even after it was over.As Ava and C.I. noted
http://thirdestatesundayreview.....-tale.html“Hillary was a power-mad bitch in skit after skit but they took a pass on John Edwards. On the entire story. Now when a sitting governor had a sex scandal, SNL was all on it with multiple skits. But a man who has now run for his party’s presidential nomination twice, who has been a vice presidential nomination? He’s not news. His having an affair and running into a men’s room to hide from The National Enquirer isn’t comedy gold?”
They’re right. The efforts not to go after John Ewards revealed just how sexist they were. And before anyone says, “Oh, Edwards was during the summer! They were in repeats!” The section from Ava and C.I. is from December 2008 when Hillary was again trotted out for a skit making fun of her. SNL never stopped trashing Hillary but they never, ever made a joke about John Edwards. Two weeks ago, they were smearing Bill Clinton again in a skit where Barack said Bill looked at the porn magazines for him. They didn’t use John Edwards, did they? They never do.
Saturday Night Live tried to destroy Hillary and Sarah and shame on everyone who participated.
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sonia says:
this is a great post.
I did not have a negative reaction to Sarah Palin. I disagreed with her on “reproductive” issues, but I felt that on a personal and professional level she represented a lot of strength. a whole lot more than Tina Fey trying for a spot in the SNL boys club. not like politics isn’t a boys’ club, but I didn’t like the way Tina Fey earned her stripes at all.
A ways through the election I succumbed to leftist guilt, but you are so right-feminism is not about US party politics. thanks for representing that!
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purplefinn says:
Martha says: “Saturday Night Live tried to destroy Hillary and Sarah and shame on everyone who participated.”
Agreed. I might phrase it also as letting their misogyny have free reign. Perhaps they do this all the time. I don’t watch often.
Tina Fey bears culpability, but she is hardly the dominant power behind SNL – even though she was the main attraction during the election cycle.
Just another example of why we need some mainstream media sources controlled by women. Remind me again why we haven’t achieved this. Um, in a word “advertising”?
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Reclusive Leftist » Blog Archive » Why NOW needs new leadership, and why you should care says:
[...] establishment in this country behaved shamefully last year. (And if you don’t know it, read this and this and this and this). If life were an Akira Kurosawa movie, Ellie Smeal and Kim Gandy would [...]
