Tina Fey

Happy Leap Year Week!

• Sociological Images outlines how Leap Year Day was used as a day to reverse gender norms in marriage proposals.  
• Lucy Liu has been cast as Watson in CBS's new Sherlock Holmes series and many aren't happy about the gender flip.
• Two cool book projects are looking for funding: Radical Doulas by Feministing's former editor Miriam Perez, and a comics anthology about marriage equality. 
• At Native Appropriations, Adrienne looks at ANTM's clueless stereotyping of Native Americans. 
• The women of Community do a roundtable about the show, women in media, and the future of the series. 
• Joanna Chiu writes about how the recent spate of racism against Jeremy Lin comes as no surprise. 
• Monica Roberts of Transgriot on black transgender trailblazers at Ebony.com. 
• Charlotte Richardson Andrews writes about Iggy Azaela, white privilege, and hip hop.
• What does Sharmeen Obaid-Chinoy's Oscar win for Saving Face mean for Pakistan? Sadia Ashraf responds at AltMuslimah.
• Does Liz Lemon need a divorce from Tina Fey? Emily Nussbaum responds to the Liz Lemon backlash.   
• Viva la Feminista encourages folks to blog for International Women's Day next week. 
• Verizon Wireless has added Gender Identity protection to its employees. 
• Beyonce has been breastfeeding Blue Ivy (gasp!) in public.

Tell us what you are reading in the comments!

I rode on a plane over the weekend, and since I love excuses to buy shiny new hardcover books (and I do not love air travel), I got a copy of Tina Fey's Bossypants to take along. Note to others who might make a similar decision: Bossypants made my trip go by very quickly. It also made me cry tears of laughter, which made the burly dudes on either side of me visibly uncomfortable. You've been warned.

OK, so I guess I was sort of under a rock the past few days, because I kind of missed the Tina Fey mega-freakout that blew up all over the feminist blogosphere. I have only watched a few clips from the episode, and I think I've yammered on (in blog form as well) about Tina Fey enough already, so I won't say anything about SNL here. (Except that I thought the Brownie Husband skit was kinda funny. There. I said it.)

Anywho, getting to the point, all this Tina Fey jibber jabber has me thinking: What DO we want from a feminist comedic actor? What ARE our expectations for our fellow funny feminists? Because of course we don't want to see ladies bashing other ladies, and we don't want to see ladies objectifying themselves in order to get laughs, and we don't want offensive humor that caters to the lowest common denominator (hell, we don't want to see dudes do that either). But what is it that we do want? And is anyone currently giving it to us? Let's discuss.

Last month, NBC aired 30 Rock's "Future Husband" episode, wherein TGS creator/head writer Liz Lemon (Tina Fey) tracks down the man she labeled her spouse-to-be on her iPhone. It was a follow-up to the Valentine's Day-themed "Anna Howard Shaw Day," which found the show's heroine spending the most romantic day of the year at the dentist, haunted by hallucinations of ex-boyfriends as the painkillers took hold. Apparently while doped up, Lemon met a British man named Wesley Snipes (Michael Sheen). When they exchanged phone numbers, both parties were looking to settle. "Future Husband" focuses on them not wanting to acknowledge that society thinks their age and relationship status thinks that they should. For those who'd like to watch the episode in full, go here.

As I was anticipating this blog series at the time of my viewing, imagine my good fortune when I realized that Lemon changed her ringtone from Richard Wagner's "Ride of the Valkyries" (i.e., Elmer Fudd's "Kill the Wabbit") to Peaches's "Fuck the Pain Away."

There’s a lot to love about Tina Fey’s sexy-geek image. For instance, "Geeks can be sexy!" is an awesome message, as is "Sexy women can be geeks!" (Okay, maybe there are only two things to love.) I think it’s safe to say we get it: She’s hot. She’s smart. She’s hot, yet smart. And vice-versa.

But Fey’s sex appeal is no accident — it’s the price she paid for fame. In January’s Vanity Fair feature, Maureen Dowd gushes about "how a tweezer, cream rinse, a diet, and a Teutonic will transformed a mousy brain into a brainy glamour-puss." Dowd thrills at the success of the makeover that made Fey fit for the camera, and her enthusiasm for weight loss and designer clothes is unsettling. No one wants to picture Liz Lemon doing Weight Watchers...