ipl-logo

Gender Inequality In Tina Fey's 'Introduction'

1347 Words6 Pages

Tina Fey uses generalizations about race, gender, race, and sexuality to satirize the double standards women and minorities face in daily life.
Fey’s awareness of gender inequality is evident in her use of satire when discussing what she imagines to be her readers reasons for buying the book. The second paragraph of the “Introduction” is Tina Fey addressing those who bought her book “for practical tips on how to make it in a male-dominated workplace.” She gives her readers the following list of instructions:“No pigtails, no tube tops. Cry sparingly.” (Fey 3). This quote gives two pieces of commentary on what is expected of women in the workplace. First, women who are trying to compete with their male peers must not appear too feminine. Fey is saying that by wearing a tube top and having your hair in pigtails, women will not be taken seriously. Not only are those attributes associated with being feminine, they …show more content…

Often these divisions are as large as white people versus people of color. Fey satirizes this idea by breaking white people up into smaller groups. While giving an anecdote about her time on the beach with her cousins, Tina Fey finds a way to separate everyone on the beach into two categories: “very, very tan Italian Americans and very, very burned Irish Americans” (Fey 19). Fey begins the chapter “Climbing Old Rag Mountain,” by claiming that during her college years, when compared to her “blond and blue-eyed classmates, most of whom owned horses, or at least resembled them,” (Fey 57) she could have been mistaken for being Mexican. Again, she is putting a division between groups of white people. The stereotype that she is pointing out and over exaggerating is that white people often have a list of their heritage ready to explain that they are not completely white (like when they say “I’m one sixteenth Cherokee Indian” but they are still as white as

Show More
Related
378 Words | 2 Pages

In the article, “Breeds of America: Coming of Age, Coming of Race,” which was first published in the Harper’s magazine, William Melvin Kelley recalls his “confusing” childhood of being a colored citizen in the United States. He begins his memoir by portraying a simple skin comparison with his friends. An Italy kid was blushed because he had a same brown skin color as Kelly does under the sun. Kelly raised a question about that blush: why would brown skin make the Italy kid embarrassing? Then Kelly introduces the unfair collision of race and culture.

Read More
1443 Words | 6 Pages

The film Girl’s Trip has been applauded for being a celebration of blackness in the primarily white film industry. The majority of the cast and the writers for Girl’s Trip are people of color. The film was much more successful than its “white counterpart” Rough Night in box office revenue and reviews. However, most of the black characters in Girl’s Trip shift through various controlling images throughout the movie. The reason these stereotypes are less obvious than they are in some other films is because each characters portrays multiple stereotypes and different times throughout the film.

Read More
797 Words | 4 Pages

In the movie “A League of Their Own”, one can see how the more sexist views of the culture in the 1940s and 50s in America was present in the Girls Professional Baseball League. “A League of Their Own” is a movie about what was once the “All-American Girls Professional Baseball League” which was formed when the young men were sent over to serve in World War II. One of the most obvious cultural views that this movie shows is the feminizing of the baseball players to make them “more acceptable and women like”. Unlike men’s uniforms, that include a full shirt and pants, they were to wear skirts that were very short, too short to play baseball in comfortably. This alone shows how this league was just as much about show as it was about the women’s talent.

Read More
991 Words | 4 Pages

Ethnic Notions: Divided From The Start The film 'Ethnic Notions ' illustrates various ways in which African Americans were impersonated during the 19th and 20th centuries. It follows and shows the development of the rooted stereotypes which have generated bias towards African Americans. If a film of this kind had such an affectionate influence on me, it is no surprise people adopted these ideas back then. The use of new and popular media practices in those days was more than adequate in selling the black inferiority to the general public.

Read More
2456 Words | 10 Pages

Throughout this chronological telling of Tina Fey’s life in Bossypants, much is argued. With the help of evidence and appeals of many forms, along with certain stylistic choices and organization, they are supported and explained. Many times in Bossypants Tina Fey talks about how different and difficult it is to be a woman in the TV and comedy industry and the expectations of what women should be and how they should act. Many different techniques are executed to do so, and they all work in conjunction to make sure most aspects of what she claims is supported.

Read More
854 Words | 4 Pages

As Lindy West started to come to understand the misogyny, fatphobic, and racist jokes being praised in comedy, she started to dive into how comedy starts to normalize that type of behavior. When comedians use harmful jokes they create an environment where those actions are accepted. When they are called out they use the “it’s just a joke” or “you don’t like humor” deflections. Jokes that encourage terrible things, such as rape jokes, create a toxic environment for whom the joke is aimed (women and minorities). “Why should I have to sit and cheer through hours of ‘edgy’ misogyny, ‘edgy’ racism, ‘edgy’ rape jokes, just to be included in an industry that belongs to me as much as anyone else?”

Read More
1233 Words | 5 Pages

Inspired by Civil Rights Activists, these groups started to stand up for themselves. Brown uses her character Molly Bolt to speak out against these injustices and show how queer women are treated in society. The author uses many different ways to criticize homophobia and unjust gender roles. She shows how parents treat young girls versus young men, how society and women treat them, and how the queer community is treated.

Read More
1285 Words | 6 Pages

Each of these concepts are utilized at the advantage of men, and the disadvantage of women, and has shown to provide detrimental consequences and results for women in society. However, in this film, and other films by Tyler Perry, appear to take the added step to combat these aspects that are present in the media’s portrayal of women. While these are present in the movie, he often makes a point to combat it with an inverse portrayal of each

Read More
1181 Words | 5 Pages

I would say that it’s true that sexism plays an important role when someone is trying to a get a job or not in this world. For example, when employees have a male manager, they start to think that he’s a leader for telling them do. However, if those same employees had a female manager who was telling tell them what to do then the employees would think she’s bossy instead of a leader. Additionally, for the most part that example is usually not criticized by people because sexism has entered their brain in a subconscious way so they don’t think it’s a problem for employees to think that a male manger is a leader while thinking a female manager is bossy. Moreover, Frye states, “For every type of occasion there are distinct clothes, gear, and accessories, hair-dos, cosmetics and scents, labeled as “ladies” or “men’s” and labeling us as females or males, and most of the time most of us choose, use, wear or bear the paraphernalia associated with our sex” (Frye, p.847).

Read More
464 Words | 2 Pages

Susan S. Lanser’s “Feminist Criticism, ‘The Yellow Wallpaper,’ and the politics of color in America” examines the impacts “The Yellow Wallpaper” had on feminist writing styles and critiques. Lanser writes that the story helps to analyze the reading trough “the lens of a female consciousness” and apply the knowledge gained from a female perspective onto other literature (418). The transition that the narrator displays from being dependent on John to becoming independent reflects the feminist movement and challenges the “male dominance” that currently takes precedence in society (418). The “patriarchal prisonhouse” that is society controls the narrator and oppresses women not only in “The Yellow Wallpaper” but in real life as well (419). The

Read More
1093 Words | 5 Pages

For centuries, women have been exploited by the society. Events of women being prohibited from doing things like voting or working and being forced to behave the way it is considered to be socially acceptable have been jotted down in history. Until today women are still viewed as the weaker sex. In some countries, women are regarded less than human and are treated like slaves. Khaled Hosseini goes into the oppression of women in his novel A Thousand Splendid Suns.

Read More
894 Words | 4 Pages

Sexism is a prevalent issue that society struggles with due to all to of the negative stereotypes that are created. Today numerous musicians bring awareness to sexism through there songs, one being Beyonce. The popular musician Beyonce fights for women’s empowerment in her music in order to unite women and go against sexism and stereotypes in her popular songs “Flawless”, “If I were a boy”,“Lemonade”, and several more. Beyonce says, "I try to write songs and sing songs that we as women need to hear". "I know sometimes it 's hard to realize how amazing we are.

Read More
1253 Words | 6 Pages

In The Sun Also Rises, Ernest Hemingway writes about a woman and her struggles with herself and life. As Ernest Hemingway progresses through the story his writing style contributes to a lot of unknowns. Hemingway writes in such a way that he makes everyone really think and analyze the book to fully understand it. As people read through the chapters Hemingway places specific events in such a way that they understand who this woman is. Hemingway begins by telling you about other characters before he mentions Brett to make you aware of the time and lives of the other characters.

Read More
892 Words | 4 Pages

In the Ted Talk Why gender equality is good for everyone- including men, The speaker Michael Kimmel talked about how he wants to recruit men to support gender equality. He acknowledged his experience being a white, straight, middle-class male and how his privilege has been invisible to him his whole life. He goes on to say how when talks to men about gender equality, for some the light bulb goes off but, then they feel the need to take it upon themselves to makes changes and to talk to women about their oppression. He talks about another group of men that work to actively resist gender equality and sees it as a bad thing for men. He also talks about men and their sense of entitlement, he goes as far as to give an example of when he was on a TV show to opposite of four white men, and the title of the show was "A Black Women Stole My Job".

Read More
779 Words | 4 Pages

The novel Pride and Prejudice can easily be picked apart through a feminist lens. The farther into the book one goes, the more there is to critique and analyze through a feminist lens. The book is about Elizabeth Bennet and her relationship with her eventual fiance Mr. Darcy, the ups and the downs of their relationship. Elizabeth was never a woman who only craved the attention and approval of men, she was her own person with her own complex emotions.

Read More

More about Gender Inequality In Tina Fey's 'Introduction'

Related Topics

Open Document