Feminism Redux: Bossypants and Bossycontraceptives

This past week has caused me to think a lot about women’s issues and just how far we’ve come in this country in terms of women’s rights and actually listening to women. Some of that thought was propelled by my beginning (and subsequently ending – it was a fast read) to read Tina Fey’s Bossypants. The other, main reason, was the continuing firestorm surrounding the President’s Executive Order regarding how businesses must cover women’s contraceptive’s as a part of their health care plans. I’ll split my thoughts up on both, though, to make for clearer reading.

Bossypants – more evidence that Tina Fey is a comedic treasure

I received four books at Christmas, and after taking almost a month and a half plow through Colonel Roosevelt, I breezed through Bossypants in exactly one week. While I was sad that it went so quickly, much of that was due to the fact that it was such an enjoyable and hilarious book to read. Bossypants is mostly an overview autobiography, mixed with lessons that Tina Fey feels are important enough to focus on for the reader. The title of the book itself is a reference to how Tina Fey spent her whole life never thinking she would be anyone’s boss, only to become THE boss on two of the biggest comedy shows on television, and the lessons she learned from those experiences.

I thought that some of her lessons were actually very relevant for a larger business or work environment. In her chapter, “The Windy City, Full of Meat”, she sets out “The Rules of Improvisation That Will Change Your Life and Reduce Belly Fat”. These are a set of typical improv rules that actors should follow to make for a successful improv session, but that in so many ways have application in the business and/or corporate setting. They are:

1. Agree. Always Agree and SAY YES – This refers to the improvisational rule where, no matter what your improv partner on stage says, you always agree with it. This allows the scene to continue to roll and move forward. “Now, obviously in real life you’re not always going to agree with everything everyone says. But the Rule of Agreement reminds you to ‘respect what your partner has created’ and to at least start from an open-minded place.”
2. Don’t just say Yes, but YES, AND – “You are supposed to agree and then add something of your own. . . . don’t be afraid to contribute.  It’s your responsibility to contribute. Always make sure you’re adding something to the discussion.”
3. Make Statements – “Whatever the problem, be part of the solution. Don’t just sit around raising questions and point out obstacles. . . . Make Statements also applies to us women: Speak in statements instead of apologetic questions.”
4. There are no mistakes, only opportunities – “In improv there are no mistakes, only beautiful happy accidents. And many of the world’s greatest discoveries have been by accident. I mean, look at the Reese’s Peanut Butter Cup, or Botox.”

All four of those are great things to remember in the business world. Later in the book, she also makes the point of illustrating the things that she thinks has made Lorne Michael one of the must successful comedic producers in television history, and much of it comes from his management style. While some of them were very television specific, two that I felt very applicable in general settings were: “The show doesn’t go on because it’s ready; it goes on because it’s 11:30,” which illustrates the idea that at some point you have to stop overthinking decisions and just make one, and; “Don’t hire anyone you wouldn’t want to run into in the hallway at three in the morning,” or in other words, stress is going to come, everyone will need to bunker down together at some point; you don’t want people in your bunker who you really can’t stand.

Another theme that Fey tackles often in the book is the idea that women are not funny, or at least, not as funny as men. This is an idea that has been spread by many old school comedians, most famously as of late being Jerry Lewis’s comments that he didn’t like any female comedians. When Tina Fey arrived at SNL in the late 90′s, it was definitely a boys club and a male dominated writing culture. She tells a story of how Sylvester Stallone was the host one week, and they needed someone to play Adrian from the Rocky movies. Cheri Oteri wanted to do it, and had a great Adrian impression. The writers, instead, went for a cheaper laugh by putting Chris Kattan in drag. Fey writes, “But I tell this specific tale of Cheri being passed over for Kattan-in-drag because it illustrates how things were the first week I was there. By the time I left nine years later, that would never have happened. Nobody would have thought for a second that a dude in drag would be funnier than Amy, Maya, or Kristen. The women in the cast took over the show in that decade, and I had the pleasure of being there to witness it.”

In the 2000′s, Fey helped establish on SNL that women were to be taken seriously as a comedic force. Unfortunately, in 2012, we’ve found out that they’re still not taken seriously in some much more important ways.

Sorry, God doesn’t want to pick up the tab on your diaphragm*

(*- does anyone still use those?)

The past few weeks have seen a political firestorm erupt around the President’s EO that mandated that all businesses that offer insurance plans must offer plans in which they paid for women’s contraceptives. While the rule allowed for a religious exemption for churches, it did not originally exempt religious-backed businesses (i.e. Catholic Hospitals, Catholic Universities, etc.). Apparently, this rule had been on the horizon for some time, and the countries Bishop’s were ready to strike. As soon as the rule was published, they started trumpeting the President’s “attack on freedom of religion.” The President and his team, in fact immediately pushed back, stating what they saw as an attack on women’s right to have access to contraception. It was clearly evident that both sides were willing and ready to turn this into a cultural battleground. While the President eventually gave another exemption to those religious-backed business, it wasn’t enough for the Bishops.

The Catholic’s were not joined by all the religious brethren (notably, the Methodists made a point to say they were cool with the rule), but they were heavily embraced and joined in this battle by the National Association of Evangelicals. Keep in mind, the Evangelicals are pretty sure Obama’s not a Christian and possibly a Muslim, so they’ve been chomping at the bit to take him on. I want to stop and point out how hilarious I find this union, because a large portion of Evangelicals don’t particularly embrace the Catholic church. Here’s an example of a “Chick Tract”, the small tracts that many evangelical churches hand out to you at the county fair and on Bourbon St., called “The Death Cookie”.  While I’m sure that this doesn’t speak for the opinion of ALLLLLLL evangelicals . . . it speaks for a lot of them.

I see, in some small way, the Catholic Church’s position. I think that there has been a slight overstatement on the part of the “lamestream media” to say that this is an attack on contraceptives, and the Church (meaning the Catholic Church) isn’t saying it wants its employees banned from access to contraceptives, it just doesn’t want to have to be made to pay for them. Ok, fair enough point. However, a large number of states already had this rule in place at the state level. Conservative business leaders always beg for more uniformity and consistency in government regulations. The Obama Administration was simply trying to provide uniformity and consistency for employers, insurers, and potential employees across the country. Wouldn’t that be a good thing for the market?

Maybe this was a bit of an overreach by the government, but the church’s reaction is once again a classical overreach in response. To listen to the Bishops and the Evangelical leaders, Obama is kicking down the doors of every church in the country, kicking over the crosses, and burning every bible in the land. Seriously? It undermines the Catholic Church’s position even more when polling shows time and again that the majority of their parishioners, especially women, do not agree with the Church’s 1968 Humanae Vitae , specifically regarding contraception. When your own parishioners aren’t on your side of the debate, you have a problem.

So who’s fared worse in this flash-battle? In my opinion, it comes down to one man – Rick Santorum. Santorum, a devout Catholic, tried to ride this storm to continue his march against the Romney campaign for the heart’s of the GOP’s conservative right. However, all it did was allow the media to show more and more clips of Santorum talking in interviews about just how much he disagrees with contraception. He thinks contraception is a dangerous idea for the sanctity of family in America. Women who have grown up in a post-feminist era hear these statements, and combined with his statements on women in combat on the front-lines, and these post-feminist hear a dog whistle that states, “Don’t worry, guys, get me into office, and women will be put back in their place.” Maybe that’s not what he’s thinking, but it’s what a large number of women are hearing. Santorum may in fact make it out of the GOP primary and will be Obama’s opponent in the fall, but independent-voting women aren’t likely to forget these statements by Santorum. Rick, go ahead and consider the women’s vote lost.

Thoughts at the closing bell: 

• Two very interesting decisions have come out this week from state legislatures. In Washington, the legislature passed a right to marriage for homosexuals, and the Governor promptly signed it. On the other coast, literally and figuratively, the Virginia House of Representatives just advanced a “personhood” bill, stating that any egg that has been fertilized by sperm has become a “person”, and thus has full rights under the state’s Constitution.  When bills like this have been put directly to voters as referendums in both Colorado and Mississippi, they’ve been rejected (did you hear that – MISSISSIPPI rejects this idea). I’m telling you, the 2012 general election is going to have more cultural drums banged than 2008 by a mile. 2008 was a year where we had a reason to be focused on economics. With falling unemployment numbers, Republican’s are deciding that just an economics-focused election might not be enough, so they’re cranking up the volume on the social issues. It’s going to get ugly, kids.
• With the impending arrival of the third member of the Heaton Fun-time Jug Band, Grace Victoria, we’ve decided we needed a second car that was safer and larger. We agreed that we wanted to buy used to save money, but we still wanted something nice. After a nation-wide Autotrader search, we’ve put a deposit on a 2005 BMW X3 (under 60,000 miles). The fun part? I’ll be traveling to Augusta, GA to pick it up. Road-trip a go-go.
• Pitchers and catchers report to Lakeland, FL for the Tigers this Monday. Baseball is almost back!!!!
• Funniest sports story of the year, maybe the decade: ‘Piggyback Bandit’ puzzles high school sports officials in the Northwest 
• Lastly, I was very hesitant all week to write a new post. My last post, about my alma maters homecoming tradition College Night, received more traffic in one week than my blog did in all of 2010, and almost half the traffic I received in 2011. I want to thank everyone who passed it around to their friends and fellow alumni. It was an amazing feeling to know that my feelings for Montevallo are not unique, but shared by so many. However, fear of trying to follow that up pretty much had me frozen all week. Hear I am again, though, knowing that the spread of that post may be a one-time occurrence, and thankful to have at least experienced it. Again, to all those who retweeted and reposted it, thank you.

That’s all for now kids. One love to you all.