It was cut from last week's "Saturday Night Live" broadcast, but this skit featuring Tina Fey on "Great Women Writers" is almost too painful to be funny. Fey has two heartbreaking, funny and true pieces on body image in BOSSYPANTS, mirror images of each other that brilliantly expose how mixed those messages are to women, but she gets it done in under five minutes in that skit (with some help).
I hate to be obvious and rewrite the same post I always rewrite, but I am reaching the limit of my tolerance regarding the "trend" of authors and relative attractiveness of same, because you know what, who gives a shit. The trouble is, a lot of people give a shit. Where has it ever been shown anywhere, that there's a correlation between physical beauty and literary talent? Nowhere, and the more people try and shoehorn "Must be a pretty pretty princess" into the requirements to being a marketable author, the less I respect their opinions on anything. At least, it's time to stop pretending that there isn't a double standard, and that it falls disproportionately on female authors to prove their palatability to the general world vis a vis their looks. And even when done in fun, commenting on an author's attractiveness in the context of their literary achievement legitimizes this value system.
4 days ago
2 comments:
I was planning on writing a similar post, because the two books I have waiting for me at the library are memoirs written by Tina Fey and Meghan O'Rourke. I have never read a book merely because its author is attractive, but I have one very attractive friend whose face is being used to market HER new memoir, and it made me wonder how many more copies she will sell as a result.
Even for authors whom it helps, it's a double-edged sword, because appearance is not a stable platform on which to sell something. The burden is on the author to have the "right" look (as if there is such a thing) for whatever genre she's fitting into (as if this is necessary) along with actually doing the work.
It can be kind of a fine line with memoirs, but there's a difference between telling a story and packaging a life. I guess it would depend on her material.
Post a Comment