http://www.salon.com/2010/04/14/tina_fey_backlash/

It’s like saying Zero Dark Thirty is a movie, all movies are art, therefore we can’t talk about any other aspect except the sound editing and the pacing.

The quote about needing the industry to die shows she doesn’t like it, but it doesn’t show why. Many women and men still perceive sex workers as being victims of past or present abuse.. if I were to say the child sweatshops need to die, you wouldn’t assume I hate children.. even if I were making jokes about child labor to emphasis how soulless a company was as she highlights the soullessness of her industry while referencing the stripper bones.

Rachel: I really appreciated both of your comments here. I thought the point you made in the first held, regardless of where your quotation marks should have been.

That said, I completely understand the anger that bubbles feels at Fey’s comments. As a sex worker, the comments Fey has made do dehumanize her, and assume that she couldn’t possibly be a sex worker because she’s chosen to-or have made that choice from a strong place as opposed to being exploited.

I also find Fey’s humor about strippers funny. The use of the word “whore” in the linked piece about Hefner’s girlfriends doesn’t bother me. I feel that routine is playing more on the societal view of golddiggers/trophy wives-and in particular Hefner’s playboy lifestyle-for laughs. I like the contrast between “waiting for the viagra to wear off” and getting to a dental appointment. I actually like the drawing of attention to the very real fact that many people get into professions that exploit them (and this includes non-sex work professions) as the result of abuse. I do think that often comedy can use satire to highlight important issues too often forgotten in our culture, and as such can serve an important function.

It’s sort of like the Dave Chappelle question: at what point does your satire cross the line? How do you cope with people laughing at your jokes because they’re racist, not because they understand how your sketch of a blind black racist who thinks he is white highlights the absurdity of racism itself? I don’t know the answer.

I do find it disappointing that Tina is so enraged at the existence of strip clubs. She should be a better feminist than that. Sadly, many who I think should be better feminists can’t even wrap their heads around the empowerment of burlesque performers-so it doesn’t surprise me.

To get back to my original point (there’s just too many interesting debates brought up by this post! kudos!) I really believe that bubbles should try to take another look at what Rachel means. In debates on sexism and women’s rights, the conversation on both sides can so easily descend (I think often unintentionally on both sides) into the very types of stereotyping it intends to put and end to. A stripper can be a feminist. A feminist can stand up for the rights of strippers to be counted as people worthy of respect. I, myself, struggle with my own prejudices with regard to the current state of sex workers in America. I worry about the unexplored trauma’s that lead some women into sex work. I worry about the unresolved trauma inside of myself that sometimes colors my view of sex workers. As long as I keep worrying on both sides, I can only hope I arrive at a fair appraisal of the issue at hand. I’d never generalize that all sex workers are molestation victims and whores.

I’d hope that sex workers wouldn’t generalize that all women who are ideologically opposed to sex workers are sexually unfulfilled or sexually insecure. Perhaps we should instead direct our attention to the frigidity of their worldview.