I overheard a conversation in Starbucks last week about Sarah Silverman. One young man said, “she’s rude”. Another said, “I don’t like her”.
This got me thinking, is Silverman a feminist? It seems like she is, pushing the line of what a woman can or can not do, what a woman can or can not say, but is that constructive? She plays with gender stereotypes, using her cute persona, opening her innocent doe-eyes wide open as she sings “I’m fucking Matt Damon”. In the tiniest voice she unleashes vicious and uproarious filth, pushing not only what is considered feminine but what is considered decent. Could a man get away with the same thing, if Dane Cook or Lewis Black sang “I’m fucking Jennifer Aniston”, would it be funny or offensive? Would those two young man like her if she were a man?
But maybe it is better to have a woman portrayed in the media as vulgar than just stupid? Take, for instance, Molly Shannon’s character on Kath and Kim. If The Sopraonos is about the American obsession with desire and consumption as EW recently declared, than Kath is Kim is about America’s celebrity obsession. Kath and Kim’s constant references to celebrities and general ignorance toward anything that doesn’t involve Brad and Angie grows tiresome. For every Liz Lemon, there are a dozen female characters on TV who promote the stereotype of women as simple, fashion obsessed, and catty. Considering this, maybe it is a positive that Silverman’s “naughty” character pushes the limits, the question is, are they being pushed in the right direction?
