Entry 6: Final Reflection

               As I expected, Tina Fey’s memoir Bossypants was a very funny book. I enjoyed it because Ms. Fey was able to laugh at herself and make her life story into a hilarious read. I loved reading this book mainly because in her writing, Tina Fey does not take herself too seriously. An example of this is in one of my favorite chapters, Dear Internet. In this chapter Ms. Fey responds to comments made about her on the internet. To the rude comment “Tina Fey is an ugly, pear shaped, bitchy, overrated troll” (164), she responds “To say that I’m an overrated troll, when you have never even seen me guard a bridge, is patently unfair” (164). Most people would have been very offended by this but Ms. Fey was able to make it into something entertaining. Moments like these are why I liked reading this book so much.

                Another reason why I like this memoir was because one of its major themes is feminism. The way that Ms. Fey handles such a busy job and still is able to keep up with her family life is quite inspiring, but she admits that she is not perfect: “How do you juggle it all? People constantly ask me, with an accusatory look in their eyes your fucking it all up their eyes say” (256). Tina Fey’s memoir was particularly enjoyable to me because she showed the reader who she really was and did not try to make herself seem flawless.

                Other Memoirs I have read are Maus and the Glass Castle. These two memoirs are very different from Bossypants. The biggest difference is that the authors of Maus and the Glass Castle wrote about their lives from harshly realistic perspectives while Tina Fey wrote about hers from a softer one. Out of all the memoirs I have read I think I enjoyed Bossypants the most because it made me laugh not cry.

Word count- 320

Entry 5: Connections

The work I have chosen to compare to Tina Fey’s memoir, Bossypants, is the cartoon intro to the movie The Beautician and the Beast. In this intro, a prince finds a princess asleep in a forest. He kisses her, she wakes up, and he proposes, but, unlike the typical fairytale, she is strongly opposed to the idea of marrying him. She argues that they just met and that she is too young to be married, before running away into the forest shouting, “I have dreams, I have goals, I have ambitions.” This cartoon reminds me of Bossypants for two reasons. One is that they share a similar theme, feminism, and the second is that the princess in The Beautician and the Beast reminds me of Tina Fey.

                Feminism is a major theme in both Bossypants and the intro to The Beautician and the Beast. The princess in The Beautician and the Beast challenges the idea that a girl needs a prince to be happy, and, in a way, so does Tina Fey. Ms. Fey is very involved in her family life, but she also puts a lot of time into her career. Her husband respects her and does not expect her to spend her life doing housework and taking care of the children. In Ms. Fey’s opinion, one of the rudest things someone can ask a women is “How do you juggle it all?” (256). This is because they are implying that they do not believe that someone can raise a family and still have an important and demanding career.

                The reason that the princess in the intro to The Beautician and the Beast reminds me of Tina Fey is because she shouted “I have dreams, I have goals, I have ambitions.” This reminds me of Ms. Fey because throughout her life she was always working towards her goals. She never feels like she has reached the top because there is always something more she can do. For example, after working on Saturday Night Live for a while Ms. Fey decided that “I was in my eight season of Saturday Night Live, it was time to figure out what the next phase of my life would be” (169). She does not need a prince to make her happy because she has her dream job, being a comedian.

Word count- 387

               

The Beautician And The Beast opening animated... by gebmale

Entry 4: Title Significance

The book Bossy Pants, by Tina Fey, is a memoir about Ms. Fey’s life, and current career as the head of the show 30 Rock. The main reason the book is called Bossypants is because a large part of it is about the obstacles Tina Fey has to face while learning to manage other people. Someone she learned a lot from is one of her former bosses, Lorne Michaels, who gave her a lot of helpful advice such as, “Don’t hire anyone you wouldn’t want to run into in the hallway at three in the morning” (127) and “Never tell a crazy person he is crazy” (128).

While the word bossypants usually has a negative connotation, Tina Fey associates it, in a positive way, with who she has become. For example, she calls the strategies she uses to manage her office “my bossypants managerial techniques” (175).  She also feels that by becoming the boss of such a popular comedy show she has overcome some stereotypes placed on women. For example, Tina Fey used to act with an improv group called Second City, where she was told by a director that “the audience didn’t want to see a sketch with two women” (217). She proved him wrong because her Sarah Palin sketch was watched by ten million people.

The picture on the cover also says a lot about women in the work place. The cover shows Tina Fey’s head on the body of a guy in a suit. The man in the suit is someone a person would usually associate with the word Bossypants, and by putting her head on his body Ms. Fey is showing how she is breaking stereotypes. The title Bossypants represents the person Tina Fey has become in the world of comedy, despite the obstacles she has had to face.

Word count- 303

Entry 3: Emotional Reaction

A section that I connect with in Bossypants is a chapter called Young Men’s Christian Association. This chapter is about the time Tina Fey spent working at the front desk of the YMCA. She describes that YMCA as “the epicenter of all human grimness” (69). After getting out of college, the only job Ms. Fey can get is at the YMCA, which is a job she is extremely overqualified for. She has to spend all day dealing with annoying coworkers and condescension from bosses and members of the Y. After getting an education she is stuck with a job she does not like doing.

                This chapter made me think about whether going to college is really worth it in the end. There is a lot of competition when it comes to getting a job these days, and this chapter made me reflect on what my life might be like after getting out of high school. I still have no idea what I want to do when I grow up, and I do not want to spend years in college only to have to work somewhere grim and boring like Burger King or the YMCA.

                While her college education did not help Tina Fey find an amazing job at first, it did help her finally to move on from the front desk. Ms. Fey talks about how she and a co-worker named Donna always envied the people who had office jobs at the Y. One day one of these jobs opened up and both Tina and her co-worker wanted it, but in the end Tina Fey landed the job because of her college education. While going to college might not always get a person their dream job, it may give them a leg up in society and be beneficial in the long run.

Word count- 302

Entry 2: Passage Analysis

“Grant her a rough patch from twelve to seventeen. Let her draw horses and be interested in Barbies for much too long, for childhood is short- a Tiger Flower blooming Magenta for one day” (262).

                This is a quote said by Ms. Fey, referring to her daughter. It is writing in the Chapter called The Mother’s Prayer for its Daughter in which Tina Fey talks about all the things she hopes for her toddling child. This quote, along with the whole chapter, stands out because it shows how much Ms. Fey cares for her daughter. This quote is important because it shows the relationship Tina Fey has with her child and how much she enjoys spending time with her. It also depicts the innocence Ms. Fey’s daughter has at the time, and how Ms. Fey would like her to keep that innocence as long as possible.

                The statement, “for childhood is short- a Tiger flower blooming magenta for one day” (262), is an example of a metaphor. It compares childhood to the blooming of a flower. Not only does this metaphor compare the length of time of these two events, but also the beauty of them. It shows that, like the blooming of a flower, childhood is short and magical. Because it goes by quickly, a blooming flower is something easy to miss. This quote shows that Tina Fey is worried that, with her busy job, she might miss the magical moments in her daughter’s life.

                This quote is also important to the plot of the book because it characterizes Tina Fey. This quote shows that childhood is important to her, which is a characteristic of a good mother. The fact that Tina Fey values childhood shows that she is somewhat of a child herself, which probably contributes to her sense of humor and makes her such a successful comedian.

Word count-275