The Hillary Clinton - Sara Palin SNL Skit in Relation to Post Feminism - Essay Example

?The Hillary Clinton - Sara Palin SNL Skit in Relation to Post Feminism While the show SNL is known for calling attention to various social and political causes through its effective use of satire, it has never been more successful in delivering its post-feminist message than when the show runners staged the still much talked about Hillary Clinton - Sara Palin opening skit. The skit had everything in it from the copycat dress style and prop driven imitation of the two politically popular women in our current history, down to the various messages ranging from political to post-feminine within its written words. Although the skit was highly successful on many levels, most of us remember it because of the way that the said skit portrayed two different types of post-feminist ideologies. Sadly, both ideologies set back the feminist cause by a number of years due to the way the satire has become not only a part of pop culture, but a part of the ideology of our society. That is why I am writing this paper with the full intention of exposing the damage done by the skit to the post-feminist ideologies and the various ways that feminism is portrayed in the political arena. My main argument is that the show has done irreparable damage to the image of women as future political leaders of the world in ways that one could never have imagined to be possible. It was Durham and Keller who mentioned the relation of media to popular culture in their book Media and Cultural Studies: Keywords. They explained that: “Forms of media culture like television film, popular music, magazines, and advertising provide role and gender models, fashion hints, lifestyle images, and icons of personality. The narratives of media culture offer patterns of proper and improper behavior, moral messages, and ideological conditioning, sugar coating social and political ideas with pleasurable and seductive forms of popular entertainment” (Durham & Keller, xv). Anybody who watched the SNL skit of Sara Palin and Hillary Clinton as portrayed by Tina Fey and Amy Pohler respectively will acknowledge that the words of Durham and Keller ring true and bright in our current media settings. In fact, this skit is the clearest example of the methods by which television as a media culture has not only created a patter of improper behavior and moral messages. They managed to make fun of one woman, while clearly exalting the other in what turned out to be a simultaneous process for the two actors. Tina Fey characterized Sara Palin like a red-neck hillbilly who got to where she was in life solely because luck was on her side. The woman, from the portrayal of Fey, is shown to be blessed to have been in the right place at the right time, which is why it did not matter that she was weak when it came to political matters. It was expected of her since she came from the Alaskan backwoods. It was a stroke of luck and opportunity that afforded her the chance to get ahead politically without really having to pay her dues towards the support of the post feminism political agenda. On the other hand, Amy Pohler portrayed Hillary Clinton as a clear supporter of the post-feminist agenda meant to strengthen the political station of women in our society. The strength and weaknesses of both women were highly played up during the skit which is why the public came to view Sara Palin as a joke who just got lucky in the world of politics while Hillary worked very hard to get the respect and acceptance that she deserved in the political arena. The ideology that the skit promoted the perception that “... all cultural texts have distinct biases, interests, and embedded values, reproducing the point of view of their producers and often, the values of the dominant social groups. “ (Durham & Kelner, xiv). Clearly, the skit anted to promote the post-feminist cause in the skit. But they were not sure as to which message they wanted to clearly share which is why they tried to the fair thing and simply put both post-feminist ideologies out there for society to decide upon. These differences in the portrayal of the two political figures are clearly significant to the promotion or rather, the setback of the 2 different post-feminist causes stemming from female self confidence and their political agenda / power respectively. Tina Fey set back the post-feminist cause by quite a number of years as she created the image of women from small towns to be clueless and dumb women who does not know the first thing about politics and how it is won. Although she, as the character of Sara Palin advised the viewers not to give any meaning to her portrayal, the reality that she played Palin as a caricature and mascot in the political arena. In other words, she depicted all the reasons as to why Sara Palin was a bad candidate for anything in politics or society. She played the role of the objectified woman to the best of her abilities. These differences in the way the roles were portrayed became highly significant and relevant when, towards the end of the skit, the two women (in character) chose to have them promote the post-feminist side for which they stood for and promoted. It is because of the fact that the skit tried to promote two highly different post-feminist ideas that the skit became both problematic and productive in its treatment of feminist politics. The ideology of female empowerment and independence was promoted by the character of Hillary Clinton and her demands to be treated like the female political leader that she perceived herself to be. On the other hand, Sara Palin promoted the ideas that set back the feminist program of the current generation because of her lack of desire to enter the political arena as noisily as her counterpart. All the while that the skit was being aired, it was being shown as being as divided as the presidential race of that time. While it was praising the women who were in the mold of Hillary Clinton, the skit found itself making fun of Sara Palin. It was this dual treatment that further fueled the post-feminist problems of the skit. Rather than just concentrating on one sociopolitical message, the skit chose to tell women instead that they have 2 ways that they could turn out in life. One as an airhead to was alive just through sheer luck (Palin), and the other that female empowerment is here and easily accessible for anyone wishing to break through the glass ceiling. Having explained my reasons for feeling that the skit drove the feminist cause back by at least a decade, I find that I have clearly explained my position on the matter and I hope that you will be able to see the day when the post-feminist political cause has finally become a reality. Read More