Women Of The Daily Show Put Feminarcissists In Their Places

The Women Of The Daily Show. (HT NY Observer)



There has been on ongoing feud between The Daily Show and the Jezebel website. From the NY Observer:

It all started about two weeks ago, when Jezebel's Irin Carmon posted a long investigation concluding that The Daily Show had a "Woman Problem." The show was a boys' club, she wrote, but had been given a pass because of its liberal politics and its host's reputation as a "lovable mensch." Readers responded. Carmon rebutted their "unconvincing excuses." And now, the women of The Daily Show have issued a response:

We must admit it is entertaining to be the subjects of such a vivid and dramatic narrative. However, while rampant sexism at a well-respected show makes for a great story, we want to make something very clear: the place you may have read about is not our office.

The Daily Show isn't a place where women quietly suffer on the sidelines as barely tolerated tokens. On the contrary: just like the men here, we're indispensable. We generate a significant portion of the show's creative content and the fact is, it wouldn't be the show that you love without us.


Naturally, as they are the women of The Daily Show, they have an advantage when it comes to zippy rejoinders:

PS. Thanks for the list of funny women. Our Nanas send us a ton of suggestions about "what would make a great skit for The John Daley Show." We'll file it right next to those.

PPS. Thanks to the male writers who penned this for us.


A third party has weighed in on the feud. Emily Gould of Slate stated the following:

"It's a prime example of the feminist blogosphere's tendency to tap into the market force of what I've come to think of as "outrage world"--the regularly occurring firestorms stirred up on mainstream, for-profit, woman-targeted blogs like Jezebel and also, to a lesser degree, Slate's own XX Factor and Salon's Broadsheet. They're ignited by writers who are pushing readers to feel what the writers claim is righteously indignant rage but which is actually just petty jealousy, cleverly marketed as feminism. These firestorms are great for page-view-pimping bloggy business. But they promote the exact opposite of progressive thought and rational discourse, and the comment wars they elicit almost inevitably devolve into didactic one-upsmanship and faux-feminist cliché."

I'm glad to see women calling feminarcissists. This need to happen a lot more often if the rift between the sexes will ever be resolved.

Background Intel:

NY Observer: Jezebel v. Jon Stewart: The Women of The Daily Show Fire Back