The next time you hear some assertive women described in derogatory terms, consider saying, “Yea! Bitches get stuff done.”
From last night’s Saturday Night Live:
Nothing is endorsed or recommended here, except the sheer pleasure of appropriating the terms of abuse.
NBC has claimed copyright violation and pulled the youtube version. We found another version, but it may be pulled soon. If so, you can still find it on NBC’s site here.
And the following sounds like the sound track:
From MyDD comes something close to a transcript:
FEY: And finally, the most important Women’s News item there is, we have our first serious female presidential candidate in Hillary Clinton.
And yet, women have come so far as feminists, that they don’t feel obligated to vote for a candidate just because she’s a woman.Women today feel perfectly free to make whatever choice Oprah tells them to.
Which raises the question, why are people abandoning Hillary for Obama?
Some say that they’re put off by the fact that Hillary can’t control her husband, and that we would end up with co-presidents.
‘Cause that would be terrible, having two intelligent, qualified people working together to solve problems. Ugh.
Why would you let Starsky talk to Hutch? I wanna watch that show, Starsky.
You know, what is it, America? What is it, are you weirded out that they’re married?
‘Cause I can promise you that they are having exactly as much sex with each other as George Bush and Jeb Bush are.
Then there is the physical scrutiny of her physical appearance.
Rush Limbaugh, the Jeff Conaway of right wing radio, said that he doesn’t think America is ready to watch their president quote “turn into an old lady in front of them.” Really?
They didn’t seem to mind when Ronald Reagan did that.
Maybe what bothers me the most is that people say that Hillary is a bitch.
Let me say something about that: Yeah, she is.
And so am I and so is this one. (pointing to Amy Poehler)
POEHLER: Yeah, deal with it.
FEY: Know what? Bitches get stuff done.
(Amy says yeah and starts nodding her head, together they get in a rhythm, with Amy saying in response, more yeahs, uh huhs, with a ‘you go girl’ style)
Like back in grammar school,
they could have had priests teaching you but, no,
they had those tough old nuns who slept on cots
and who could hit ya and you HATED those bitches
But at the end of the school year
you sure KNEW the capital of Vermont!
So COME ON Texas and Ohio
Get on board, it’s not too late!…
BITCH IS THE NEW BLACK!
I was so thrilled to see SNL last night, especially this clip and the opening skit! During the last 7 years we the people have become so divided, downtrodden and defensive that we forgot how to hold our heads high. Women’s causes have somehow gone into a retrograde, and our status as able citizens, family members, workers and leaders has diminished incredibly even as our jobs, homes and investments continue to be devalued.
Thank you, SNL writers and especially Tina Fey, for rescuing us from the toxic mindset of lowered expectations that has been bearing down on all Americans but especially women since the year 2000!
it was fantastic!!
feel free to spread the word with a “Bitch is the new black” or “Bitches get stuff done” t-shirt or button…
http://www.cafepress.com/gigglechick/
I love it! Thanks for sharing this! Let’s make an insult into a compliment – that should take the air out of the insult ;-). It’s certainly worth a try. I think it largely worked with “queer.”
Thank you all. Little by little…
Gigglechick, I’m impressed with your speed in producing the shirts; when did you start?!
i posted them around 1:30am this morning.
and thank you :}
Thank you SNL! provided just a little relief and it was hilarious.
Gigglechick: bought the cap. Thanks for the fast production.
You go girl!
Gigglechick: I love the mugs! 15 oz is about right for morning coffee!
I loved it! Thanks SNL and thanks for posting it here!
You are so welcome, antigenre!
Fey is great. But, she may have missed the point. It may be that b’s get things done, but it crosses the line to be a c. Think of the difference between McCain and Bolton.
I loved the show last night. The media’s treatment of Hillary over this entire election season makes me embarrassed to be a part of this society. The blatant misogyny and sexism is horrible and the women reporters have been dispicable. It’s not real news anywhere. It’s all corporate owned.
Makes me sick and infuriated.
Tina Fey is my new hero!
Gigglechick, Great stuff. Love your design!
I tried to pull a shirt together too.
http://www.jumptees.com.
Enjoy.
YES!!!!!!!!!!!
Tina Fey—THANK YOU! Freakin’ Awesome!!!
It is about time that someone in the media came out to show their support for Hillary. We are SICK of the male dominated media: Biased, BORING, weak, unimaginative, unoriginal, undaring, and tediously predictable. Get OFF Obama’s jock.
Hillary 08!!!!!!!
New visitors might like to know that we’ve been tracking a bit of the media’s sexism. You can see some of our posts on it by searching under clinton.
But also don’t miss the several Jender did on Jan. 11 and 12; one is here
Let’s cut to the chase and make Tina Fey president.
NBC keeps killing the YouTube videos, so here it is straight from NBC’s site. There are instructions for embedding the video, too!
And I just checked! Thanks, RS, I’ll see what I can do.
Rats! NBC says you can embed their version, but their idea of embedding is not youtube’s. As far as I can see, the best we can do is to link to their site.
I couldn’t agree more, we bitches should support other bitches who made it in the running. I think America should be ready for a female leader by now, to think of it, we’re far behind, look at India, Pakistan, Indonesia, Philippines, and we called them “developing nations”?!?
I have no offense against Obama, think he’s a great candidate as well (though not all his ideas as original as he claimed!), but it started to look like a popularity contest of a man vs a woman a while back.
thanks for the assorted links and transcripts to this story. and thanks to jj and infinite cat site, i missed SNL b/c i was playing “cat box” game…
this bitch will vote so we don’t have four more years of republicans and mis-guided policies and protest assorted misprepresentations on intersectionalities of race, gender, class, etc we’re in both/and territory. i think a ‘bitch is back’ cup would look good in my office among other places!
Hi kbw. My “Bitch is the new black” cup has arrived and graces my desk.
I’ve just found a working video; who knows how long it will last.
Sorry to rain on your parade, but I thought it was very insulting to equate women’s rights w/ AA rights. Maybe Tina should do a “wacky” Freaky Friday where she wakes up as a black man named Barack Hussein Obama. Wait, she probably wouldn’t be able to be on SNL as they aren’t exactly known for being very inclusive. (Note: BHO is being played by a 1/2 Japanese and 1/2 Spanish actor). Better yet, why don’t you all think about going from being white women to a black man? Sonds great, doesn’t it?
Tracy Morgan Responds….
Jennifer, I am not sure what you are basing your remarks on. See the Wikipedia entry for ‘the new black”:
That’s at:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_new_black
Compare Language Log:
http://itre.cis.upenn.edu/~myl/languagelog/archives/003981.html
I just want to say to #20 that if you help a bitch, then you are no longer a bitch, you’re someone else’s bitch. I hope you don’t think I’m being too bitchy for pointing that out.
But Seriously, being shrill, and rude and pushy, Bitchy if you will is offensive behavior, exactly what makes us sick about Rove and Bush’s political tactics, and if you act like the Bushes and Rove, then whats the point of trying to supplant them, are you going to be a better devil than the one we already have? Who cares you’re still a devil. The American people already know who to call on if they want that kind of behavior, John Kerry already proved that you won’t win imitating your adversary.
Hi Jackie, I’m not sure anyone is recommending genuinely offensive behavior. I think rather that they’re trying to appropriate the term “bitch,” since it is an expression used in many attempts to silence women. E.g, if you say clearly what you think, you might well be labeled ‘bitch.’
In appropriating the term, one tries to celebrate women’s being able to speak their minds and resist the silencing by taking the stigma away from the label.
You might look at the later post on this blog, “Postfeminism and Other Fairy Tales.” There Katha Pollitt is quoted as remarking
“The hysterical insults flung at Hillary Clinton are just a franker, crazier version of the everyday insults — shrill, strident, angry, ranting, unattractive — that are flung at any vaguely liberal mildly feminist woman who shows a bit of spirit and independence,…”
In my experience, that’s clearly true.
Maybe they abandoned Hilary for Obama because Obama wasn’t a pathological liar and carpetbagger with no principles. Just sayin’.
Matt-you must be frightened at the thought of her in her present job, right?