So this clip is from the second episode of the series, "The Aftermath." Tracy Jordan has officially joined the cast of The Girlie Show, and Jack has renamed the show "TGS With Tracy Jordan." Even before the name is changed, Jenna (Liz's friend and the star of the show) is in a panic about what her role in the show will be now that Tracy is hired. Liz consoles Jenna, telling her that she is looking out for Jenna's interests and reminds her that "This is 'The Girlie Show,' and [she is] the girl." Then they walk into the hallway where the show's signs are being replaced with new "TGS" ones featuring Tracy, and Jenna resumes her panic and Liz makes one of her characteristic "really?!" faces.
The first few episodes of the series are, on a simplistic level, about the transition from "The Girlie Show," headed by Liz and starring Jenna, to "TGS," which is ultimately run by Jack and stars Tracy. This shift of power from women to men and the conflicts that arise from it expose a lot of the stereotypes about women in business.
When Jack explains to Liz that the cast and writers on the show "are not your friends, they're your employees," he adds that "oh, sure! then we can sit around braiding each other's hair until we get our periods at the same time." Ah, so THAT is how women exist in the workplace. The ways in which concepts are represented tell us a lot about our stereotypes. Toni Morrison argues in "Playing in the Dark" that blackness is used as an easy, go-to metaphor for darkness or otherness in literature. Naomi Seidman takes offense in "Burning the Book of Lamentations" at the Biblical book's use of the extended metaphor of a woman's body and its grotesqueness/ violation because it represents for her the objectification and marginalization of women in traditional Jewish culture. Jack's reference plays on the idea that women are incapable of managing in business because they want to "be friends" or have everyone like them.
In one episode of Bones, for example, a woman named Cam takes over the supervisor's position at the Jeffersonian, and is very hard for the team to get along with. She insists on being in charge (which, in fact, she is), and demands respect and cooperation from the team. If she were a man-- like, say, the previous supervisor-- she would have been considered tough, intimidating, and strong. Instead, she is considered a bitch. But don't worry-- she loosens up gets accepted in the end. The male FBI agent/ protagonist, Booth, even tells her not to "stop doing the intimidation thing," because "it's cute." Great. What was threatening and intimidating is only seen as cute and girly.
I'd just like to close with some insight from Tina Fey herself on Weekend Update: "I think what bothers me the most is that people say that Hillary [Clinton] is a bitch. Let me say something about that. Yah, she is. And so am I. And so is [Amy Poehler]. You know what? Bitches get stuff done. That's why Catholic schools use nuns as teachers instead of priests. Those nuns are mean old clams and they sleep on cots and they're allowed to hit you. And at the end of the school year you hated those bitches, but you knew the capitol of Vermont! So I'm saying it's not too late, Texas and Ohio. Get on board, because bitch is the new black!"
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