Bossypants Review

Bossypants by Tina Fey
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

I love Tina Fey (well, I love Amy Poehler more, but so does Tina Fey) and what I was reminded by reading her autobiography was that she was the screenwriter for Mean Girls! Of course! It is so obvious when you see her work, but I totally forgot that. That movie and the book it was based on has been a big part of how I view office politics and how women treat each other - and this book goes into that a bit as well.

What I love about Tina (and Amy) is that they aren't here to be cute, sexy or charming in the obvious sense of the word - they are here to make you laugh (and think). That makes them smart in my mind. I get tired of the "funny" girl that is staged with two other funny guys - which seems to be the way most TV is portrayed. Women are funny in their own right - even when they aren't doing typically funny women's things. It is complicated, but when I read her words I feel like she is the new breed of feminist. The kind that sees gender disparity, but also sees other disparities in the work/world place. And because of that she can take things through her lens and make you laugh.

The best part of the book, for me, was when she breaks down what doing improv at Second City (the cult) taught her for her life skills - not just on stage:

Agree: start with an open mind (don't immediately find why you can't do something, consider the possibilities)

Say Yes, and: "Add something to the discussion, contribute. Your initiations are worthwhile."

Make Statements: As women we tend to not make statements and instead talk with question marks after everything. Instead, say what you are really doing, what you really want, and where you are really going.

There Are No Mistakes, Only Opportunities: "In improv there are no mistakes, only beautiful happy accidents." (Maybe that can be said for life too.)

She also has a great section where she works at a summer theater group and works really hard to not get her ex-boyfriends girlfriend a part in a play. She admits now that it was a crappy thing to do and that women can not do that to one another in the workplace.

Lastly, I loved her take on the idea that there is enough for everyone. The world seems to run on scarcity tactics. (Not enough jobs, not enough parts for you, not enough ways that someone can succeed, basically the evening news.) And she blows the lid right off of that - there is room for more than one woman in a scene, department, company... there is enough creativity to keep going, there is enough... in fact, there may be so much that we can't envision it. Living in that scarcity place makes us mean to one another, but opening up to the possibilities makes it all seems a bit more tolerable.

Sure, the book goes on longer about SNL, 30 Rock, and Sarah Palin, but that isn't really where the meat is - it is in her ability to translate her experiences, however raw, into the way she is embracing the world for herself, her daughter and the women she works with. Inspiring stuff - and a good choice if you are sick of poorly written business books to motivate you.

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