On The Daily Show and Women

Last week, Jezebel published a scathing post on the lack of women on the writing staff of The Daily Show, after which the women of The Daily Show responded with their own online message. Jezebel's been getting a lot of flak (See Emily Gould's piece at Slate) and so has The Daily Show (see Tiger Beatdown's parody of TDS ladies' open letter). And it's one of those issues where I feel very torn between the two sides.

I think it's very nice that TDS is responding to Jezebel... they certainly don't have to. And it's lovely to see all those women who are contributing to the show (especially Jill, yay Jill). 40% of the staff is more than I would have guessed. And I want to believe that Jon Stewart is the demigod I make him out to be in my mind, so it's nice to hear people stick up for him. Besides, I love Olivia Munn and am all about a hilarious outspoken half-Asian lady on the show (whether she eats a banana seductively or not).

The problem is that the letter seems more like defensive PR strategy than any sign of empowerment from the women of the show. And having all of these women sign this letter doesn't make the complaints of women who used to work on the show any less valid. I can imagine (and I may be totally wrong on this) that there are people who signed it with a tinge of hesitation- who love their jobs and love Jon Stewart and love the show, but still feel disrespected or unwelcome occasionally. Because that's the way the world works, and because not everyone is politically correct or sensitive to the underdog 100% of the time. It takes a lot more courage to say something that goes against what people in power want to hear than to go with the flow. And to just shove those people away and say "No, we are all of one collective mind who likes how things are. We do not differ in opinion from one another" seems like a glossing over of the problem.

Regardless of how many women are on staff in total or what glowing reviews of Jon and working there they can drum up, it still might have been nice to hear that someone high up at TDS does value the idea of increasing gender and racial diversity on its writing staff and among talent. Instead of just saying "We're all happy," I would have liked to hear someone acknowledge that "Yes, there are a lot of white dudes on our staff. There are a lot more of them in the comedy world in general. But we're trying. We want talented women to come out and write for us. We're dying to have a diverse staff, so keep trying and don't be intimidated by how our correspondents and writing room look right now. We're waiting for you to come along and change things!" Because I get that it's hard. I get that people don't want to compromise the quality of their show to fill some kind of quota. But to pretend that there is no problem, that everything is fine, is a problem in and of itself.

And that's my moment of Zen.