THE FEISTY FEMINIST comedian Tina Fey is not one to mince words – or do what’s expected of her.
So for her final appearance on the Late Show with David Letterman (he’s on his final run of shows right now), the 30 Rock actress took a stand against the fancy dresses she usually wears on the show.
She told Letterman that she has been on the show 20 times, and usually wears underwear that is “almost medical”.
“I dress up like this out of respect for you,” she said.
Then she threw a curveball, telling him she wouldn’t be wearing this type of get-up any longer.
“What am I gonna do – put on a dress for Jimmy [Fallon]? That’s creepy. He’s like my brother.”
Fey then stood up and said it was her “last time wearing a fancy dress on a talk show and conforming to gender norms out of respect to you”.
“My gift to you… I want to give you the dress,” she told Letterman.
She then stripped down to her Spanx, which said ‘Bye Dave’ on the front and ‘Last Dress Ever’ on the back.
“Oh for heaven’s sakes. I don’t know what to say,” said a clearly bemused Letterman.
Fey was applauded for the move online:
However, not everyone approved of the ‘striptease’. Writing in The Guardian, Jennifer Gerson Uffalussy said that the move was “a tongue-in-cheek feminist fail”.
While Fey’s unsexy striptease was clearly meant to denounce the standards of performative femininity to which female celebrities are held, there was nothing truly daring about it. As a white woman with an enviable figure, Fey has the kind of body we are comfortable seeing served up for public consumption.
Still, we somehow think that Fey won’t care whether this Spanx-bearing was something others approved of or not.
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