A Study in Persona
In recent a recent discussion with a Friend of Samizdat (Jeff, the God of Biscuits), we came to a conclusion: if you want to understand the creation of Persona in satire/parody, you must watch the Colbert Report interview with Caitlin Flanagan.
Jeff, Steph, and myself bore witness to this interview, and it was... um, interesting? Mainly, this was because the three of us had no freakin' clue who this woman was. All we knew was that she wrote a book, To Hell with All That: Loving and Loathing Our Inner Housewife. After the interview, we still had no freakin' clue who the woman was.
Was she a hardcore housewifery advocate, or an ironic commentator playing a role (in the same vein as Stephen Colbert or that guy who wrote the Politically Correct Fairy Tales)?
A little bit of online research sheds light upon this question. According to reviews from the NY Times and Salon.com, Flanagan is the woman that feminists love to hate. However, she doesn't take herself seriously. As Joan Walsh, from Salon.com, wrote, "Part of why I've never gotten upset about Flanagan's pro-hearth and home shtick is that I've seen it as just that, shtick." What does this mean?
Well, if we look at the Times review, Pamela Paul points up a problem with Flanagan's style: "Self-deprecating, yes. But also hypocritical."
Which brings us back to the Colbert Report. The interview can be seen as thus: On one side, a Persona that is well-crafted for humor and irony. Colbert gives us a wink and a nod with his Persona; we know that he's sending up the O'Reilly-esque mouthpieces.
On the other hand, we have a Persona that tries to straddle the line between irony and authenticity. When Colbert declared that wives should be pregnant, in the kitchen, and naked, Flanagan laughed. She agreed, only taking a light-hearted exception to the "naked" bit.
Was she joking? Was she being serious? We don't know, and rather than laugh, the audience kind of chuckles and quizzically looks around. You can't straddle the lines with Presona; quoth the acting teacher, "Make a strong, clear choice!"
Jeff, Steph, and myself bore witness to this interview, and it was... um, interesting? Mainly, this was because the three of us had no freakin' clue who this woman was. All we knew was that she wrote a book, To Hell with All That: Loving and Loathing Our Inner Housewife. After the interview, we still had no freakin' clue who the woman was.
Was she a hardcore housewifery advocate, or an ironic commentator playing a role (in the same vein as Stephen Colbert or that guy who wrote the Politically Correct Fairy Tales)?
A little bit of online research sheds light upon this question. According to reviews from the NY Times and Salon.com, Flanagan is the woman that feminists love to hate. However, she doesn't take herself seriously. As Joan Walsh, from Salon.com, wrote, "Part of why I've never gotten upset about Flanagan's pro-hearth and home shtick is that I've seen it as just that, shtick." What does this mean?
Well, if we look at the Times review, Pamela Paul points up a problem with Flanagan's style: "Self-deprecating, yes. But also hypocritical."
Which brings us back to the Colbert Report. The interview can be seen as thus: On one side, a Persona that is well-crafted for humor and irony. Colbert gives us a wink and a nod with his Persona; we know that he's sending up the O'Reilly-esque mouthpieces.
On the other hand, we have a Persona that tries to straddle the line between irony and authenticity. When Colbert declared that wives should be pregnant, in the kitchen, and naked, Flanagan laughed. She agreed, only taking a light-hearted exception to the "naked" bit.
Was she joking? Was she being serious? We don't know, and rather than laugh, the audience kind of chuckles and quizzically looks around. You can't straddle the lines with Presona; quoth the acting teacher, "Make a strong, clear choice!"
1 Comments:
I think my personal favorite moment of said interview was the off-handed (and incredibly awkward) pass that she made to are go-to guy, Mr. Colbert.
It kinda made my teeth hurt a bit.
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