Jezebel 
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New York, 1:06 PM
Mon Nov 23
18 posts in the last 24 hours
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09/02/09
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09/02/09
Furthermore, two FEMALE comics were just hired by the big bad mainstream media. Let's celebrate that.
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09/02/09
Your "poor me!" line about the supposed Jezebel party line is derivative of many trolls before you. What a joke. I'm out.
09/02/09
09/02/09
Here. Let me refresh your memory:
I can "pass for white," (which is a troubling concept in itself, not to mention a loaded statement) in some areas of this country, in other places, not so much. What if I told you that both of my parents are non-white? "Oh, but you don't 'look' [insert ethnicity here]!" is what I hear all of the time.
But that doesn't mean that I ever see representations of my "folks" in media. Catherine Zeta Jones(who is white) has dark hair like me. Does that mean that she is representative of my "folks?" Hell no. Kristin Davis has brown eyes like me. Does that mean that my large almond-shaped eyes are represented in Sex and the City and in her advertisements for Ahava Dead Sea Cosmetics? Hell no. I can never manage to find makeup that fits my skin tone(lighter than my father's, but still significantly darker and more olive-toned than the models that smile down from the L'Oreal display) at the drugstore, or eyebrow pencils that work for my eyebrows. I've had salespeople inform me that my hair color(glossy black) "does not exist in nature," and that the light brown shade "will work just as well" for my eyebrows. Hairstylists have often asked me if I had "considered" straightening my unruly, thick and curly hair. Hairstylists have butchered my hair because "they don't know how to work with it." I am often asked to be a spokesperson for my entire race, especially after 9-11 and, given the American predilection toward lumping everyone from the Middle East in the "Islamic Fundamentalist" category, I am often asked what I think about "my people blowing up the Twin Towers." The ignorant blowhards that have hurled every vile racial slur and epithet in my direction haven't cared that I am not as dark as my father, or Osama bin Laden. I am still "the other," the undesirable element, a "potential sleeper cell." I've been pulled aside for the "random" security inspections while flying more times than I can remember, especially when I fly overseas to visit my family in Lebanon. Nobody cared that my skin was lighter than yours when I was teased mercilessly in school to the point that I adopted a more "American" first name by the time I reached high school like so many of my kin. People are constantly amazed that I am Middle Eastern AND Christian, and then I become a "credit to my race," and become slightly more "acceptable," "but never enough to date their sons!"
Do you want to tell me again just how much privilege that I enjoy? No, really. I'd love for you to discount my life's experience as a foreign born woman of color. I'd love for you to tell me again that I couldn't "possibly know what oppression looks like."
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09/02/09
Please for the love of god don't hire new women if no one's going to give them anything to do! I hate to say it, but the Belushi-esque new kid with the curly hair is the only recent stand-out. Of course, it must help that he's been in twice as many skits as the others.
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Also, like you mention, there has never been a fat woman on the show. Sometimes the bigger men play fat women (I'm thinking of Sanz as "Carol") but this is often done in a mocking tone.
09/02/09
About the only traditionally "not pretty" female cast member I can think of is Rachel Dratch (who I think is totally adorable). mostly bit roles on the show and was even written out of 30 Rock by NBC execs in favor of Jane Krakowski.
09/02/09
I understand that visually a person may look white, but that doesn't make them not a person of color. It really depends on how they identify personally, and if Pedrad identifies as an Iranian or an Iranian-American, then in this country and in this culture she is a person of color, regardless of the shade of her skin.
The mentality of "close to white" is insulting to biracial populations and people of lighter ethnicities. It dismisses the notion that we are who we are, and sets us up to exist only in relation to the white population.
09/02/09
The problem is that that it indicates, at least to me, that the producers couldn't find a single qualified female comedian breaking free from a specific beauty mold. I'm not talking quotas or anything – whatever their reasons for hiring more women, it was at least in part because there are so many female celebrities and public figures. So why not account for the celebs and public figures who aren't white, too? Or is Kenan going to play everyone from Oprah to Michelle Obama?
09/02/09
My logic was that someone really seems to have an aversion to casting obvious POC, which I do think is problematic. Hiring any POC is important, but on an arguably influential TV show, I think visual diversity is, too. I in no way meant to suggest that Pedrad somehow doesn't "count" as a POC, just that there's a pattern there of SNL hiring a lot of European-looking POC alongside only a handful (mostly men) who don't visually blend in with the primarily white cast. And I think that ought to raise some eyebrows, even though I think a lot of those people were terrific additions to the cast, and it truly IS exciting to see an Iranian-American woman on a huge TV show.
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09/02/09
And you're right about overusing Wiig- It was disappointing last season when they hired two new women and still gave her every single part (even bit parts like "woman in crowd #3" or whatever)- they could have given the new cast members a few more breaks. I know there's seniority involved, and she is great, but you know?
Also it would have been nice to have a female cast member to play Michelle Obama, Oprah, Sherri Shepard and other recurring characters instead of you know, putting a wig on Kenan Thompson or asking Maya Rudolph to come back for special occasions. I mean, come on.
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09/02/09
Oops, thanks for pointing that out! Will fix!
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09/02/09
Ahh, but are we sure all the other women will be back? It's not uncommon for SNL to fire cast members over the summer. And poor Abby Elliott has to have been at least considered for the chopping block. She was not getting any traction on the show last year at all.
09/02/09