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Rachel Bloom on the Double Standards of Being a ‘Lady Boss’

‘How much boob is too much boob?’

by
Miranda Cooper
April 21, 2017
YouTube
Rachel Bloom... finding solace in an RBG pillow.YouTube
YouTube
Rachel Bloom... finding solace in an RBG pillow.YouTube

Restless waiting for Crazy Ex-Girlfriend to return? Eager to see what mishegas Rachel Bloom’s character, the blundering, well-intentioned but often misguided Jewy feminist Rebecca Bunch has in store for us in Season 3? Me too. Have no fear, fellow fans: Bloom has released a new parody music video to tide us over. Produced by Vanity Fair, “Lady Boss” is right in Rebecca Bunch’s wheelhouse: It’s about navigating the challenges confronted by women in positions of authority.

Bloom’s wardrobe in the video’s opening shot—a bright blue pantsuit—channels Hillary Clinton, which is fitting for a video about the ridiculous, misogynistic standards that visible women in positions of power are subject to. “How much boob is too much boob?” wonders the large-busted Bloom in the music video, recalling a recurring trope in Crazy Ex-Girlfriend that came to a zenith with the song “Heavy Boobs.”

The video, like so many of the Crazy Ex-Girlfriend songs, is incisive in its use of biting, candid, and sometimes painfully self-aware humor to satirize social norms. “This is an anthem,” promises Bloom, but what makes the song so smart is that it is not just a hackneyed manifesto of second-wave feminism. Bloom confronts not just the double standards and unfair expectations that plague high-powered women in the workplace, but the stress she brings upon herself by constantly making sure she doesn’t cave to those expectations. She has a pillow emblazoned with the face of everyone’s favorite Jewish feminist icon, the Notorious RBG, but she sometimes cries into it. “I want you to do what I want but let me say it in a nice way. Oh right, I shouldn’t care if you think I’m nice,” she sings. Such is the double-edged sword of being a self-aware feminist in the world today.

Miranda Cooper is an editorial intern at Tablet. Follow her on Twitter here.