Tina au fait with 21st-century woman

The Life: Creator of the critically favoured comedy series 30 Rock, starring Alec Baldwin, Tina Fey has a new book out. April Yee takes a look.

Anyone who saw the image on television of Tina Fey and Sarah Palin in 2008 crossing paths in identical red skirt suits, hair piled and pouffed to heights worthy of a vice presidential campaign, is unlikely to forget it.

Q&A: Should I laugh or squirm?

Last Updated: May 11, 2011

Who is Tina Fey? You probably first saw her on television on Saturday Night Live's fake newscast, Weekend Update. She later  performed on SNL, writing the screenplay for the high school drama Mean Girls and creating the series 30 Rock, a comedy loosely based on her work at NBC.

Why the title Bossypants? Ms Fey was the first female head writer for SNL and now oversees a staff of about 200 to make 30 Rock. The book is about how to be a boss.

Where can I find it? Magrudy's in Al Wahda Mall had not received the book the last time we checked, but try buying a Kindle copy on Amazon.com to read on your computer or personal paper-mimicking device.

I am a man. Should I buy this? Do not fear. In addition to a slew of management tips taken from Lorne Michaels, the producer of Saturday Night Live, there are a host of "gender-neutral" insights. However, be warned there are chapters dedicated to topics that have been known to make men squirm.

I am a man. Will I be offended at times? Perhaps.

That freeze frame from Saturday Night Live marked the real career launch of the woman who, depending on whom you ask, continues to rally or ruin the American political right.

But the other woman in the shot is the one I'm interested in. Ms Fey, the creator of the critically favoured comedy series 30 Rock, starring Alec Baldwin, and the first female head writer for SNL, falls into that limited category of people who most women would like to be and men would like to be with. In Bossypants, Ms Fey writes about her journey from suburban Pennsylvania to 30 Rockefeller Plaza, the headquarters of NBC and the namesake of her television show.

Bossypants is as much an autobiography as SNL'sWeekend Update, which Ms Fey once anchored, is a newscast. By deadpanning the absurd, she advances her thesis: being a woman at the top is still a frustrating task.

Ms Fey entered the sketch comedy scene in the 1990s, when the profession was dominated by men.

"Only in comedy does an obedient white girl from the suburbs count as diversity," she writes.

Breaking comedy's glass ceiling, according to Ms Fey, is a matter of surrounding yourself with geniuses such as Baldwin and not caring what the boys think.

Every generation of western women has rallied to a feminist text since the day when ladies began to dress like men and adopt open relationships. First came Simone de Beauvoir with The Second Sex in 1949, then Betty Friedan's The Feminine Mystique in 1963 followed by Naomi Wolf and The Beauty Myth in 1991. I would like to propose Ms Fey as their successor. Ironic, down-to-earth and peppered with references to Baldwin: What more does the 21st century woman need?

Top 5: Lessons from Bossypants

1 Never tell a crazy person he's crazy.

2 Don't hire anyone you wouldn't want to run into in the hallway at 3 in the morning.

3 The show doesn't go on because it's ready; it goes on because it's 11.30.

4 Don't make any big decisions right after the season ends.

5 For Sarah Palin lips, wear ChapStick over red lipliner.

The Quote: "People have asked me, 'Is is hard for you, being the boss?' … you know, in the same way they say, 'Gosh, Mr Trump, is it awkward for you to be the boss of all these people?'" Tina Fey, Bossypants