In last night's
Saturday Night Live (airdate: 11/17/12), Seth Meyers jokes about the
Victoria's Secret controversy:
Victoria's Secret this week apologized to the Native American community for featuring a model in a recent fashion show wearing a feather headdress and buckskin bikini. Said one Native American, "Yes, this is the worst thing that's ever happened to us.Comment: The bikini was a leopard print, not buckskin, but that's a detail.
It's nice that the controversy got a national airing, if only for a few seconds. But I'm not sure about the actual joke.
Mentioning the apology obviously indicates that Victoria's Secret did something wrong. But the punchline seems to indicate that Natives overreacted to the headdress. That's not a message America needs to hear.
Since the Victoria Secret's images raise the specter of violence against Native women, it's tricky to make the incident into a joke. Maybe something like this:
Victoria's Secret this week apologized to the Native American community for featuring a model in a recent fashion show wearing a feather headdress with a bikini. Said a Victoria's Secret spokeswoman, "But we were only trying to honor Native women." [With a montage of dumb white girls in headdresses playing in the background.]
Said one Native American, "Thanks for the 'honor'...not."It would've been a good opportunity to bring on a Native comedian--a real one, not the usual white guy (Fred Armisen) in a costume. And have him or her riff on Native stereotypes for a few minutes.
It would've been good for the show's diversity too, since
SNL rarely features anyone who isn't white or black. But that's thinking too far outside the box, I'm afraid.
For more on
Saturday Night Live, see
"Eskimo Susie" in Saturday Night Live and
"Settlement" in Saturday Night Live.
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