Don’t you wish there were a soaring power anthem that really put the complicated reality of being a modern woman over a catchy hook? Last night the women of SNL tried to create that empowering woman-positive track before realizing they’re on an impossible mission. “This is pretty nuanced stuff,” they sang. “Putting it all in one song is tough.” They go instead for the easier tropes of running on a beach, cutting in shots of the three M’s (Malala, Maya Angelou, and Madeleine Albright), and showing an old woman’s hands (not that they’d ever reduce a woman to just her hands — or, heaven forbid, call her old). By the end, the SNL ladies have realized something the Onion’s been aware of for a while: If a woman is doing it, anything can be construed as feminist, even a “tough and tricky landmine” of a #feministsong.
