The Backlash Against Fashion Police Is Garish, Tasteless and Boring as Hell

Writing in the NatPo (link as yet unavailable online), Rebecca Tucker applauds comic Kathy Griffin's decision to quit "E's hour-long bitch-fest, originally hosted by Joan Rivers."

"Even among the towering piles of fluff of television," writes Tucker, "Fashion Police stands out from the rest somewhat by virtue of its being wholly, unabashedly, transparently committed to meanness, almost always at the expense of women - especially in the absence of Rivers, who was usually smart enough to add context to criticism."

Er, I don't know what show she was watching, but whenever I tuned into the Rivers-hosted FP--one of my guilty pleasures--Joan was usually the meanest, most scathing critic of all. And rather than supplying "context," she added a filthy quip that always, always made Kelly Osborne gasp at its audacity as if to say, "She can't say that on TV, can she?"

Well, she could and she did.

Post-Joan, of course, we've entered a whole new era, one in which, as Tucker writes,

if you ask a lot of women celebrities, there's also a better way: ask better questions, focus on different things and make the beautiful gowns [at entertainment industry red carpet events] and flawless makeup incidental. Police the Fashion Police, in other words. Wouldn't that make a better TV show?

Actually, no, if most definitely would not make a better TV show. It would, in fact, make for a real snoozeroo.

I'm not sure who all these people are who want to ignore "the beautiful gowns and flawless makeup" and ask, say, Reese Witherspoon, glammed up and styled to within an inch of her life, to expiate on, say, ISIS, or the situation vis-a-vis Vladimir Putin's conquering ways; personally, I find the red carpet arrival of the gorgeously garbed and their being asked "who are you wearing?" to be the most compelling part of any award show. And the truth is that there is an E TV show that "stands out from the rest somewhat by virtue of its being wholly, unabashedly, transparently committed to meanness, almost always at the expense of women." It's called Keeping Up With the Kardashians. Further, if you think there aren't thousands out there in the ether exactly like me who prefer Fashion Police "bitchiness" to Kardashian "bitchiness," but who may be too afraid to say so because FP has suddenly become, well, unfashionable, I have three words for you: Oh, grow up!

Update: Men (and the odd ballsy chick) on Comedy Central being mean and "roasting" Justin Bieber--funny how no one seems to be complaining about that.