In thinking about the influence of Sassy, I remembered a Daria episode featuring a character that was a parody of you. Have you rewatched that at any point in time? How does satire about you make you feel now?
The Daria thing, it does come up a lot. Pretty much every comment thread about me, someone will be like, Oh yeah, and they’ll mention it. I didn’t even see it at the time! I was so busy working, and then people did bring it up to me. I did watch it eventually, around when I was starting xoJane. I liked it! The TV show Girls also had a parody of me, an editor named “Jame” who made Lena Dunham snort cocaine.
I love that stuff. Even if my true motives are not necessarily coming through in those parodies, it means I have a strong stance. People get what that is and either relate to it, or don’t relate to it, or like it, or hate it, or whatever. I was on the back cover of Mad magazine once. And then the Sassy sketch from Saturday Night Live. I like that stuff. I would love more of it.
Sassy only existed for about eight years, but you continued to loom large, at least in comedy writers’ rooms.
When I see things like the Daria parody or the Girls parody, I feel like I raised them right with Sassy. I taught you all exactly how to do that. Be outspoken, ballsy, not deferring to authority. It’s like, okay, I reap what I sow.
What do you think of the current media landscape?
I think it is really frightening how few outlets we now have that are not corporately owned. The opportunities to be different in mainstream media and gain an audience that way feel diminished. Social media is so controlled and so manipulated, particularly around politics and political issues, and everybody sucking up to Trump—that’s been a really scary change. A lot of my friends don’t go on social media anymore. I also boycotted it for a while, but then I felt I had to go back to it for my work. It feels like the messages we’re getting are definitely one-sided—and they’re not one-sided in the way that Evie Magazine is trying to say they are!
When I was starting “Another Jane Pratt Thing,” people would say, “Why another one?” Because it is my fourth publication, with my one good idea that I’m doing again and again and again. But the reason is because it’s still needed. Publications like Evie keep me in business, because we need to keep presenting the actual progressive alternative.
