So I was enjoying my current unemployed status (read: i am lame) and i went to the ol’ public library to do some very important cultural research on, you know, THIS CULTURAL MOMENT. as i thumbed through the pages of Vanity Fair (shut up.) i stumbled upon an article called “Hey, women ARE actually funny! after all! and they are pretty!” (note: not really the title of the article.)
The article was all about how women have historically not been thought of as funny, but hello! Now they are! And we got Tina Fey and Sara Silverman and Amy Poehler and hoo-boy, they are so funny and not only that but they are hot! I would totally do them! drunk. or something. And while it is nice to have the rising tide of female comics acknowledged and discussed, I would also like to point something out, just real quick, before we get ahead of ourselves: women make each other laugh. hello. women know how to be funny to each OTHER, we have just never (until recently) been acknowledged in this capacity on the mainstream stage.
Now I know nobody likes a Pouting Pamela, or a Feminist Fiona, or least of all a Screaming Shirley…or whatever. But can it possibly be a coincidence that this article, which is (on some level, at least) intended to applaud the success of female comics, also focuses on the beauty of the women it describes? There is this “new” female comic, one who is not “confined” to tampon and high-heel jokes, one whose material has more wide-reaching appeal, and one whose face could also be used to sell..um. i was going to say dishwashing gloves. but how about herself? sell herself? because apparently, in the comedy world, cuteness and hotness are seen (by the sexually-frustrated males in charge of the whole affair) as a detriment. Ginger, you gotta do everything fred astaire does, backwards and in silicone. i mean heels.
So, because cute women are harassed in comedy clubs, and any success they gain is attributed to who they fucked to get there (as opposed to…whatever, i dunno…personal merit?) now we are all supposed to throw a fuckin parade that they are meeting with success. or.
or? this is just another avenue in which the “good looks” monster has descended, casting its youth-worshipping, binge-and-purge, plastic or plastic rules about who gets the spotlight where interesting-looking people once dared to tread.
this is turning into a rant.
I am not saying that pretty women are not funny. jesus. who cares. one of the cool things about comedy is that it doesnt matter what the fuck you look like as long as you can make people laugh. that is supposed to be inclusive, and hey, inclusive includes pretty. i am just not ready to throw a party just because women comics are “allowed” to be pretty. Oh thank you, thank you, thank you kind media! i now have the freedom to spend a large chunk of my income on ways to enhance my appearance! i was so afraid before, i was wasting away in my roseanne flannel shirts and my ellen dykey haircut! now i am free to be cute! once was lost but now am found!
i was pretty stoked that the article recognized that women have been panned as unfunny in the past. i guess jerry lewis or some other famous important old dude is quoted as saying he thought women sucked at comedy, and years later larry king asked him about it and he was like “oh, yeah, i said that…yeah…” some other person said women do not want to take the risk of looking ugly, which narrows down a whole shit-ton of comedic material (the main thing thats left, i think, is “pretty girl with a pottymouth.” sara silverman, anyone?) Of course there is some truth to this, but here’s the thing: if you spend your whole life getting the message that your inherent human value stems from your attractiveness, are you really going to throw that all away for a joke? (oh what a pretty baby girl! oh what a big strong boy! what lovely handwriting, molly! good idea, jake!)
I am just not really ready to blame women for wanting to look hot, even if that means that their mainstream perception as “funny” has to suffer. and if you are ready to criticize women for spending excessive amounts of money and time on their appearance, you better also be ready to shut the hell up when you see a woman with muffin tops, or a unibrow, or any of these other buzzwords everyone likes to toss around to break people’s bones.
oh yeah, also…regarding tampon humor or whatnot. here’s the thing: first of all, of course it is silly for women to have to talk only about *women things* when they get on stage, same way Black comics should not have to just talk about “Black People Things” or Asian people About “Asian Things” and so and so and so on. But part of what makes comedy good is if it is honest, and part of honesty is about taking somewhing real from one’s own experience. what makes you different? what makes you tick? what did they tease you for in school? make a joke about that, it will be HILARIOUS. Women should not be forced to use “lady jokes” or something, but it is bullshit to think that they should shy away from them for fear of alienating a male and male-dominated audience. You know what alienates me? Hamlet! Because that shit is about male psycho-sexual anxieties, oedipus complex and fuckin castration fears and the lot. but i read that shit. and i ignored the part of me that said that what I was reading had NOTHING to do with me, and you know what? that part was wrong. it did have something to do with me…just not everything. but since when is the pleasure of the spectator entirely reliant on identification? how lame. there is something i can gain by reading Hamlet (or, by playing Hamlet, cause I did. ha.) but there is also something to be gained by some dude sitting through a few jokes about me, a heterosexual woman, having sex with a man. deal with it, bro. it’s good for you.
