Whose Got Issues Anyway? 

By Charlotte

 

“I blame my mother for my poor sex life. All she told me was that the man goes on top and the woman underneath. For three years, my husband and I slept in bunk beds.” - Joan Rivers

 

 

Throughout the 20th and 21st centuries, the issue of women in comedy has been a central point of academic and performative discourse. Or sorry, the issue of the issue of women in comedy - the discussion of whether there is an issue for female comedians has been contested by feminists and comedians alike. Many argue that we already have women in comedy and the more time we spend talking about challenges faced by female comedians, the more we distinguish women as comedic anomalies defined by nothing but their gender. The argument goes that if we stopped distinguishing female comedians as members of a marginalized group, there would be no more marginalization. However, these points fail to acknowledge the struggles and prejudice which women do face upon entering the world of comedy. Iconicized by Christopher Hitchen’s article “Why Women Aren’t Funny” (which has been removed from Vanity Fair’s archives), women’s ability to be funny is contested to this day. Women’s presences in comedy continue to threaten white, heterosexual patriarchy because they establish women as authoritative makers of humour and meaning.    

 

In its most poignant forms, comedy is bound to break the rules: there’s nothing more compelling than someone who has their opinions and makes no apologies for having them. Comedians must possess an inherent self-confidence in order to effectively convince their audience. In her article “The Funny Business of Being Tina Fey: Constructing a Comedy Icon”, Lauzen describes comedy as “requir[ing] the comic to call attention to one’s self, an act denoting a position of authority and superiority” (107). In calling attention to oneself, the successful comedian asserts the worth of their voice as both an artist and an individual. In this assertion, the comedian is able to captivate the attention of an audience. Historically, the ability to authorize one’s voice is a right not rewarded to marginalized or oppressed groups who must be kept subordinate. Walker argues that “women break out of the passive, subordinate position mandated for them” by asserting their voices as comedians and “take on the power [to] reveal the shams, hypocrisies and incongruities of the dominant culture” (qtd. in Lauzen 108). Female comedians transcend their societal positions as members of a silenced group which is what makes female comedians so threatening and subversive to patriarchal society. As long as the barriers of marginalization continue to problematize women’s entrance into comedy, the issue of women in comedy will continue to exist and female comedians will continue to represent much more than female makers of hoots and haws. As Walker put it so eloquently, “to be a woman and a humorist is to confront and subvert the very power that keeps women powerless” (qtd. in Lauzen 108).

 

So keep the laughs coming, ladies.

 

Lauzen, M. (2014). The Funny Business of Being Tina Fey: Constructing a (feminist) comedy icon. Feminist Media Studies, 14(1), 106-117.