blogpost12

Kristen Coyne

April 17, 2015

Blog Post 12

Women in Comedy

            This week in class we discussed women and their role in comedy. Women in comedy are a great aspect in the media and society because they address topics that people are often not comfortable talking about. They address serious topics that need to be addressed but instead of making it serious and uncomfortable to talk about they speak of it in a lighthearted and humorous way.  For example, some female comedians talk about the topic of bullying, which is a sensitive topic for most. They talk about their own experiences with it and show that it has less of an affect on them now that they are older. This is a great topic to discuss in this manner because many teenage girls struggle with being bullied and it causes them to be insecure, but seeing comedians bring it up in this manner may cause them to realize that it doesn’t matter what people say about you and you cant let it get to you because no one is perfect and the people criticizing you are already below you. These women also talk about difficulties they face in life in this manner as a way to cope with it. They say a perfect life is not funny. This is also a positive message to other women because seeing comedians find the best out of bad situations is inspirational and may cause other people to see things in this light.

            Another thing that we discussed about females in comedy is how they are far less popular than male comedians. Being a comedian is considered a “male masculine profession”. However, as I said earlier women actually tend to have an intellectual side to their jokes and send important messages while men just make dumb jokes about their genitals. Although being a comedian is considered a masculine job, females are beginning to become a lot more popular in this industry than they used to be. Amy Poeler and Tina Fey transitioned from late night comedy shows into main stream America and helped other upcoming female comedians such as the women in Bridesmaids Kristen Wiig and Melissa McCarthy be comfortable in this career. Also, the show on MTV called Girl Code, which, is very popular among teenage girls and discusses common topics about girls such as periods and boys is causing female comedians to become better known. I feel that female comedians are gaining more confidence because it is becoming more common for women to be comedians and funny nowadays. It is great that women are becoming more popular in this industry because they address more important topics than male comedians and also send a good message to women all over the world.