Blog Post #11

Gina Lagrotteria

April 17,2015

Blog Post #11

Women In Comedy

In this weeks class period we talked about Women in Comedy. We looked at famous comedians books/articles like Tina Fey, Amy Poehlr, Mindy Kaling, and Wanda Sykes. I really enjoyed reading all of there articles and found them enjoyable to read. Something I like about Comedy is that you are able to talk about serious issues and problems in a funny joking way. It is a space for people to share real life problems and situations in a presentable manner. One of the issues that it talked about it is the issue of bullying. Bullying is a huge problem in today’s society, so it is good to be able to see a female comedian talk about it and be able to relate to it.  The way they express these real life issues is not in an offensive way, they make it in a comical way and a way to be able to relate to it. One of the articles that I liked in particular was “Dear Internet” by Tina Fey, where she is replying to the negativity that people say about her. She replies to these online posters in such a mature, respectable, funny way.

            We also watched a documentary outside of the classroom for a classroom discussion called “Why We Laugh: Funny Women”. I really enjoyed this documentary and it made realize how women can be really funny but this society is so male dominated that women are usually not seen in that way. I feel as though women are more funny then man are as there jokes have more to them, rather than a mans.  I feel as though when a women says a joke it has a meaning behind it but when a man makes a joke it is just a dry sense of humor joke that has been heard a million times before.

            Another class discussion that we talked about was the importance of a girl group of friends.  Growing up I had friends that have came and gone in my life. In my high school years though, I had friends but they were nothing like the group of friends I now have in college. It was not until this year in college though, that I met a group of girls that I know I can call my life long friends. I know I can go to them with anything and they will be there for me.  When we are all together, we all have so much fun no matter what we are doing. They are someone that I can tag along with me no matter where I need to go. They are someone that I can share anything with and I will not feel judged on what I am telling them.  Even though I have a best friend that is a boy, and he is someone that I can talk to about certain things, he is not someone that I could drag along with me to the mall or tell me if an outfit looks good or not. It is good to have a group of girls that can relate to me, and I know they will be there for me no matter what I am going through.

Women in Comedy Blog Post

Lorena Labour Aguasvivas

Professor: Santos

17 April 2015

Blog post

Women in comedy

During this week in class we focused on women in comedy, we talk about how people don’t considered women as funny because they just don’t see women in the comedy world because society has tell us that comedy is just for man, that they are the only ones that can make people laugh.  I realize that all my life I never saw a women comedian who made people laugh I will always see women on movies and TV shows that would said something that were funny. However, I never look up to them as the funny person from the movie. But that changed after I saw the documentary “ Why we laugh: Funny women” now I have a different perspective of comedian women. I never knew that women could be so funny, and people sometimes would not see this because they believe that is not a women job, is like if society is treating to fit women into a category where they think they belong. “My mom would still prefer if I was a dental hygienist or stewardess”-Kathy Griffin here you can see how even comedians parents would want their child to be something different from what they really love doing, which I think is wrong because we cannot be telling people what they should do, I believe that people have the decision to do what make them happy, instead of doing something doing that they don’t like doing. Another quote from the documentary said, “ Comedy is not a woman's field. If you look at comedy, it’s a very male, masculine profession.” - Joan Rivers but them, another quote said, “When I think of the women that have made the most impact, those are the women that weren't afraid.” - Judy Gold so this explains me how if you really want to successful and make an impact you have to do things that are out of your conference zone because those things is what really challenge the rest to stand up and make an impact in our society, to be successful you cannot be afraid. After watching this documentary I realize that there is nothing that women cannot do they are capable of doing anything, there will just be some obstacles that will have to be overcome. Women have proved that there is nothing that they cannot do. Anything is possible if you want it.

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.

Women Comedians

Lauren Turcotte
17 April 2015
Blog Post

Women in Comedy

          This week in class we focused on women in comedy and how it's not really seen as a women profession. While I watched the documentary I found that I really didn't know many of the female comedians in the film. It just goes to show that even though there are a lot of women comedians out there, most people are not aware of them. When it comes to female comedians, most say that that;s not a job for them. Women should be the mom,flight attendant, or school teacher. Comedy is the a man's job.  When we think of funny people our minds jump to  people like Kevin Heart,  Adam Sandlar, or Will Ferrell. When you hear these names you automatically think comedians but when your hear names like Melissa McCarthy or Judy gold, the name sounds familiar but you can't remember if their an actress, singer, or comedian.
          I feel that a majority of the time when there is a male dominated movie released that it gets a bigger following than an all female cat. For example the movie Grown Ups stars 5 male comedians and it was considered one of the funnier movies and it got great reviews, everyone knew what it was or wanted to see it. They all said the pairing up these men was a genius idea and it even resulted in a sequel because it was so funny. This is different for movies like The Heat or Bridesmaids which is an all female cast. Bridesmaids especially go a lot of hate just because there were no male comedians in it and the humor was considered not that funny and that only females would enjoy that type of humor that it was producing. I really liked the movie it was kind of refreshing to see an all female cast in a movie that actually had some sort of a story line. I liked how the comedy was not cheesy and the movie saved the jokes to place at the right spots so the whole movie wan;t just comedy. There are a lot of differences between male a female comedians. With male comedians a lot of their jokes are considered crude because most of them use the same boring jokes about girls and their body parts. Those types of jokes get old and I find that only the males really enjoy those jokes. With female comedians their jokes a re always new and more intelligent. You never know what you;re going to get when you go to see a female comedian.
          With female comedians they never try to impress anyone. Most of them are in it just because they love to make people laugh. In the Documentary Whoopi Goldberg says something along the lines of, she doesn't care what people think of her or if they like her comedy. They came to see her so if they don;t like it then leave. I think this is true because no one is making these people come and see these women comedy acts. They are not trying to please a certain group of people or trying to become well- known. As long as their doing what they love they don't care and I think that's a great thing to look up to. There needs to be a time in society when we stop referring to Man and Women comedians separately and just start calling them comedians.

Women In Comedy

Faith Beglane

April 17, 2015

            Over the past week we have read articles by Tina Fey, and Amy Poehler. While reading these articles the same themes appeared; women being insulted but using humor to fight back against these insults. Both Amy and Tina were in uncomfortable situations where they could have been easily offended or hurt, but instead they use their sense of comedy to come back and fight against these men. Later in the week, we watched the documentary ‘Why we Laugh: Funny women’, where Joan Rivers narrates a film about women in the comedy business. Most of these comedians felt that they were grouped together for the soul purpose of being women in comedy and having a similar sense of humor, when in reality these women were far from similar. These women did share one thing in common; men rule the comedy industry. This was a shock to me because when I think of comedy, I usually think of three or four famous comedians, all of which are women. They explained how men don’t find women in comedy funny, and how when women first entered the industry, there were a lot of sexist comments. I never thought that there was such discrimination in comedy. When I think of comedy, I usually think of people getting up on a stage being able to say just about whatever they want. They are allowed to be as ruthless, and offensive as they want without anyone being able to say anything. After these comedians described how they were treated, I saw how much judgment was placed on these women when they first entered. They also felt that to be in the industry, a women had to have tough skin and they had to be able to be able to enter a predominantly male ruled world. These women can’t have the luxury of having kids and being in the comedy industry. Men can do both because their wives will take care of the kids while they’re on the road. I think that these women shouldn’t have to face these boundaries, and that they should be able to enter in industry without facing discrimination. If people find a women funny, then who is a man to question her or put her down? Of course men feel threatened because maybe they don’t get that same reaction that women do. Of course there isn’t much that these women can change about whether or not they can have kids and be in the industry because of the fact that society has made it clear that a women should be the one to raise the children. Women in comedy have to endure a lot of stress, and discrimination which is why it takes someone with tough skin to enter the industry.   

Women in Comedy

Hannah Dickie

4/17/15

Blog post 11

Women in Comedy

            This week one of the topics we discussed was women in comedy. I had never really thought about women in comedy because I’m really not that interested in comedy, after watching the documentary “Why we Laugh: Funny Women” however I become more interested because of how funny the women actually wore. Some of the faces seemed familiar but some of the women I had no idea who they were. I think it’s because there are so few female comedians that you never really see them in the mainstream. When I think of comedy the first thing that pops into my head is the male comedians out there because you see them almost everywhere, on TV shows, commercials, movies. The female comedians might be on one or two but definitely not as many as their male counterparts are. I don’t know why this is because growing up the women in my family were always the funnier ones, the guys are probably the least humorous people out there. So the idea that women aren't funny was something I had never heard of until this class. I don’t agree with it at all because women are ten times funnier than men because the jokes make sense and aren't about just stupid things no one really cares about. Female comedians find a way to take a very uncomfortable situation and make you laugh about it and try to move on. I know for myself comedy is the best medicine whenever I’m down or stressed out or whatever is going on in my life if I just sit down and watch something funny I know that my mood will change drastically. I do think though that when I do try to feel better by watching comedians I would rather hear female comedians because I know they have been through a similar experience and felt the same way I did, while the male comedians haven’t been through a similar situation and feel the same way I do in different situations. Another thing I found interesting from the documentary was that pretty much all the women agreed on the fact that comedians are born funny, you can’t go to school to learn how to be funny it just doesn't happen. I completely agree with this to. My mom is a twin and out of the two of them she is definitely the funnier of the two. My aunt has a daughter a couple years younger than me and comparing her with me I would say I’m the funnier one because I can make more people laugh then she can. I think being funny is being able to relate to your audience and know what is going to make them laugh and what isn't. In my family almost anything is funny because we really don’t take anything seriously. I think as time goes on their will become more women in comedy because slowly movies like Bridesmaids is setting the path for others to follow. Hopefully it will become a female dominated profession because women are more relatable and can make a bigger impact on the lives of other girls. They show girls that you don’t always have to look a certain way and that’s okay there are other things in life you can do and that are more important such as being able to bring happiness to other people through laughter.    

Wanda Sykes and Physical Beauty

Emily Simski

April 17, 2015

Blog Post

 Wanda Sykes and Physical Beauty

            When people walk around the street, they notice that there are people who not very appealing to the eye. People always find a way to make fun of someone who doesn't look appealing to the eyes. Women are always judged on their looks if they’re not beautiful.

            According to Wanda Sykes in a section from her book “Yeah I Said It”, she talks about how men can have acne be unattractive but can still make it on top. An example of this would be Donald Trump. He’s not the most attractive man on the planet, but he’s got lots on money that girls find him attractive. However when a women, according to Sykes, she “can only be beautiful, average, or in need of an extreme makeover”. When it comes to their looks, women always get judged because society expects women to be beautiful in every way possible. That why when it comes to movie roles that ask for an ugly women, they take a beautiful actress and turn her ugly. The perfect example of this is Charlize Theron in Monster. Instead of casting an ugly person to play the role, they took Theron and turned her into an ugly person. Sykes then talks about how they’d rather make a beautiful person ugly instead of actually casting an ugly person to take on the role. She also discusses how Hollywood “feels better knowing that there’s a bombshell under all the ugly makeup”. Only to back it up by saying that Charlize was acting. Due to this, women feel the need to get plastic surgery in order to get rid of their ugliness. However this can be bad for the future because their kids would get the ugly body parts. For example two beautiful people would have a child who has ugly shaped ears.

            It’s upsetting nowadays to see women who are judged based on how they look. Ugly women just get pushed aside to make way for the beautiful women to step in. I hate the way ugly women are treated because they deserve to have as much credit as other women. I also loved the way that Wanda Sykes addressed this issue because she loves to tell it like it is as well as express her own views on women and physical beauty.