Women Are Funny Too!

One of the most frustrating and outdated sexist sentiments is the idea that women cannot be funny. It's true that when you look at a majority of the most successful comic stars, even today the field seems to be dominated by men. (See-this list of famous comedians through history. Only six out of the 67 comedians listed are women.) But why is that? Are women inherently not funny? When a woman such as Tina Fey or Sarah Silverman is successful as a comedian, why are we still surprised? And when she is funny, do we call her a comedian, or a female comedian?

Women, unfortunately, have gotten the short end of the stick in terms of many, many things. One problem holding back women is that for decades, women have been expected to be the ones who stay at home to take care of the children while her husband was the one who would go out and make the money. To do otherwise was to define the norm, and fighting that stereotype was very difficult. So women who are very funny would be more likely to stay home. Recently, with the second and third wave feminism, we began to see women break out of that mold. Nowadays, women like Lily Tomlin and Margaret Cho are breaking barriers for women in Hollywood. Perhaps with my generation and the generations after it, we can see more of an acceptance. Not only an acceptance, but perhaps, a sense of equality. She will be judged not as a female comedian, but just simply a comedian.