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The Badger Herald

Independent Student Newspaper Since 1969

The Badger Herald

Independent Student Newspaper Since 1969

The Badger Herald

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Letter the Editor: Article about women in comedy is too narrow in scope

Letter+the+Editor%3A+Article+about+women+in+comedy+is+too+narrow+in+scope
Pauliefred

A recent article published in your “Arts, Etc.” section entitled “Women in comedy continue to succeed through Jewish humor paired with confidence” detailed the recent successes of women in comedy in relation to their tendency to utilize hallmarks of “Jewish” humor as a method of sharing their own personal narratives. While I agree that there is a clear and problematic disparity between successful men and women in comedy, as a Black and Filipino female comedian, I found this article to be marginalizing to women and narrow in scope.

https://badgerherald.com/artsetc/2015/02/12/women-in-comedy-continue-to-succeed-through-jewish-humor-paired-with-confidence/#.VN2JavnF9S0

The article points to “Jewish” humor as an origin of “a peaceful, intellectual way to combat prevalent and often violent anti-Semitic sentiments,” thanks to which “women have defended the right to broadcast.” The author then goes on to list a plethora of successful female comedians, such as Lucille Ball, Carol Burnett, Mary Tyler Moore, Tina Fey, etc., who have clearly benefited from “not taking oneself too seriously.” To compartmentalize these successful women into a box of self-deprecating female comedians simply further depreciates their success, and proliferates the idea that in order to overcome the limitations of society, a female comedian must sacrifice her own self-importance. In her best-selling book, Yes, Please, Amy Poehler states: “If you are lucky, there is a moment in your life when you have some say as to what your currency is going to be.” Pigeonholing successful female comedians with the currency of “self-deprecation” is both unfair and condescending — in fact, it is due to their privilege to establish their own unique currencies that they’ve been able to break through in the historically male-dominated comedy industry.
Moreover, while these select women are indeed both inspirational and talented, they represent but a small majority of female comedians trying to share their narratives with a larger audience. A large number of female comedians of color have yet to make a similar pervasive breakthrough in mainstream entertainment, which exemplifies a similarly disturbing problem in comedy today. Furthermore, the fact that those that have — Whoopi Goldberg, Maya Rudolph, Mindy Kaling, Margaret Cho, Mo’Nique, Sasheer Zamata, Leslie Jones, Issa Rae, Jessica Williams, Leslie Jones, Wanda Sykes, just to name a few — are both excluded from the aforementioned article and many conversations revolving around the “women are funny” movement exemplifies an equally detrimental view of diversity in comedy.

Combating hardships is a universal human experience, and the perceptivity to respond to such struggles with comedy cannot be attributed to a singular people or culture. The claims made in this article are arguably just as marginalizing as the claims that the author seeks to refute.

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Nicole Lang ([email protected]) is a junior studying psychology and political science.

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