Get Inspired, Be Empowered Forums General Discussions Why aren’t women considered funny?

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10 replies, 11 voices Last updated by Afshan Iqbal 2 years, 10 months ago
  • Semantee Chattopadhyay
    Participant
    @semantee03
    #31756

    We all have sometimes or other heard or read in YouTube comments “She is funny, for a woman.” Many commentators depressingly claim that the existence of an official policy to get on panel shows prove that they are and as funny as men. Like every man is not funny, the same goes for women. It’s just that they haven’t been equally represented in the comedy sphere as men. In ancient times, in official “joke groups” in Athens, or Plautus’ plays in Rome, humour was considered to be a man’s domain. In the 18th century, according to a popular revolutionary theory, men were required to have a sense of humour because it was a sign of intelligence, an important read based on women selected their spouses. The idea that women aren’t funny has become entrenched by social factors. There are cliches like “women comedians only talk about women things”. Is there any problem with that? Why can’t they talk about the things which I have of the people on earth relate to? There has also been the criticism that “women comedians are just angry, shouting feminists” spreading hate on men.
    Studies have shown that women prefer partners who can make them laugh while men prefer partners who can laugh at their jokes. Male scholars argued that women were “naturally cold” or “too passionate” to be funny. Today’s women comedians have proved these theories utterly false. Feminist scholars have also argued that women have been using subversive humour all along. The problem is not that women aren’t funny. It is that traditionally, we have found it difficult to recognise women’s humour. Even today in comedy TV shows, women are used to taking the show forward or made fun of. Recently things seem to have changed through representations in pop culture, and inactive encouragement of diverse talent in stand up. They are challenging ideas of women being un-funny on screen. Until we critically question who and what shapes our sense of humour these biases will remain. Jokes are just to be laughed at no matter who cracks them.

    anshika agarwal
    Participant
    @anshika-2
    #31775
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    Why aren’t women considered funny?
    Women are not considered funny. People say one thing that women can’t do is crack a joke. Men still want them to be shy and be in the four walls of house.
    People are funny and these people can be men or women but women’s gender doesn’t allows them to be funny. Why she can’t be funny? Who are you to judge her? Men thinks that only they are funny. If a women is funny then she can attract the men and can be considered as loose character. When somebody argues with man on the same issue, he say tell me the five women comedians name. Why women who is funny at her workplace considered to be not serious towards her work? Why are men considered more funnier than women? This is only a stereotype which is created by patriarchy. They are alot of stand up women comedians. Men and women are equally capable of making someone funny. So stop saying that women are not funny. Talent and humor is everywhere but there is a lack of opportunity. So, don’t underestimate women. They should grasp the opportunity. There is a need women should speak on this issue and prove it to the society they are not less than men in any field. They can nailed it.
    This is not good to say women are humorless because they aren’t less in anything. Nowadays there are many female comedians who are changing this so called stereotypes. Women are ruling in every field and soon they will be on top in this field also.

    Manpreet Singh
    Participant
    @manpreet
    #31781
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    The comic scene has boomed in India since the last decade and comedy has become a decent carrier option for many. But despite this all development and booming field, there is still a wide disparity between male and female comics. The female comic still is in minority as compared to the male comic in the stand-up and open mic scene.
    The main problem lies in the fact that we have categorized them into male and female comics themselves. Comedy is a genre and it is not dependent upon the gender of the person who is performing the act of comedy. Sure there are comic acts that suit only a particular gender but it is wrong to compartmentalize them into male and female comics. This has the effect f marginalizing them and they are often seen as not up to the mark in terms of ale comics. The social factors also come into play as the. Most of the audience members are not comfortable when a female comic makes a joke about an uncomfortable issue that is considered taboo in society. Whereas if a male comic makes such a joke then they are reacted by huge applause. The discrimination in the comic industry itself presents and it was seen in the #metoomovement where female comics have to face a sexist environment from the male comics. If they will not have enough support from the industry itself, then how will they grow and prosper in the industry?
    We have to change our mindset regarding the whole female comics. First of all, we have to remove the gender tag before comics. A human can be funny regardless of its gender, the whole tagging of mal and female comics does not make any sense at all. It’s like saying a male and a female doctor, who are equally trained and talented will work differently just because of their gender. With the ever diluting genders under the rainbow umbrella, this whole male-female comic divide is useless. Also, we have to change our archaic mindset, we have to accept that our constitution gives equal freedom of speech and they have an equal right to express themselves.

    Anika
    Participant
    @anika
    #31789
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    Women are considered to be the least humorous gender. When you think of comedians, how many of them can you name? How many female comedians can you name? It would be very less in number compared to the amount of male comedians you can recall.
    In fact, there is a lack of female comedians found in this world. There are many male comedians but there seems to be a lack of female comedians. In India, you see some female comedians in an open mic but majority of the comedians in the open mic would be male.
    The job of being a comedian isn’t taken seriously by society, especially family. They would probably want their child to get a “proper” job rather than being a comedian.
    Female comedians always face sexism. No one would have the same reaction for male comedians. Of course, no one is free from criticism. But women always face a lot of threats against their life which affects them. This is what happens when people disagree with their opinions. You have a right to criticize anyone but you have no right to send them hate.
    Women also talk about things which men might not relate to: sexism and patriarchy. Although it is your opinion whether they’re unfunny or funny, they have a right to joke about their trauma. Men speak about topics women can’t relate to but they are applauded for it and considered funny. Comedy is subjective, you can find people funny or unfunny. But sexism and hate is never the way to go.
    I hope one day the attitudes will change and people will allow women to joke about their lives more and not troll them for every little thing. If men find this uncomfortable, they should listen to women more and change themselves so that women do not feel uncomfortable anymore.

    nehachitroda
    Participant
    @nehachitroda
    #31790
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    Women- a gender which is always taught to be in a specific way, whether its small girl, teenager or an adult or an aged woman. It’s an age-old tradition or rule or myth or whatever we can say, but it’s still prevailing in today’s time, women are given gender-specific work and told to be in that within the shell.
    Women are told that do this and that, sit like and not like that, walk straight and not stylishly, smile very decently and not openly, wear what covers you and not what you like. These are all examples how women are told to be in a society where she is surrounded by many. A tag of being soft and innocent is attached by birth to a girl, still, she has not grown to maturity but still softness and calm nature should be there and before a girl decides about herself, unwanted rules and conditions weigh on them for each little thing related to her.
    Women are told to take up a serious thing in each aspect of life and being funny and comedy is considered as not suiting her personality. Women are emotional, sensitive, hardworking, and at the same time they can be fun too but it doesn’t mean they can’t be humorous being hardworking, they can be everything at times.
    The comic industry has many females who take up stand-up comedy and crack a joke easily, but many have set a mentality that women can’t make you laugh or can’t be humorous, it invalid to consider a woman not funny because of her gender as a feminine. In fact, women by doing comedy can say a lot that needs to be said in serious terms and make people aware of the things around them.
    For being funny it’s not a rule that you need to be a man. Women are not considered funny because from the old times it’s unwanted and ridiculous thought of women being serious and innocent. But now being in the 21st-century people have matured and their thoughts need to be changed regarding each perspective.

    shaifalikapoor03
    Participant
    @shaifalikapoor03
    #32395
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    Women are not considered funny because women are expected to be generous, sensitive and shy, that’s the definition to a cultured woman. Women are supposed to be beautiful, shy, sensitive, generous etc. etc. A funny woman is not considered as cultured. A funny woman in general terms is considered mannerless or rude.
    Every person in the whole world have his/her own personality be it funny, serious, cool, hot, sharp etc. Everyone is described with the personality they possess. A woman is basically made to be described with a sweet, humble, generous, sensitive nature of hers whereas a man is always described by his humor and sharpness in nature. In reality there should be division to the personality type a human chooses to have. The natural process of possessing a personality should not be considered as a basis of creating gender inequality among people.
    There exists plenty of women who chooses stand-up comedy as their career, they are extraordinarily hilarious and are able to throw great humor among the society, sometimes even better than men, but are they respected as much as men? No, they’re not.
    People need to start to accept humans as they are be it funny, nerd or serious. Let’s stop being judgemental and create a better world for each and every living being living on this planet.

    VIPASHA .
    Participant
    @vipasha
    #32482
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    Really ! I do not agree to this statement . Women are funny . Who says this statement ? In respective of men and women have good sense of humour. So let me prove this statement wrong through these research:-
    -Neeti Palta is one of the most popular female comedians in the country. She is known for her witty style of humour driven from experiences. Her Amazon Special ‘Almost Sanskari’ is a rollercoaster journey of her life.
    -Netflix’s new all-women stand-up special is a rib-tickling saga of first-hand experiences that leading women of comedy undergo on a day-to-day basis. Staring Kaneez Surka, Supriya Joshi, Prashasti Singh and Niveditha Prakasam this special is a full-fledged package of talent.
    I think these example are enough to prove my statement right. During parenting A man is unable to make child that much of happy which a woman can do . she can make her child laugh in any of the moment. Man also have good sense of humour but saying that women are you funny is not appropriate. Why we do gender biasedness in such small topic. Who we are to judge who is more funny in men or women? Funny ness depends on talent and talent depend on human , not a man Or women . A men and women both are equally talented , it is up to them how they use their talent. Society does not accept a woman comedian , they believe that being a woman comedian is a taboo . Whenever women try to be funny Society rises voice against her change your behaviour ? is this your culture? These comment a woman has to face which discourages her and then we consider women are not funny. What is double standard . the society and people shows! A woman comedian always face sexism in the social media , in the society , in industry . They does not accept her.

    Yash Tiwari
    Participant
    @yash
    #32535
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    For years a small debate has been raging at the bottom of comedy circles about whether or not women are funny. Comedians often get interviewed and when they’re asked if there’s any truth to the old cliché “women aren’t funny” they will typically respond either something sarcastic along the lines of “no shit, you idiot,” or else some answer meant to put it to rest. The assumption then, is that women are simply choosing not to be funny, and for whatever reason, they’re choosing to opt-out of this whole ‘funny thing’ business. The implication being: if more women wanted to be funnier, they would succeed, as men just can’t help but be funny despite everything.

    So why is it that women aren’t considered funny? We all know being a good writer isn’t an exclusively male attribute, so what is it about women that makes them less inclined to giving us a laugh? Is it just the lack of confidence in women, as told by Amy Poehler recently? Or are there societal pressures that exclude or inhibit humor in women? Women aren’t seen as funny because most of the time, they’re not being presented as funny. This was noticed years ago, by Adrienne Rich, in a famous essay called “When We Dead Awaken: Writing as Re-vision.” Rich points out that, until recently, we thought stories were told one way: from a male hero’s point of view. Female characters were there to support the male character; they were sidekicks or support artists.

    Regardless of these theories, humor is an interesting example of how deeply rooted gender biases are. We tend to now have people assuming that women can be just as funny as men, but it’s still not something that people will readily admit – the best way to test this is to ask a group of people whether they think women are funny. They may say “yes” without even thinking about it, and may even persuade themselves they believe it’s true. Maybe it’s because women are generally less aggressive. Aggression is more commonly associated with humor, so if you’re less aggressive you are less likely to be funny. It’s a bit of a misogynist theory though, and one that doesn’t usually stand up to much scrutiny.

    The reality is that women ARE funny. Science says they’re funnier on some dimensions and that men are funnier on others. But this isn’t about anecdotal evidence or opinions or what you find funny; this is about perception and how it’s skewed so much that we start thinking a lie is a truth. It is pretty incontrovertible that women are both funny and not considered funny.

    DISHA SAPKALE
    Participant
    @42disha
    #32859
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    World always think that women are not funnier than man but we can see there are many women who work as a comedian are better in their field but people who go to comedy show mostly from them they always choose to see man performing not women. Everyone think that women aren’t funny, In today’s world in a group of a teenager’s if a girl joke nobody will laugh or if a boy joke everybody will going to laugh instead of that the group will laugh on girl because she said a joke, so they will say it wasn’t funny. Many people have a stereotype thoughts that women can’t be funnier than man. As per the survey, man also prefer women who laugh at their humour. Society think that women cannot be considered as funny because they create an image of women that they should be kind of silent, and sensitive person but it is not like that, In today’s generation we can see that many women are comedian and they are successful in that field like Bharti Singh she is the one who makes whole world laugh with her performance in comdey tv shows. She won many awards and it shows that women are funny it’s just that society make their own mindset that women can’t consider as funny. This thinking should get change because both men and women are equal their is nothing like that men are always considered as funny. Both men and women should be considered as funny.

    PALAK KASHIV
    Participant
    @palak
    #32874
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    I disagree with women are not considered funny, it is just the perspective of people on how they look at women, I know women who are funny, and also made a successful career in comedy. Maybe women are not that funny as compare to men because some women fear cracking jokes or women think before they speak also, we live in a society where people judge women what she says how she behaves and if women crack some dark jokes then they will question her character, they will not take it as a joke that’s why are not funny. Women such as kusha Kapila, dolly Singh, Prajakta Koli , and samukhi suresh and many more, who are very funny and make very funny content on the internet and also have millions of followers on social media account. But earlier women were not allowed to do such kinds of stuff because earlier their many restrictions on women, they do not get the chance to meet friends we can be funny with our family to a limit so that’s why women are not called funny. Also, some men do not support women’s taste of humor because they think they are criticizing them. men can giggle at anything which is lame, not funny, and with women who are not like that they will laugh only when it is funny. we can see women are always called by men as cute, beautiful, and attractive. And same women always say you are funny we can say it is one of men’s attribute. When men do the get-together, they don’t want women to be part of jokes and also crack jokes, then they say women are not funny. males’ jokes are mostly on women or criticizing them and very few jokes on other thoughts and why women will listen and laugh at jokes which are more like a taunt than a joke. I disagree with women are not considered funny, it is just the perspective of people how they look at women, I know women who are funny, and also made a successful career in comedy. Maybe women are not that funny as compare to man because some women fear of cracking jokes or women think before they speak also, we live in a society where people judge women what she says how she behaves and if women crack some dark jokes than they will question her character, they will not take it as a joke that’s why are not funny. Women such as kusha Kapila, dolly singh, Prajakta koli ,and samukhi suresh and many more, who are very funny and make very funny content on the internet, and also have millions of followers on social media account. But earlier women were not allowed to do such kinds of stuff because earlier their many restrictions on women, they do not get chance to meet friends we can be funny with our family to a limit so that’s why women are not called funny. Also, some men do not support women’s taste of humor because they think they are criticizing them. men can giggle at anything which is lame, not funny, and with women who are not like that they will laugh only when it is funny. we can see women are always called by men as cute, beautiful, and attractive. And same women always say you are funny we can say it is one of men’s attribute. When men do the get-together, they don’t want women to be part of jokes and also crack jokes, then they say women are not funny. males’ jokes are mostly on women or criticizing them and very few jokes on other thoughts and why women will listen and laugh at jokes which are more like a taunt than a joke.

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