The Changing Role of Women in Comedy.

How has comedy between 1950 to 2000 been used by female performers to highlight the oppression and objectification of women in society? What impact has this had on the contemporary female comedian of today?

Introduction & Overview

Chapter One: A Sense of the Times

• 1950s
• 1960s
• 1970s-1980s

Chapter Two: Women’s ‘Sense’ of Humour

Chapter Three: Issues in Stand-up Comedy

• Being a Woman
• Traditional Gender Expectations
• Aggressiveness
• Sexuality and Femininity
• Issues of Power and Control
• Modes of Stand-up Comedy
• Self-Deprecation in Women’s Humour
  • Self-deprecation in the work of Phyllis Diller and Joan Rivers
  • The domestic goddess

Conclusion: The 1990s and Beyond: The Future of Women in Stand-up Comedy

Reference List

Introduction

Comedy is a form of expression which stretches and sometimes breaks boundaries. It crosses all kinds of boundaries, including those of gender. It can be risky because it often ridicules social and moral conventions in a way that challenges and threatens accepted norms, threatening the status quo. This is particularly true of women’s comedy.

This paper will examine the way that comedy has been used by female performers during the period from 1950 to 2000, focusing on the themes of oppression and objectification of women in society. It will also analyze the ways in which the experiences of these five decades have affected contemporary female comics.

Chapter One gives a general overview of each decade, to explain the political and social climates of that time as a framework for examining the changes in women’s roles. Included will be examples of different women comics whose experiences best represent selected aspects of that time frame.

This will be followed by an analysis of what people mean when they talk of a ‘sense of humour’ – what, exactly, is a sense of humour? Do women have a different sense of humour than men? Most of the literature about women comics touches on this question on some level; some of the literature goes into a great deal of depth. This is frequently done to respond to the assertion that has been made, repeatedly over the years, that women ‘don’t have a sense of humour’. This statement has been made most frequently by men. However, this same assertion has at times been leveled (often in an accusatory manner) by women toward other women.

Chapter One:   A Sense of the Times

A. The Decade of the 1950s

The decade of the 1950s was a time of great change. Britain was entering a period of increased affluence and freedom, and many of the old social and cultural structures began to be challenged, particularly by the young. In Hollywood, as well as throughout the United States and North America, post-war sentiment lingered on and mingled with the confusion that accompanies times of great change.

In some places, such as Britain, this turmoil was exemplified by a tendency to pull away from formal religion. In the United States, this period was an era of economic growth mixed with a sense of conservation. At the same time, there seemed to be a professed belief in the old values; however, this belief was tinged with doubt. According to one scholar, the professed belief was ‘mixed with a sense of unease that maybe the old values no longer held all the answers’ (Sova, 1998, 106).