Comedy and Gender

I had yet another conversation about comedy yesterday. Once people find out you’ve done comedy they ask you a lot of the same questions, who do you like, what kind of comedy do you do, it's hard for "female comics" etc, etc. So, here’s what I’ve gathered from my experiences in comedy. I think more than race, comedy is divided along gender lines. I think that men are allowed (by the audience, which, in essence, is a small cross-section of society) to be righteously angry onstage. I have personally seen it time and again. If a woman expresses her comedy in that same exact way, the audience will not allow it. The audience tightens up every time. A woman has to use bitter sarcasm to get the same point across. My understanding is that men have to listen to their wives and therefore don’t want to hear a woman “bitch”. (The man can “bitch”, and I think that’s allowed because the men see themselves in the male comic). I’m not saying it’s right, I personally disagree with it, but I think that’s the way it is. In addition, there is the “female comic” vs. “comic” distinction. Many times in my travels, I would hear, “Oh, she’s a female comic.” (always in a denigrating way). A woman earns the dreaded ‘female comic’ label when she does material on the following subjects: dating, weight, food. Never mind that a young male does these typical subjects: loser, smoke pot, loser. That does not label him a ‘male comic’. In an effort to avoid the “female comic” label, I never did comedy on those subjects. And so, what happens is, you deny your experience, which is totally at odds with what comedy is about—your experience. I understand this is just another example of androcentrism, but for those who may not be aware of it, i.e. think that comedy is such a free form of expression, it is not. A comedian who goes onstage enters into a relationship with the audience. That relationship is judged second by second, punchline by punchline. In order for an audience to be entertained by the comedian, they must first "buy in" to the comedian/material. In order to "buy in" to a a comedian, or to buy into a joke for that matter, the audience must inherently agree to the truth of that comedian/material. And therein lies the dilemma. Men and women have different truths. But truth in our society is a narrowly defined constant, and therefore excludes a wider breadth of experience.