This is a Man’s World

I recently came across two opinion editorials, both from Vanity Fair, titled, “Why Women Aren’t Funny” and “Who Says Women Aren’t Funny?” Simply looking at the titles, it was clear that the second piece was in response to the first by Christopher Hitchens. As I read on, I wasn’t immediately angry, but perhaps it was wrong for me not to be.

For those who have not come across these highly controversial articles, “Why Women Aren’t Funny” details how there is a societal and biological reasoning to why men are supposedly funnier. According to Hitchens, “The chief task in life that a man has to perform is that of impressing the opposite sex,” and he further provokes the reader by saying “there are more terrible female comedians than there are terrible male comedians.” It is natural for a female to be offended by such comments, and yet throughout the rest of the time spent reading his article, I was reminded of how much power stereotypes had, particularly in the world of mystery and fantasy, or otherwise referred to as the entertainment industry.

In “Who Says Women Aren’t Funny,” the author, Alessandra Stanley, includes a quote by Nora Ephron, the writer and film director of “30 Rock” that bluntly states the true positioning of females. Ephron says, “There is no question that there are a million more funny women than there used to be… there are so many hours to fill, and they ran out of men, so then there were women.” The only reason female comedians have received at least some form of recognition is due to a shortage of male alternatives—not because they were any more talented at making an audience burst into tears or howls. Educator Kate Sanborn also bring up an interesting point of how “no man likes to have his story capped by a better and fresher from a lady’s lips” and how a woman is taught by society to fear the risk of being called hateful or sarcastic and to rather be skilled at being “funny in bed.” Oddly for females, success seems to be correlated to their beauty, so their brains or wits are worth next to nothing unless they have that visual appeal.

Beauty has been a driving force in determining the success of individuals, particularly when trying to find a job. In many westernized societies, when a woman hits the age of thirty, they are considered no longer youthful, or bright and have begun their transition to becoming a spinster. Worst of all, if a woman is not married by that age and also without a job, the implications are made that she does not care about her family and personal well-being. These are supposedly women who are defects, who are cast-offs and therefore have no right in obtaining a bit of respect.

I do not fulfill the stereotypic image of a feminist, someone who will bare their chest in solidarity or post a rant and perhaps a slew of articles on social media. I am simply a teenage girl who has already begun to feel the pressures of being a female, and a proper one at that. I come from a culture that expects females to accept wearing dresses as their second skin and to be prepared to become a stay-at-home mom once those wedding rings are exchanged. To make things better, I live in a society where traditionally, women are submissive, agreeable and care about their appearance. Thankfully I live in a country that has become progressive in contradicting these notions but not enough of a change has taken place.

Oddly enough, as I have grown older I have noticed how powerful the implications that are unconsciously made about females are, particularly in an academic setting. Every teacher I have had throughout my academic career has instinctively been more visibly in agreement with the male students. Of course there have been teachers who have publicized that they are nondiscriminatory and therefore consider all students views as of value. This statement, however, has never stood true. In the teacher’s mind, they may think, “Ah yes, I am nondiscriminatory” but not any human being is “nondiscriminatory.” Unfortunately associations with certain characteristics are made upon first sight, whether they be in relation to skin color, gender identification, denomination, etc. These thoughts do not accompany any individual upon birth, but are rather made to be seen as the normative by our societies. Interestingly, a teacher’s tone, body language and word choice when addressing a female student versus a male student has its stark differences. The slight angling of the body towardsa student versus another, the flash of a frown in disagreement or the sometimes excessive nodding of the head in unauthentic agreement, all amount to the profiling of a teacher’s view of females. There have been more instances than I can remember where a better grade has been given to the male student or the majority of a teacher’s attention is devoted to them, not because they said anything different than the female student, but because they identified as male. It may be simplistic for me to put it this way and enraging, but this is an occurrence I have seen and been victimized repeatedly by.

And so my curiosity increases on whether I will always have to live under a man’s shadow and how much this discrimination will come to effect any kind of acceptance into an educational institution or a job. Whether I will ever realistically be able to live in a world where females are not sexualized in any kind of industry and where we are truly respected for our intellect and talents. Whether I will never hear in a joke or even a song the horrible phrase, “This is a man’s world.”