Funny Women (Again)

[Content Note: Misogyny; privilege; rape culture.]

My friend Ben passed on this article—which, though published on April 1, does not appear to be an April Fools' joke—about the new "feminist" comedy shows on Comedy Central, Inside Amy Schumer and Broad City.

I've watched a couple of episodes of each of these shows, and they're of the "ironic misogyny equals feminism" variety. Your mileage may vary, but I personally don't find ironic misogyny to be particularly effective feminism. An example of one of the sketches from Inside Amy Schumer:

Another new sketch shows Schumer playing a Call of Duty-like video game in which her female avatar is raped by a superior officer and then pressured into not reporting her sexual assault by prompts in the game: "You were just assaulted by a fellow soldier. Do you wish to report?" "Yes." "Are you sure? Did you know he has a family? Does that change your mind about reporting?"

Of course I get that the joke, such as it is, is intending to send up rape culture (not uphold rape), but I don't find a whole lot at which to laugh when it's not actually a send up as much as it is just a pretty solid example of what rape culture looks like. Ha ha?

The article is all about how these female comedies are attracting male viewers, despite the allegedly feminist content, and I think the answer to that question is in the problem inherent to all ironic comedy: There are lots of guys laughing for the "wrong" reasons.

So do we have to disguise feminism in our TV shows in order to market shows starring feminists to male audiences?

Is it even "disguised feminism" if it can just be read as straight-up misogyny by misogynists?

Naturally, the exploration of these particular shows does not include any reference at all to the fact that they're made by and feature young, traditionally attractive, white women in an urban media center. That privilege gives them a particular ability to do ironic misogynist humor that women who don't share their privilege don't have.

Which also raises the question: Even if ironic misogynist humor constitutes feminism for privileged women, does it constitute something altogether different for non-privileged women?

(Spoiler Alert: Yes. Yes it does.)

Lest you be left with any doubt about the privilege intrinsic to the success of these shows, I will quickly note that this is the amazing lede:

We've finally settled the ridiculous question "are women funny?" Bridesmaids and Tina Fey ended that conversation years ago.

LOL. Sure. I love the implication that what "settled" that question is when young, white, straight, cis, thin, able-bodied women-centered comedy finally made tons of money in a traditional, male-centered venue.

I'm pretty sure for people who aren't misogynists, that questioned was "settled" at the dawn of humankind's capacity for humor by the very existence of funny women.