Women Comics- Participation, Portrayal and Reception
In recent years, India’s Stand-up Comedy has caught up with the millennials and has achieved a lot of popularity among them. It has registered itself as yet another open arena for the youth to experiment and explore. Although it’s out in the open that male dominance is prevalent at the roots of Indian society, stand-up comedy is no exception.
Women participate in stand-up comedy at a much lower rate than males, as they do in many other aspects of Indian culture.
"While the number of women comics in India can be counted on the fingers of one hand, the bro-code in the industry keeps even these women, who survive hugely on self-deprecating humor, on the fringes. Moreover, the overall stand-up humor relies heavily on wife and girlfriend jokes."- The Indian Express (2017)
In the case of stand-up comedy in India, women are considered inferior to men and hence are subjected to more judgment by the audiences. The stereotypical image of women in the minds of Indian audiences does not allow her to make jokes about men which is why they often restrict their content to self-deprecating jokes or jokes that only concern women-related issues.
Although there has been a steady increase in the participation of women in the sphere of stand-up comedy in recent years, data and researches show that the experiences of male and female comedians are very different. YouTube and other such platforms give an equal platform to both men and women to engage in a dialogue with their respective audiences. However, researchers say that the reception of the two genders varies significantly.
Audiences are more accepting of men being funny. I think women comedians have to be twice as funny as men to be able to be judged as being good. Even when I was younger, I just assumed that men would be more amusing than women. That's the kind of the conditioning we all have,"- Kaneez Surka
Apart from the industry being male-dominated in terms of ratios of men and women present in the field, there is a wide disparity between the content men and women have to offer. The sexism is apparent in the humor. A lot of stand-up humor depends heavily on deprecating humor. For instance, Bharti Singh (of Comedy Circus fame) rarely veers away from the 'fat narrative," In the arena of comedy, jokes about wives and girlfriends have been a trend. We have often seen the famous comedian Kapil Sharma making fun of his on-screen wife for 'n' number of reasons like her appearance, her on-screen maternal family, her height, lips, and the list goes on. While Bharti Singh was only found deteriorating and body shaming herself to make people laugh. The comedians often use "stock" characters to make fun of them. The most common example would be body size and personality differences. Comedy performances often repeat gender roles in compliance with gender expectations thereby reinforcing the 'sexist' dimensions of humor. This suggests how humor not only facilitates gender performances in accordance with the social expectations of gender but also reproduces the gender system that is built on inequalities.
However, several comedians are now trying to break the stereotypes through their own comedic sets. They have often tried to discuss topics like sexuality, marriage, and sex which are otherwise considered taboo and are reserved for men in Indian society. Women speak of their own experiences and in a larger context, they also talk about other social, cultural, and political concerns. Along with that, they have in many instances questioned the term "female" stand-up comedian itself.
"As a woman, you have to be very, very good to be able to win over your audience-Prashasti Singh
Comedy has now evolved from girlfriend and wife jokes and comics have become much more diverse in terms of content than how they used to be before.
The patriarchy has still grasped the arena of comedy and tends to play its role in the content and if we look closely there are various reasons for it like women are imagined to have a particular personality which is why they aren't appreciated when they create double-meaning jokes. They are expected to be shy and not outspoken in Indian society and in a male dominating society like that ours, audiences do not process women making jokes about men which is why they either end up joking by deteriorating themselves or by restricting themselves to women-related issues. Although the times are changing as we see shows like "Ladies Up" starring Prashasti Singh, Kaneez Surka, Supriya Joshi, and Niveditha Prakasam.
"If one woman goes up on stage and her joke doesn't work, then all women are branded as being unfunny. So every time we go up and tell a joke, we carry the burden of the entire womankind on our backs. Men don't have to face that. A man can go up on stage, fail and come back and say, 'Okay, I had a bad day,"- Supriya Joshi
It is the result of changing times that women were welcomed in certain spaces and could break free from the double bind of becoming a woman and registering as comedians, all of which were seen as challenges to the patriarchal architecture of comedy theatres. In other instances, the double bind was re-established by the audience's rejection of their presence and humor, which they described as "unladylike" and "unfunny." Alternatively, the negative audience reactions may have implied that the comics were good in "offending, thereby subverting the room for producing material not guided by populist humor patterns and putting forward comedy as engaging in 'serious business,' whereby social discriminations can be discussed in the same way as they are debated in the public sphere. As they rightly say, "equal opportunity does not mean equal outcome" therefore, it is noticeable a fact that female stand-up comedians have increased in number despite the controversy and rejection, and barriers but still, a humongous difference can be seen in the way male and female comedians are perceived which has to be ameliorated.
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