“Lessons on Long Street: the absurdity of socially-accepted sexism” by Marie

I love theatre! I love everything about theatre—the lighting, the staging, the excited feeling I get right when a show is about to start. I also happen to love comedy. I doubt that anything has the potential to cheer me up more than a night at the theatre laughing along with a bunch of strangers with whom I share a brief, yet special, theatrical connection. But, if I spent this entry talking all about my love of theatre, then I suppose I would need to change the title. So, now comes the important part; this entry isn’t about my love of theatre but rather about my first theatrical experience here in Cape Town. To say that it was not the most pleasant of experiences would be a gross understatement—it was the most insulting show I had ever seen in my life! This is not to say that all Cape Townian theatre is bad, in fact, I believe that Cape Town the leading performing arts hub in South Africa with groundbreaking work being staged all the time. I, however, was unlucky enough to pick a show from the not-so-groundbreaking set. Given the nature of the show, I think it only appropriate that I introduce my evening with a joke. So, here goes: A feminist walks into a stand-up comedy show…

Get it? No? The joke is in the absurdity of the situation. Why? Because most feminists I know would not want to spend time watching 99% of stand-up comedy shows knowing that they will undoubtedly have sexist jokes and one-liners? Perhaps that wasn’t the cleverest joke I’ve ever told, but you get the idea. The stand-up comic I, and some of my fellow classmates, went to see based a large chunk of his show on the idea that our society considers sexist stereotypes amusing. I, for one, was certainly not amused. One of the most unpleasant moments in the show came when the comic (a man) decided to read a poem entitled “What if there were No Girls.” That “poem” just made my skin crawl! Firstly, let us take note that the title features the word “girls” versus “women” (an obvious nod to our society’s constant infantilization of women). The title, however, was the least of the poem’s problems. The entire thing was simply one big sexist stereotype of women recited in a comedic fashion and aimed toward a male audience (despite the even division of the sexes in the actual crowd). The comic recited lines like, “if there were no girls, who would cook us dinner?” I wanted to stand up and yell, “Cook it yourself!”

While in the restroom after the show, I overheard a conversation between two young women who were discussing just how funny the comedian was and how much they enjoyed the show. It sickened me that they enjoyed the abundance of sexist stereotypes in the show and had nothing but a positive reaction to it. Critics of my negative reaction might argue that the sexist jokes were meant to sound so ridiculous that they couldn’t possibly be supporting sexism in society. However, I still consider it a dangerous risk to take as there are many people who would not see the horror of such sexism and further internalize the negative stereotypes presented by the comic. Yet, I do have one positive note; I highly enjoyed his jokes on the insane South African mosquitoes and their relentless determination to suck me dry of blood. See, it is possible to do stand-up comedy without insulting anyone…the mosquitoes, of course, don’t count; those little bastards deserve every bit of misery they get!