I think the comedy community is not supportive to women in comedy. It’s just not a supportive environment. It’s interesting; a lot of women who are successful in comedy are lesbians. Or they have a fluid kind of gender identity, like I do. I am very fluid in that capacity. [Cho has had relationships with both men and women. She is currently married to a man.] But you can’t really be a successful female comic if you give a s**t what guys think at all. So a lot of heterosexual women end up dropping out because they just care too much about what guys think. I think that’s why there’s always lesbians who take over because they don’t care. It’s just an element to their personalities that helps them get by. That’s the closet explanation I can see. The women comedians that are out there generally are gay. The community itself is not supportive to women and so you don’t have it on the inside and you don’t have any kind of building or a connection; it’s just hard.
—Margaret Cho, who’s out promoting her summer comedy album Cho Dependent, on why lesbians have a better shot at making it in the biz [via]
Lamar
It just seems like she is using feminism to vilify men and portray women as these little innocent victims. What the hell does “But you can’t really be a successful female comic if you give a s**t what guys think at all” even mean? She is just railing against men for no reason. If a comedian (or comedienne) is bad he/she is bad no need to use the audience as scapegoats. Maybe lesbians are just simply naturally funnier.
ForeverGay
Lesbians are funny and have the ambition to become professional comics.
Carlyloo
I don’t read it that way at all. She is saying it is the problem of hetero women who get so hung up on what men think about them that they put limits on themselves. Women in our culture are raised to want to please and for hetero women that translates into please men- look the way you think men want you to, say what they want, do what they want or you won’t be desirable. Sadly, being desirable seems to be what hetero women are supposed to prioritize even today. Feminists do not put that entirely on men but also on women’s contual acceptace of and complicity in that system.
Phil
Hey remember that article that said it was the man’s fault in a relationship that the other person is forced to look prettier? Even if it was a MM relationship? Yea, I can believe that. I can believe Margaret Cho too. -Generations- of male domination has led to unequal social positions and, hey, we’re still dealing with that baggage.
Ruddigore
But many of the most successful female comedians have been heterosexual – Phyllis Diller, Joan Rivers, Kathy Griffin, etc. They succeed because they are incredibly driven people (and because they are funny). I’m sure Phyllis Diller worried about what her husband thought when she was doing the “Fang” jokes about him in the late 1950’s, a much more repressive and sexist time. It didn’t stop her then, when she was a pioneer as a female comic, and I don’t see why it would stop a woman now. If they are worrying what men think, then they are probably also worrying about what other women will think, what their family thinks, etc. and that is more in indication of self doubt than of a need to please men specifically.
jamison
@Ruddigore: well, this quote particularly reminds me of chelsea handler’s frequent jokes about her flatulence.
i think its very true to that to some extent female comics have to de-feminize themselves to be successful comedians. which, of course, many women aren’t willing to do.
margaret cho isn’t the first person to make a statement like this. i think i heard the female comedians on Last Comic Standing one season talking about how un-sexy they have to make themselves sometimes in their humor.
thedarkchariot
Maybe because comedy is about truth, and women cannot reveal the truth (the ugly side) of themselves without societal disapproval.
Anyway
On an unrelated note: Margaret has a column in Delta’s in-flight seat-back magazine. It’s about her being a dog lover and how much she misses hers when she’s away. Really.
No racy anecdotes about dogs shitting or licking themselves, of course. Poor Margaret had to write about non-taboo subject material for a mass audience and it was boring as hell.
Aaron in Honolulu
What an over-rated over-exposed bitch!
Tonic
None of my girlfriends have EVER been in to stand-up comedians. It has always been the guys, gay or straight, who enjoy them. Perhaps that has something to do with it?
In my personal experience, it seems that straight men and women (as much as the women are involved) are far more forgiving of male comedians than female, but they are sexist in many other areas as well – music, television, etc. Overall, we’re a largely sexist society.
ForeverGay
@Ruddigore: You’re right. Heterosexual female comics get the big breaks even if they are not funny (Margaret Cho, Chelsea Handler etc.) because heterosexual males are the gatekeepers. A very large percentage of female comics are lesbian yet few are given the big opportunities.
samthor
there’s an old saying around these parts…. “If you want something done right, get a lesbian to do it.”
Lamar
@Carlyloo: But men are raised to please women too, buy them fancy houses and cars, provide money, provide great sex or get kicked to the curb, be ready to risk their lives for them, never forget anniversaries … you name it and if men don’t do it they are not seen as desirable partners. Being desirable is prioritized by men too e.g obsession with exercising to appear like the men frequently shown on ads or obsession that their dick size isn’t adequate to please women. Despite all this gay men and straight men are comedians though so the argument that because women are socialized into pleasing the opposite sex fails as men from both orientations are too and still become good comedians.
Pip
Wow, I think there’s a disconnect between that headline and the actual quote. I will say though, Margaret Cho hasn’t really made me laugh very hard in a while. She’s kinda serious and saccharine these days.
swhall
@Pip: I agree she is a bit more serious but I still enjoy her shows. She is including more music and musical comedy into her act, which I appreciate. I look forward to seeing her new show Cho Dependent, just got my tickets.