Pumkinspice Latte

thefrogman:

motherjones:

Female Writers in Late-Night, by the Numbers

NOTES:

1) The host doubles as a writer on each of these shows but we did not include them in the counts.
2) Although Jimmy Kimmel only has one female writer, she is a co-head writer. None of the other shows hosted by men have female head writers.
3) Craig Ferguson’s only female writer is his sister.

It’s easy to cry sexism these days. With the statistics above, the black and white of it looks quite suspect. But I don’t think the implied accusation is fair. Sexism is to blame, but not on the part of these particular hosts. Comedy has always been a boys club. Women were discouraged from being funny. It was luck that allowed Lucille Ball to break onto the scene. Joan Rivers and Phyllis Diller had a hell of a time getting noticed. Phyllis didn’t even do stand-up until she was 38. I think the first time that women started getting taken seriously in comedy was when Rosanne became popular. Since then, little by little, comedy has gotten easier for women. It’s still unfair, there is still sexism, but if you’re talented you have a decent chance. The problem is, there just aren’t very many women comics yet. And even less female comedy writers. I’m not sure exactly why. 30 Rock is created, produced, and written by Tina Fey. She has 18 writers and only 3 of them are women. I don’t think any of these shows actively try to keep women out of the writer’s room. They just don’t have very many to choose from. I think they hire the most talented people available, regardless of gender. 

On another note, Jay Leno has 20 writers? Even if they all suck, you’d think that many people would write a few funny jokes by accident.

This isn’t sitting right with me, even tho I was mostly in agreement until the part I bolded. I think its easy to say in this day and age that the most qualified people are hired, regardless of gender, race, sexual orientation, age, etc. (which is why so many people complain about affirmative action I assume). But it was really only 40 years ago that a certain actor on SNL refused to read jokes written by women. And while that was many moons ago, the environment on SNL doesn’t appear to have changed dramatically, just look at the composition of the cast. Having just finished reading Kathy Griffin’s memoir and starting Tina Fey’s new book, I think the problem isn’t so much that women just haven’t blossomed into their new comedic freedom yet but that there is still an attitude that women fundamentally are not as funny as men. So while these shows may not actively being trying to discriminate against women, that bias most definitely still exists today.