Women need to be more evil

Looking at our last two posts, I figured out how to crack the glass ceiling: women need to be move evil.

I don't mean sneaky, snarky, stab-you-in-the-back with a smile; that happens all the time. I'm talking flat-out, yeah I'm selfish, try-and-stop-me OWNING IT. Can you think of any examples, in all of history, literature, or film? Cruella de Ville is the exception that proves the rule, and she's, well, a bit cartoony. Even Leona Helmsley saw herself as the champion of cute little doggies.

Instead, women instinctively claim the moral high ground, like Governor Granholm chastising men for having affairs (with women). And women are the harshest judges of other women. Someday, when any mom can go to divorce court and let her ex take full custody so she can focus on her career -- or even just say she's happy to get back to work because her baby is wearing her out -- without apology, we will have taken the final step to equality. Because no one blinks when men do these things. But the risk of hearing "BAD MOTHER" whispered in the background hamstrings women's choices.

It's similar with fiction. Why are more characters men? Probably many reasons, but one is that a writer never has to apologize for, or justify, male characters. A lot of women characters attract visceral anger, especially if they are bad guys. (See, my mind naturally filled in bad... guys for strong, mean characters.) Anyone who creates such a woman risks being called misogynist or unrealistic. Male characters can be angels or antichrists, and it will never occur to anyone to question the author's choices.

Men are just like that, sometimes. When women can be just like that, sometimes -- for any value of that -- then the glass ceiling will be gone.

What's holding women back? A dirty little secret...

My recent post about why fewer plays by women are produced got me thinking about standup comedy, which I've been doing for 10 years now.

There are many more male than female comics. Based on my personal experience, the reasons match the results of those theater studies pretty closely. In other words, the leading causes for fewer women comics are 1) fewer women try standup in the first place, and 2) other women are much more judgmental about women comics than male comics. (A third reason seems to be that life on the road, away from freinds and family, sleeping in your car on off nights and in grungy club condos on gig nights, bothers men less.)

Of the women who try open mics, from what I've seen, a higher percentage go on to success. But very few try. Also, when they do, I often hear comments from women in the audience like "Why does she have to be so nasty?" I rarely see men react that way to a woman comic.

The why gets complicated. Part of it is that comedy is generally transgressive, and we have no problem culturally with men being transgressive, but get confused by women who are. Notice how rebellious women are almost automatically labeled as "sluts" regardless of what their rebellion is, or who they choose to sleep with.

But certainly, the role of women in all of this is one of the reason why I think complaining about "the patriarchy" is worse than a waste of breath. It confuses the issue, and takes us further away from making progress, by implying that "the man" is keeping women down.