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Reflections on UK Comedy’s Glass Ceiling: Stand-Up Comedy and Contemporary Feminisms TOMSETT, Eleanor Louise Available from the Sheffield Hallam University Research Archive (SHURA) at: http://shura.shu.ac.uk/26442/ A Sheffield Hallam University thesis This thesis is protected by copyright which belongs to the author. The content must not be changed in any way or sold commercially in any format or medium without the formal permission of the author. When referring to this work, full bibliographic details including the author, title, awarding institution and date of the thesis must be given. Please visit http://shura.shu.ac.uk/26442/ and http://shura.shu.ac.uk/information.html for further details about copyright and re-use permissions. Reflections on UK Comedy’s Glass Ceiling: Stand-up Comedy and Contemporary Feminisms Eleanor Louise Tomsett A thesis submitted in partial fulfilment of the requirements of Sheffield Hallam University for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy October 2019 Candidate declaration: I hereby declare that: 1. I have not been enrolled for another award of the University, or other academic or professional organisation, whilst undertaking my research degree. 2. None of the material contained in the thesis has been used in any other submission for an academic award. 3. I am aware of and understand the University's policy on plagiarism and certify that this thesis is my own work. The use of all published or other sources of material consulted have been properly and fully acKnowledged. 4. The worK undertaKen towards the thesis has been conducted in accordance with the SHU Principles of Integrity in Research and the SHU Research Ethics Policy. 5. The word count of the thesis is 111,279. Name Eleanor Louise Tomsett Date October 2019 Award PhD Faculty Social Sciences and Humanities Director(s) of Studies Dr Chi-Yun Shin Abstract This thesis considers the ways in which the current UK stand-up comedy industry both accommodates and simultaneously marginalises female voices. This research concerns itself with three Key areas of enquiry: Firstly, I examine how the development of stand-up comedy, alongside gender stereotypes, has resulted in additional barriers to women’s participation in live comedy, and how these barriers are maintained in a digital era. Stand-up comedy as an art form has emerged from, and been developed within, male dominated spaces. This has impacted upon the style and content of the comedy produced in the live arena, as well as broadcast comedy. This research considers how the origins of stand-up comedy still impact on current live comedy production and how this is intrinsically linKed to wider societal stereotypes about the capabilities of women. Secondly, I consider the work being undertaken in the current context to address the continuing gender inequality on the UK circuit, and what these initiatives mean to performers and audiences. My original contribution to knowledge is to synthesise the results of immersive research with the UK Women in Comedy Festival in Manchester, which investigated practical initiatives seeKing to make the industry more inclusive to women, with the results of qualitative and mixed-methods research into the perspectives of performers, promoters and audiences on the importance of these initiatives. As a result I offer both an overview of the current scene and suggestions for the future. Lastly, I analyse examples of stand-up comedy performed by women in the current context and how these performances relate to conceptions of feminist and postfeminist humour, as well as notions of bacKlash against contemporary feminisms. This research focuses on live comedy that is explicitly feminist in its presentation and content to consider how social attitudes to women, the increasing visibility of female labour outside the home, and the emergence of multiple (occasionally contradictory) feminisms has influenced the comedy produced by female comedians in 21st century Britain. Acknowledgements I’d firstly liKe to thanK my supervision team who have been a source of endless encouragement across the five years it has taKen to produce this research. Without the detailed feedback and guidance that Dr Suzanne Speidel, Dr Chi-Yun Shin and Jon Bridle provided this research would simply not exist. My partner Ben (and more recently our feminist cats Frida and Valerie) tooK the biggest hit in terms of my regular panics and self-doubt. Thank you for convincing me that it was never as bad as it seemed. ThanKs to all my friends (old and new) who helped me through the last five years. Without the following people to discuss ideas with, laugh with and generally be around the positive vibes of, it would have been insurmountably bleak: Amy Peach, Amelia Stubberfield, Maya Sharma, Owen Roberts, Dr Andrew Warstat, Katherine Canty, Michael Coates, Caroline Moran, Lisa Moore, Dr Kate Fox, Dr Rosie White, Sara Old, Sarah Gilbert, Natalie Burt, Lauren Rubery, Louise Sutherland and Dan Head. I fully acKnowledge how great you all are. Finally, thanks to all my contributors for giving up their time to participate in this project: Hazel O’Keefe, Lynne ParKer, David Schneider, Zoe Lyons, Sophie Willan, Janice Connolly, Soula Notos, Daphna Baram, Kerry Leigh, Dana Alexander, Allyson June Smith, Kiri Pritchard-McLean, Ali Hendry Ballard, Lara A. King, Dotty Winters, Kate Smurthwaite. As well as all the audience members who completed surveys and participated in interviews. Contents Page 1 Introduction Page 4 Chapter 1 Review of Existing literature Page 37 Chapter 2 Methodology Page 68 Chapter 3 Where are we now?: The evolution of the British comedy circuit and stereotypes regarding women and comedy. Page 108 Chapter 4 Women-only comedy spaces: Addressing inequality on the comedy circuit. Page 149 Chapter 5 Online to IRL: The impact of social media on stand-up comedy Page 171 Chapter 6 “I Know what you’re thinKing”: Self-deprecation and body positivity Page 212 Chapter 7 Beyond self-deprecation: Feminisms on the current circuit Page 247 Chapter 8 An (un)equal and opposite reaction: The bacKlash and barriers facing feminist comedy Page 265 Chapter 9 Discussion of findings Page 290 Conclusion Page 299 Bibliography and reference list Page 320 Appendix Introduction The motivation for this research is to expose and interrogate the ways in which female comic voices are both integrated and marginalised within the UK comedy industry, specifically within the live stand-up comedy environment. Existing research into comedy created and performed by women has focused overwhelmingly on American examples. The significant differences in the cultural, industrial and performance contexts between the US and UK comedy industries has been problematically overlooked. Furthermore, comedy research more widely has tended to foreground analysis of the content and performance style of comedy, at the expense of a full consideration of the contexts within which comedy is created by comedians and received by audiences. It is this lacK of consideration that I will address through studying the current UK live comedy circuit in relation to the contexts that impact upon the creative output of female comedians, their career paths, and potential readings of their work by audiences. I commenced this research in 2013, a year during which several explicitly feminist comedy shows won prestigious Edinburgh Festival prizes. Although the very act of standing on a stage and expressing your opinions as a woman could be considered a feminist act, the winning shows of 2013 went further, covering complex issues and deconstructing fixed gender roles. Although previously there had been many comedians engaging with feminism, this peaK in acclaim for feminist comedy in 2013 was also a high point in media consideration of modern feminisms. The public exposure of feminist initiatives such as Everyday Sexism, No More Page 3 and Vagenda Magazine, coupled with Caroline Criado-Perez’s high-profile campaign for women to appear on banKnotes, resulted in widespread press interest in the exclusion of women’s achievements from public recognition.1 This wider feminist context in Britain coincided with the success of a new generation of female-led comedy in America (made accessible to UK audiences via the increased use of digital platforms). The critical attention gained by HBO’s Girls (2012-2017) provoked TV executives and journalists to asK where the UK’s Lena Dunham-esque ‘voice of a generation of women’ would come from?2 The continued success of Tina Fey, Amy Poehler and the 1 rising star of Amy Schumer contributed to a perceived disparity between the success of funny women in America and the UK. The public interest in contemporary feminist campaigns and the journalistic discussion about the UK’s top female comedy talent meant that an academic exploration of these areas was timely. This research was conducted over the course of five years, a period of great change for female-identifying stand-up comics in the UK. As part of this project, and as an underlying part of the feminist research methodology, I became the first and only researcher in residence at the UK Women in Comedy Festival. The thesis resulting from this research identifies various structural and ideological barriers facing female comedians when attempting to breaK through the comedy industry’s glass ceiling. Following a thorough review of the existing literature in Chapter 1 and articulation of the research methodology in Chapter 2, this thesis presents findings in topical chapters. Chapters 3 to 6 are unified in their inclusion of a consideration of the gendered experiences and gendered contexts of performers worKing on the current UK circuit. Chapter 3 examines the evolution of stand-up comedy in the UK and the way gendered spaces and stereotypes have informed the perception of comedy as an inherently masculine pursuit. Chapter 4 considers the role that women-only comedy nights and festivals play in increasing the visibility of female comedians within the UK comedy industry.