Practical Alchemy

Woman in Comedy: A really scary thing happened to me last night at a comedy show.

lettersfromtheattic:

bannerisms:

machistado:

duskanddawn:

stfuconservatives:

gabydunn:

Part of me thinks it’s too soon to be writing about this because I don’t think I’ve completely processed how I feel, but I also think maybe this has happened to other women and I should talk about it in as raw a way as possible. I’m still really embarrassed and ashamed and garbled up inside, but maybe this can start a helpful discussion in terms of women and comedy.

Last night, I was on a stand up show in the East Village. The show started out with a small crowd and the host did an amazing job interacting with them and riling them up. By the time I got on stage, there were about 20 or so more people in the audience and the place had really filled up. The show was still kind of loose because of the back and forth between the host and the audience, so when I got on stage, I riffed a bit about the stuff that had happened before and then talked to one guy on the side of the audience who the host had dubbed “Banana Republic.” All joke-y. All in good fun.

Then, I start my actual set and do my first two jokes, which go pretty okay. I start another joke that is vaguely sexual - not crude, not crass - mainly silly and that goes well too. The next joke I do is about my boyfriend.

At a comedy show, when you’re on stage, usually you can’t see the audience because of the bright lights. So I’m looking into pitch darkness. As I start the joke, someone yells, “Does your boyfriend know?” referring to the sexuality joke I’d just told. I stop, laugh and say that he does because I think it’s just more of the loose environment that’s been going on at this show. I attribute it to an audience member just having fun.

I start to tell the joke about my boyfriend again, and at the midway point, the same voice yells something else derogatory about my boyfriend, homophobic and misogynistic towards me. I stop, confused. I can’t see who is talking to me so I make a HUGE mistake and say, “Sir, if you’re gonna talk to me, you need to come to the front because I can’t see you.” I think calling him out like this will shut him up.

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I’ve honestly considered doing stand-up comedy but I’m terrified of shit like this.

-Jess

— fuck this is terrifying.

How many other women have been in situations like this where they felt threatened by a man or a group of men, helpless, and desperate, and resorted to calling another man for help? It’s all too common and it makes you feel shameful and weak. I don’t even think I could fully recall all of the similar situations I’ve been in.

This is, purely and simply, fucking terrifying. 

I cannot underscore how much you need to consider your triggers before reading this, it’s very scary I was cringing the whole time.

The night that that dickbag grabbed my ass at the bar, and then some other fuckwad did that “Me love you long time” line, I had to get guy friends to talk to him. I felt fucking ashamed that I didn’t know enough martial arts to beat the living shit out of him. Ashamed and weak. It shouldn’t be that way because they SHOULDN’T HAVE FUCKING ACTED LIKE THAT.

(via akitron)

okay seriously fuck you Patrick Witt

NEW HAVEN — On Nov. 13, Patrick J. Witt, Yale University’s star quarterback, announced that he had withdrawn his Rhodes scholarship application and would instead play against Harvard six days later, at the very time of the required Rhodes interview. His apparent choice of team fealty over individual honor capped weeks of admiring national attention on this accomplished student and his quandary.

But Witt was no longer a contender for the Rhodes, a rare honor reserved for those who excel in academics, activities and character. Several days earlier, according to people involved on both sides of the process, the Rhodes Trust had learned through unofficial channels that a fellow student had accused Witt of sexual assault. The Rhodes Trust informed Yale and Witt that his candidacy was suspended unless the university decided to re-endorse it.

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you guys it was SO FUCKING NOBLE of Patrick Witt to not go to a RHODES SCHOLARSHIP INTERVIEW SO HE COULD PLAY IN THE BIG GAME AGAINST HARVARD, BECAUSE FOOTBALL IS CLEARLY MORE IMPORTANT THAN SCHOOL.

Not to mention that he was in a frat that was banned from campus activities for five years because of SEXUAL HARASSMENT.

And then the big dirty secret comes out of why he really lost it in the first place: for sexually assaulting someone.

way to perpetuate the stereotype of a brainless privileged piece of shit frat boy.

this article just incites so much anger in me and I want to punch him repeatedly in his fucking smug face because everything wrong with this country’s academic priorities are written in it. this fucking asshole gets picked to go to Yale on the basis that he can throw a fucking pigskin around over more gifted candidates (I don’t fucking care if he maintained a 3.9 GPA at Yale, being able to play football for Yale, which, to my knowledge, is not a big sports school to begin with, is nothing to write home about). And then someone offers this already privileged piece of shit a running to get a RHODES SCHOLARSHIP and he says he TURNED IT DOWN TO PLAY FOOTBALL. AND HE IS LAUDED FOR IT UNTIL SOMEONE EXPOSES HIM FOR THE DOUCHE HE IS. WHAT. THE. ACTUAL. FUCK. 

There are so many other people who deserve that scholarship and I hope the Rhodes goes to someone a million times better than this sorry misogynistic piece of shit.