Stand-Up Comedy and Contemporary Feminisms - (Library of Gender and Popular Culture) by Ellie Tomsett (Paperback)

About the Book

An in-depth exploration of the ways in which the contemporary live UK comedy industry simultaneously encourages and resists the inclusion of women

Book Synopsis

What are the barriers to women's participation in live comedy, and how are these barriers maintained in the digital era?

In this book, Ellie Tomsett considers how the origins of stand-up comedy still impact on current live comedy production, and explains how the contemporary stand-up scene continues to reflect wider societal stereotypes about the capabilities of women.

Using primary data collected from women-only comedy nights and immersive research with the UK Women in Comedy Festival in Manchester, Tomsett analyses examples of stand-up performed by contemporary comedians - including Bridget Christie, Luisa Omielan, Lolly Adefope and Gráinne Maguire - and provocatively questions how these performances relate to conceptions of feminist and postfeminist humour, as well as notions of backlash against contemporary feminisms. She focuses on live comedy that is explicitly feminist to consider how social attitudes to women, the increasing visibility of female labour outside the home, and the emergence of multiple (and sometimes contradictory) feminisms has influenced the comedy produced by women comedians in 21st century Britain.

Review Quotes

"This is a lucidly written, critical, and powerful book that documents the historical exclusion of women from the UK comedy industry and connects it to the present cultural conjuncture, where feminist comedy and affirmative action coexist with continuing marginalisation and a complexified backlash against feminism." --European Journal of Humour Research

"Informed by a wide range of empirical research, Stand-Up Comedy and Contemporary Feminisms offers a timely and important account of not only the challenges facing women comedians in the UK, but also how feminist comedy is finding new audiences and challenging orthodoxies in the British comedy industry." --Nicholas Holm, Massey University, New Zealand

Informed by a wide range of empirical research, Stand-Up Comedy and Contemporary Feminismsoffers a timely and important account of not only the challenges facing women comedians in the UK, but also how feminist comedy is finding new audiences and challenging orthodoxies in the British comedy industry.

About the Author

Ellie Tomsett is lecturer in Media at Birmingham City University, UK. She was researcher in residence with the UK Women in Comedy Festival (2014-2019) and is co-founder of Mixed Bill, a comedy and gender research network. She has published on feminist and postfeminist stand-up comedy, self-deprecation, and protest humour.