So, yesterday was International Women’s Day. I wore a badge to work, and one woman said to me
‘Oh my goodness, is it Women’s Day?? I have a degree in women’s studies and I didn’t know!’
Which says a lot, really. Awareness of this supposedly international day, in England, is very poor. Unless you’re already looking into it, or you live in central London, the likelihood of the average Jane knowing is slim. It’s infuriating, really - the one day that the whole world is supposed to be celebrating women, and England doesn’t really give a shit.
Anyway, it’s delayed but there is one woman I have discovered recently, while trawling through vids from Whose Line is it Anyway? rather than working, who is really quite something. Her name, my friends, is Josie Lawrence, and she’s a FANTASTIC comedian 
It’s unusual to see women on comedy shows (See Mock the Week, Have I Got News For You etc), and it would appear that only a few years ago this wasn’t the case - Josie and many other women took part in the Whose Line is it Anyway sketches…
Nowadays, we don’t hear so much about her. But she’s still going strong. She’s done some work for radio, her latest being on Just a Minute, is playing the lead role in Tom Stoppard’s Hapgood at the Birmingham Repertory Theatre, and had guest appearance in Skins. She has made great contributions to charity - in 2003 Josie spent eight months walking across China, Cuba, Peru and Tanzania for Breakthrough Breast Cancer and in 2005 she climbed Mount Kilimanjaro for Sunfield – a school for children with learning difficulties - of which she is a patron. She is also a supporter of the National Autistic Society’s Make School Make Sense campaign.
So today (in place of yesterday) is my celebration, and while I celebrate women everyday, I’d like to take today to celebrate Josie Lawrence, and all the other female comedians who deserve to be remembered. There are so many brilliant, funny women out there, we just need to give them back the limelight that is rightfully theirs.
(Oh, there are so many…tis tricky to choose from!)
I’d also like to take a moment to despair. There are no words. Just…despair.
As the wise Bo Burnham says:
George Bush won’t he just yell and rant
But he’s a presiDONT who ameriCANT
Anyway. At work the other day this guy came in, and stayed for AGES. He wanted some music for a talk he was doing about wildlife in Sussex [I kid you not, our conversation literally went like this:
Me: So what's this music for?
CrazyGuy: Oh, for my talk. I do a lot of talks, this one's about nature.
Me: Oh, how lovely.
CrazyGuy: Yeah, it's incredible. If you just show someone a picture of a woodlouse they'll be unimpressed, disgusted even. But with the right lighting, the perfect music, it can bring a tear to your eye.
Me: ...uhhuh.
See - crazy.] Oh, laughter is difficult to silence but silence it I did. However, I didn’t do so well when I was playing CrazyGuy some Einaudi (amazing composer, and it was a cd of someone else playing his piano concertos which I am rather excited about buying at some point). He was enjoying it, I was pretty taken with it myself, and this other guy, let’s call him ObnoxiousIWishHe’dGoAway Guy, ObnoxiousGuy for short, came over to the counter with his daughter. He looks at us and this follows:
ObnoxiousGuy: You could listen to this music all day, couldn’t you?
Me: Yes, definitely (*pleased as CrazyGuy has been monitoring the responses of other customers while in search of emotive woodlouse music*)
ObnoxiousGuy: It’s so…dull. You can just let it wash over you. I mean, there’s nothing to it. A six year old could play this.
Me: …
*My boss continues to serve ObnoxiousGuy, I try to ignore him and then…*
ObnoxiousGuy: It’s like…what’s that awful woman’s name?
ObnoxiousGuy’sDaughter: *laughs in a really irritating weedy way* Oh daddy, do you mean Amy Winehouse?
ObnoxiousGuy: Yeah, Amy Winehouse. Doesn’t she look a state.
Me: Oh, that’s a shame (see, polite :)), personally I really like Amy Winehouse’s voice.
ObnoxiousGuy: Well, I…
Me: And as far as my opinion of music goes, it’s more how it sounds and how much enjoyment I get from the piece of music rather that what the singer looks like that matters.
ObnoxiousGuy: But she is a state. I can’t bear her.
At which point I registered the evils my boss was giving me and shut up. But it’s always the way! Sure, he was one ObnoxiousGuy and he was ridiculous about Einaudi too, but it’s so unusual for someone to say ‘Oh, that Mark Ronson, he’s such a mess. I won’t listen to his music’ or ‘God, Elvis let himself go, I can’t bear to listen to his music now’ but female singers/bands are instantly judged on their appearance and their lifestyles. At some point, sure, their talent is considered. But look at Amy Winehouse - she’s incredibly talented. But so many people hate her, because of the way she leads her life. I think she needs help, yes, and she would probably perform better if she were more healthy. But while I may look at her lifestyle with concern, I won’t let it affect my enjoyment of her music.
Anyway, so that was the ‘fall out’ at work - my boss said afterwards that it’s best to leave things like that (because then ‘they leave the shop much more quickly’ - if it weren’t for me he’d not have stuck around contaminating the shop…) but there are some things that I just won’t let lie. If a customer says something that I strongly disagree with, I’ll say. I won’t say it rudely, and I’ll accept their right to an opinion, but I’ll not silence my own. So that’s that.
And on that note - Adieu!
Just saw this on a friend’s facebook - um, wtf?
Oh also - I’ve changed the blog from Esse Quam Videri to The Token Feminist - it makes more sense than the web address being a totally different blog name
7 comments
Comments feed for this article
March 10, 2008 at 1:00 am
A Celebration, A Moment of Despair and A Fall Out at Work by cancer.MEDtrials.info
[...] continues at Caitlin brought to you by cancer.medtrials.info and [...]
March 10, 2008 at 1:25 am
Jacob Ward
I think at the time people commented on Elvis’ physical expansion with disdain. I don’t think it has anything to do with gender; Pete Doherty is slated in the press as well for similar actions. I personally strongly dislike both specimens as besides being very against the use of ‘recreational’ drugs I think they’re being totally irresponsible given their large numbers of young impressionable fans.
I try not to argue with customers on matters of taste as it comes across as rude, though as regards principle (like refusing to fill in a Gift Aid form) I can be quite rude, as I said yesterday. It’s probably quite a bad idea, but hey, I don’t get paid much anyway.
Glad to see that Bush link has aroused emotions from all quarters (most people replied to that email I sent round). As I said to Sean, perhaps he wouldn’t be so keen on waterboarding if he were to experience it himself.
If only…
March 10, 2008 at 1:37 am
A Celebration, A Moment of Despair and A Fall Out at Work-Download Music
[...] omi wrote an interesting post today onHere’s a quick excerptI won’t listen to his music’ or ‘God, Elvis let himself go, I can’t bear to listen to his music now’ but female singers/bands are instantly judged on their appearance and their lifestyles. At some point, sure, their talent is considered … [...]
March 10, 2008 at 9:44 am
Caitlin
Perhaps they were bad examples? But you can’t deny that female musicians are targeted a lot for their appearance and/or their lifestyles, while male musicians generally aren’t - perhaps Doherty is an exception, but even he is glorified by a lot of magazines/people for his awful lifestyle, being awarded things like Sexiest Male and Coolest Star over the years, despite everyone knowing how much drugs he does…
Also, I doubt many people commented on Elvis’ condition and then moved from that to the assumption that that his music is crap. It’s ridiculous.
Ah, see I think it’s important to question people if they express beliefs that are absurd…I mean, I don’t do it often but who knows, maybe he went home and thought about it. Maybe.
I hope you weren’t hugely rude to the anti-gift-aid person…you don’t get paid much but you do get paid, and I thought you enjoyed it? Hey ho.
The Bush thing is just ridiculous. He should never have the power to overrule something as important as that. But no Jakey, that doesn’t mean he should experience it himself. That’s a terrible thing to say. [& how often do I say that to you? Maybe I'll start keeping count...]
March 10, 2008 at 2:36 pm
Jacob Ward
Don’t be so quick to think the worst of everything I say then
I wasn’t suggesting he should experience waterboarding; no one deserves that, not even him. My point was that he might reconsider if he were to understand what the experience is like. It’s like the point Michael Moore made in Fahrenheit 9/11; only one child of a senator is serving in the armed forces. If the decisions they made meant that their kids would be going off to war then they might have thought a little harder about it.
Winehouse wins countless awards for her music, but it’s not for everyone; I personally don’t like most of it, but that’s got nothing to do with my dislike for her antics. It’s a matter of taste. Paparazzi will photograph anything that will get them a pile of money from the tabloids, which will frankly print photos of any celebrity, just as long as they’re in a compromising position. I don’t think gender is what they’re considering when they’re photographing someone famous being dragged home in a bag because they’re so drunk they can’t stand. Frankly if someone’s stupid enough to read The Sun or Hello instead of a real newspaper, then I don’t think their opinion really counts for anything anyway.
I won’t get fired, everyone likes me and management are always telling us to push Gift Aid numbers up. If I questioned every ridiculous thing people said at the castle/AoC then I’d definitely get fired, coz it would be every five minutes (we get a lot of very ignorant Americans in who say the stupidest things about Lewes).
I really hate this weather -.-
March 11, 2008 at 8:30 pm
Matt Gates
A middling response: =)
Interesting stuff, I reckon there’s quite a few famous (and brilliant) female guests on both Mock the Week and NIGNFY although I take the point that there are less than the male guests- perhaps there are simply less women that want to be/are in comedy than men?
Another example in the ‘Winehouse debate’ is Michael Jackson- he doesn’t exactly get good press (but then he is, franky, nuts) I dunno about this one either, kinda in the middle fo both of ye on that one!
President Bush publically agreeing with torture tactics like waterboarding and cold cell is ridiculous! Ok, i’m aware this is a big ol’ debate about torture tactics and i’m kinda uncertain of my stance too. If torture is the only way to get a terrorist to tell where he’s hid the bomb in a shopping centre, for example, is it justified? Saying that, the Brits (but the Americans more so) tend to pull in a lot of innocent people too- that’s not right either! Tough stuff.
And finally, I think Michael Moore should join the army - he might be useful for something then at least!
March 11, 2008 at 9:16 pm
Caitlin
Isn’t Moore good at raising awareness? No?
Matt, there are TONS of female comedians. But, unsurprisingly, it’s apparently more difficult for them to become as well known as the many male ones that grace our screens. On mock the week & hignfy I have NEVER seen more than one woman…and it’s almost always the same one or two that they invite. Jo Brand has been on mtw, I think. But more often than not, it’s men.
Surprise!
I’ll still listen to Michael Jackson’s early music. He was very talented. But he’s not had good press because of his court cases, not so much for his appearance (until, I concede, he radically changed it. But before, he wasn’t automatically judged on his appearance and his lifestyle. He was judged on his adorable voice.)
As for Bush - yeah. No words. I just…it’s just…so wrong.