Women work so incredibly hard to live up to the expectations of others every single day. They strive to be the best version of themselves that they can. Despite their effort and hard work, people will still make countless misogynistic remarks about them. So many comedians belittle women and their contributions to society by making some unfunny, poorly-written joke.
This past Golden Globes, the host and comedian, Jo Koy, decided it would be hilarious to make sexist remarks about successful women in the industry. Among Koy’s unfunny jokes, he said that the difference between the NFL and the Golden Globes was that the Golden Globes didn’t show Taylor Swift as much.
Does Swift ask to be shown? Does she try to have the cameras on her? No, not at all. All Swift is doing is being a supportive girlfriend, she has no control over the camera men at the games. If the roles were reversed and it was about Travis Kelce at the Eras Tour, Koy wouldn’t have thought about making that joke at all.
People have even criticized Swift for her reaction to the joke, saying it was unnecessary and exaggerated, when in reality all she did was sip her champagne and awkwardly smile. However, those same people praise Ryan Gosling for having no reaction to it, which is ironic because they found a way to criticize a sexist joke while being sexist at the same time.
That’s not even all Koy said at the Golden Globes. According to Koy, the new Barbie movie was just about a “plastic doll with big boobies.” Clearly the whole point of the movie flew right over his head. Barbie was about how no matter what you do as a woman, it is never going to be enough for others. America Ferrera’s speech in the movie is all about how impossible it is to be a woman because of all the criticism and double standards they’re held up to.
Women from all over, myself included, felt like that movie shined a light on the struggles of being a woman in society and for a man to disregard that all is sickening. The movie was all about the problems that people like Koy cause for women. Him making that joke about the movie proves that point even more.
As someone who has heard countless misogynistic jokes and been told that it’s not a big deal, seeing people with a large audience encourage these jokes is frustrating. Speaking from experience, when you work just as hard, if not harder, to achieve your goals than a man does and then get made fun of for it, it significantly affects your confidence in yourself and your capabilities as a woman.
Comedians like Matt Rife do the exact same thing. In his Netflix special, he makes a joke about domestic violence. Throughout his career, Rife’s audience has largely been women so the sudden change up to the ignorant, sexist jokes did not sit well with others. Many smaller comedians do the same thing and face no criticism. If you go to a comedy show, the chances of hearing a misogynistic joke are quite high. These smaller comedians don’t have as large of an audience to tell them that it’s not okay so they continue to make sexist remarks and contribute to the growing misogyny in comedy.
Misogynistic jokes have been so normalized in comedy that when someone speaks up about them, they’re called “soft” and told they need to “learn how to take a joke.” People say that it’s just a joke although it’s not. The jokes affect how women feel about themselves and normalizing these jokes is not okay.
