"Women's rights"

I've been really busy with COWS so I haven't had time to update, but my reasons are completely selfless and admirable so you can't hate me.

Something happened a couple months ago that has really been getting to me that I can barely sleep since. At my college bar, Amnesty hosted a charity evening of stand up comedies and jokes. As I possess a sharp wit and a strong sense of humour, I had high hopes to see what the best of Cambridge had to offer.

To my dismay, there were no women comedians in over half a dozen acts. This on its own was fine, as I recognise the comedic ability of both sexes as they are equally humorous, but there were several jokes that seemed to aimed directly at my expense. Consistent shots were taken against women, objectifying them or portraying them as something inferior and alien. I felt targeted, even harassed, but I sat in protest and refused to laugh.

The evening culminated with one of the most horrific things I've ever heard. They were doing a "best one-liner competition" and when they were announcing some of the entries, there was one that just said "women's rights." I was shocked and appalled that someone in the world would find this funny. I was literally angry.

Is Cambridge comedy really that far behind the rest of the world that they still think women's rights are a joke? It's not even a joke, it's just two words. There's no question and answer format that jokes are supposed to follow. It just doesn't work. It would possibly work if we were still in the 60s, and that's exactly what it felt like that evening. I just don't understand why this would be considered humour, when women have had rights for several decades.

It appears that in comedy, there is still a strong dominant male culture much like the one that was commonplace 50 years ago, a bunch of "laddie lads" who hang around high-fiving each other and joking about how dumb women are, despite the social and cultural advances we have made in that time. To me, that is the real joke.