The Women of The Daily Show
Recently, Irin at Jezebel put a really good post together about The Daily Show’s Woman Problem. It’s not hard to notice (and lots of people have written about this) that late night is a boy’s world. The Daily Show is no different from any other late night show.
Women are not very visible, especially as writers and correspondents. The Emmy nominations which were released this morning, shows how few women are working as writers. The Daily Show which was nominated in the outstanding writing category has two women listed on its writing staff and 15 guys. Last year there was only one woman so they increased the percentage of female writers from 6.25 percent to 11.7 percent. Better. Still sucks. And if you think The Daily Show is alone in its spare number of female writers think again. The other shows nominated for best writing include The Colbert Report which has 2 women writers on a staff of 16. Bill Maher has ZERO women writers on a staff of 10. Conan O’Brien has ZERO women writers on a staff of 19. The best show for women writers is Saturday Night Live which had 7 women on a staff of 28.
But this is not a problem, right?
The ladies at the Daily Show are pissed off at Irin and Jezebel for calling Jon Stewart a sexist and for basically dissing the work they all do. Now, none of us who write about this stuff believe that no women work on late night shows. We know they do. We know that they contribute to their success.
The truth is Samantha Bee has been the only female correspondent for some time. We occasionally also get Kristen Schaal when they want to talk about women’s issues. Olivia Munn got a very visible tryout (and now has a gig on the show) but who knows how much time she will have to be on the show because as I wrote before she’s on a primetime series coming this fall.
What I am getting out of this whole clusterfuck which has now become a she said/she said all over the lady web is that no one (me personally) would have given a shit about Olivia Munn or how pretty she is or how she just wrote a book if there had always been a consistent roster of female correspondents on the show. I watch the show. I think its funny. I just want more female writers and correspondents. Because I know that women can be as funny as men both behind the scenes and on the air.
Hiring Inequality Through The Daily Show (The Sexist)
Olivia Munn: “I’m easy to hate. I get it” (Salon)
{ 8 comments… read them below or add one }
It’s interesting when the issue of women in late night comedy comes up or comedy in general for that matter. Though the statistics are depressing, I don’t think one show can be pinned as sexist. Rather it’s kind of the whole genre and the letdowns start early
I remember in film school taking my first comedy writing class and in a class of 20 there were 2 girls. And it sucked.
We frequently opened class with the state of the industry and life in a late night/ comedy writer’s room. One story in particular discussed what we thought of a female comedy writer who left and sued for sexual harrassement .
The general consensus was that it was a “stupid move.” But I don’t think this person was stupid and knew what she was getting into. Highly-educated and hard-working, she was clearly put in a position where she felt so uncomfortable that she gave her entire rep in the town. Yes, the industry is tough–but I was under the impression this was someone who got that and had earned their stars.
For me, the fact that most of the classroom could not see what was wrong with her situation indicates that problem starts way before the sharp funny women of tomorrow make it staffing.
The truth is: if no one protests and directly and openly works to create a better future, then progress is not made. It’s sad that paying it forward is considered to be stupid. Taking abuse is not about “earning” anything, and believe me, the abusers are not going to turn around and go ‘gee, now, the kid’s alright – let’s give her a huge chance!’. Yeah, right….. Nope, you move on and get a chance. Abusers will never envision you as a order-giver, a leader, etc. Being ‘cool’ about being grinded just makes you a handy doormat. The coltish little mascot. But you’ll never be director, leader, owner, the guiding visionary – you think you are inching toward respect but you will never be in that boys club. You’ll be the ever helpmate and when you are too old to be cute, you’ll be replaced. There is no equity built by being the female mascot on an all male team that is closed to real female membership, no moment where they turn around and give you respect for ….eating crap and being ‘cool about it. Dudes don’t even do that for each other. Roseanne once said two important things that can be bits of advice for women. First, she said she didn’t understand in the beginning that the point was to work with people who wanted to work with her. Resistance and pain is not a sign you are doing something best for your talents. (only if you are a character in Twilight). Second, she said that she didn’t understand that power is never given to you – you just have to take it.
I also take issue with the picture of all the female staffers on the Daily Show. It’s kind of like what I experience in new technology. You could take a picture like that for Apple – but really, how many women had powerful positions on the iPhone team or the App store? How many women are on the board of Apple?
How many women are in the core creation team?
Don’t show me a picture of women rounded up from the hallways of the Daily Show, who answer the phone, handle greeting the studio audience, and handle ads and guest bookings and do admin sort of work when they don’t have anything to do with initiating, presenting, and creating the comedy on the Daily Show and tell me that these women are as powerful as the guys who set the stories up on the white board in meetings with Jon Stewart. You know, where the core creation team is. I agree that they protestth to muchth.
And women are plenty funny, even in high school and college – and who do you think writes the funniest notes passed in class in junior high?
Dear Daily Show PR peeps,
Lining up the secretaries (coordinators, office assistants, personal assistants, executive assistants, associate producers) make-up artists, hair stylists and wardrobe personal does not prove equality. It proves you think having women in traditionally female gendered roles is good enough.
It’s not.
Hire a female Gaffer, Grip, 1st AD, Boom op, Sound mixer, female writers and directors, female cam ops and directors of photography and then we can discuss your numbers approaching equality.
Only then.
Until then your simply continuing to show off your sexism and it saddens those of us who are female and enjoy the show anyway.
Dear Daily Show PR peeps,
Lining up the secretaries (coordinators, office assistants, personal assistants, executive assistants, associate producers) make-up artists, hair stylists and wardrobe personal does not prove equality. It proves you think having women in traditionally female gendered roles is good enough.
It’s not.
Hire a female Gaffer, Grip, 1st AD, Boom op, Sound mixer, female writers and directors, female cam ops and directors of photography and then we can discuss your numbers approaching equality.
Until then you’re simply continuing to show off your sexism and it saddens those of us who are female and enjoy the show anyway.
Hey John Stewart, If you’re paying attention to your female audience, you know we would love to see Sarah Haskins or an equally talented female added to your show. You know we are aware of the gender division of labor in TV production, in particular night time TV. We hope you’ll hold yourself and the show that carries your name to a higher standard. Sexism seems so far beneath you. Articles by women who have decided to be OK with institutional sexism is so incredibly disheartening to those of us still fighting for equality on set. I work on set and I am almost too exhausted to read the bull shit your PR peeps put out defending the sexism in your show. You can deny sexism all you want, just as their are idiots denying the holocaust. Remember this when you say good night to your children,
until sexism is eradicated all other isms thrive.
They wrote:
“We are co-executive producers, supervising producers, senior producers, segment producers, coordinating field producers, associate producers, editors, writers, correspondents, talent coordinators, production coordinators, researchers, makeup artists, the entire accounting and audience departments, production assistants, crew members, and much more.”
supervising producer is another word for coord. or mngr. – it’s office work, what we once called a “secretary” .
same with ass. prod.
research is an office job.
so is accting.
talent coordinator is the “secretary” who handles travel arrangements.
I doubt many of the female P.A.’s are actually on set, they are in the office, “where women belong”.
That “crew members” bit= is bull shit. Other than the vanities- it’s all men.
peace out,
and AD who has big tits!
Hi, great blog. A couple of your links under “Melissa’s Writing” are dead though in case you want to check that. I write a blog reviewing movies by female director’s. It’s in Swedish though. Thanks for your site! I’m searching for comedies… do you know of any list where I can find good ones? The only/best one I’ve seen is “2 days in Paris” by Julie Delphy. Fantastic! But I really need more… http://www.ingridcoelho.com I’m linking to your site now.
Sorry, here’s the right address: http://www.ingridcoelho.blogspot.com
Thanks for putting up a rational response to this hoopla. I didn’t particularly like Olivia Munn’s response either. Whether or not anyone at TDS had ‘heard’ of Jezebel before, blogs DO matter. Gawker.tv, a site in Jezebel’s network, is essentially a repository of Daily Show clips. They need the Internet.
Anyway, that aside, while I understand where the women of TDS are coming from, the commenter upthread who noted that most of them were not in positions of power or creative control was right on the money. That was the point, not that Jon Stewart is mean or that we are “jealous” that Olivia Munn is hot. As influential a show as TDS is, it needs more women on the writing staff and more women in front of the camera.
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