Saturday, March 08, 2008

Are Women Funny?

Rebecca who came to the last planning meet up has arranged an interesting event that's on soon in Manchester for ad folk. I believe she may be looking for a couple of female creatives to take the place of a person who had to pull out. If you can help let me know and I'll pass your details on.

Either way its worth going to:

'Are Women Funny?'
'Why is the female creative a rare breed? Is it simply because they just
aren't funny enough'


When & where?
11th March 2008, 6:30pm at the Circle Club, Barton Arcade, Manchester...


The talk:
Creative Departments nationwide have found themselves lacking female
creative talent. Why is this? Could it simply be that they are not funny
enough? Women have places in many boardrooms across the country however
numbers within the creative department are low. What is it that women lack
to be a part of Advertising design, Product design.. etc or is the problem
that the job just doesn't appeal to women for some reason? Join us over
this supper time debate as we try to find out just what the problem is.

The Questions:
Are Women Funny?
Is this the problem or are there other issues?
Is advertising just an old-fashioned industry?
Is it too male orientated?
What do women lack for the role?
Or
What does the role lack for women?

8 comments:

Anonymous said...

I don't think women are not funny enough. Personally, I believe that many of them are quite witty with their creativity. The problem is, the industry is mostly dominated by males. Males who usually have their own sense of humor. Of course, this is just a personal opinion and I don't exactly have facts to back it up.

Robert said...

We did some great work on this subject years ago and what we found was that men [supposidly] had a better sense of humour than women [though that's not 100% and certainly not the case with all men] because they have to continually practice their 'humour' skills to ensure they can survice in social situations with their mates.

You see as much as banter is good and well, it's actually more aggresive than considerate so to ensure you're not the brunt for everyones jokes, you have to be a master swordsmanship with wit.

Then there's the issue that men are so weak that if they find a woman they are attracted to, they tend to laugh at everything she she say's to look favourable [we all like to be popular] so the woman actually doesn't get to hone her humour skills as much.

To be honest there's lots more and I've been very superficial [and one sided] in what I've written so if anyone has other views, I'd love to hear them!

RebeccaWho said...

I dont think women are funny.

I get a few laughs, but I grew up with a bunch of blokes, and yes Rob, I had to continuously hone my humour skills to keep up with the gang.

I think that a lot of humour is based on making a fool out of yourself. That kind of behavior is expected of men, but is seen to be unattractive in women.

The events are very informal and are more based on opinion than fact. If you can make it I would love to hear your opinions on the matter - especially if you have done work on the matter Rob.

Rob Mortimer (aka Famous Rob) said...

Sadly Rob C is many miles away!

I think it is (as stated above) simply a matter than women are less likely to be 'funny' because they grow up with less of a need to be.

But women are potentially just as funny as men; they just rarely use that potential.

Robert said...

Isn't that what I said Mr M?

Women don't need to be funny because ultimately men don't make them practice their comedy chops because we tend to laugh at whatever they say in the hope it'll get us 'in'.

Not every man ... not every woman ... I've already been called a racist this month without wanting sexist added to that list.

Rob Mortimer (aka Famous Rob) said...

I did say "as stated above"!

Unknown said...

are creatives funny? do women have to be? does it matter? i know lots of women designers and a few copywriters. but they´re here in argentina. but me, well, i´m going to europe soon. maybe we´ll run into each other in your neighboorhood. maybe i´ll be dressed as a funny woman.

Anonymous said...

I'll go with Rebecca, women aren't funny. I know quite a few of them and women make some reallllllllly really bland jokes. The ones working in advertising might be more clever but they're rarely funny.

We might be funnier on our own though, when no one's looking or knows who we are.