Will “I’m white,
middle-class and male” do it?
That type of joke is appropriate this week, what with it being the 100th
anniversary of (some) women being given the right to vote; how can an event like that still potentially be within living memory? Yet, while we may be a
century on from that momentous occasion, there’s clearly still along way to go,
what with all the terrible stories of men abusing positions of power - or
simply being paid far more than their female contemporaries - that have been in
the recent press; equality’s still an aim that's yet to be met.
It’s not just
sexism that’s the problem, but racism and class inequality (the first two parts of my
triple punchline). They all crop up in comedy too: I read an article the other day
about how the exorbitant cost of taking a show up to the Edinburgh Fringe means the
scene inevitably becomes stagnated with acts from the affluent, cossetted
middle-classes; after all they’re the only people who can afford to repeatedly do it. That’s not to say that it’s their fault, but the outcome is inevitable.
This puts me in
an awkward position, as I almost fit that catchment (if you remove the affluent
bit). While I may not be well-off, I am
male and white, which depressingly puts me at an advantage,
albeit subliminally. I’ve never had to face racism or sexism on a daily basis,
like so many do. That doesn’t necessarily put me in front, but at least I don’t
start on the back foot. How can we still live in a society when that’s still a
thing?
It’s such a joke,
when at the heart of it, we’re all the same, in the same way that we’re all a
bit different. There should be no sense of entitlement, other than the sense
that every single person is as entitled as the next; I may have just made my point more confusing.
(Typical man.)