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In the light of recent allegations against Russell Brand, Metro are re-sharing this article from 2020.<\/em><\/p>\n Newsflash:\u00a0comedy, as an industry, has a problem with how men behave towards women.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n That\u2019s\u00a0right, us \u2013 the comedians! The beta-males and bullied-at-school, the snowflake leftist ally gang! Who would have possibly thought it?<\/p>\n Well,\u00a0no s**t. All industries have problems with how men behave towards women.\u00a0However, in light of the Russell Brand Dispatches documentary, there has been testimony after testimony circulating on social media about the behaviour of men on the comedy circuit.\u00a0<\/p>\n The\u00a0\u2018circuit\u2019 here is essentially our workplace, but there is no organisation behind it \u2013 it is an organic collection of rooms, promoters, pubs, clubs and theatres that range from The Hammersmith Apollo to the Edinburgh Fringe to 20 chairs above a pub in Carlisle.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n Its\u00a0underground word of mouth existence and weird ramshackle history makes it a strange and exciting place. But it also means that anyone who can put up a sign and take cash on a door has power.\u00a0<\/p>\n As\u00a0a new act, the idea of getting \u00a320 to stand on stage and make people laugh blew my mind. The very first time, a fire was lit in my belly. I wanted to know every gig, every promoter, every nook and cranny of this hidden world.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n I\u2019ve\u00a0had life-changing experiences, mostly good, some bad. But even in the darker times, the dead ends and crappy nights on smelly sofas of odd men, I never once felt afraid for my own safety, or that my future career might rest on anything more than my performance on stage.\u00a0<\/p>\n This\u00a0is not a story shared by the women in comedy. For many their route to a career in this industry is an obstacle course of overcoming the rampant sexism of audience members, promoters and other acts, as well as suffering the comedians who try it on, the isolation\u00a0of being the only woman on the bill, the nights where \u2018accommodation included\u2019 turns out to be a sofa bed in a strange man\u2019s house, and in some cases, sexual assault and rape.\u00a0<\/p>\n As\u00a0someone who was once in a relationship with a comedian I will always value the insight it gave me into just how different things are for my female peers \u2013 the abuse online, the comments about their appearance, the derogatory remarks made before they were brought\u00a0onstage, the endless references to having sex with them, the groping (and infinite attempts made).\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n To view this video please enable JavaScript, and consider upgrading to a webbrowser thatsupports HTML5video<\/p>\n But\u00a0I also remember the guilt at how little I had known about it, how blind I had been to the problem.\u00a0If,\u00a0as a man, you\u2019re sitting there thinking ,\u2018We don\u2019t have this problem in my office\/warehouse\/annual beekeepers convention!\u2019, speak to your female colleagues.<\/p>\n Ask if they\u2019ve ever been made to feel uncomfortable, or had unwanted physical contact from a co-worker, or\u00a0been pressured into sex, or ever felt that their gender came before their job?\u00a0<\/p>\n \u2018What?\u00a0Nigel in accounts?! Surely not?! He seems like such a nice guy!\u2019.\u00a0Or\u00a0\u2013 more likely \u2013 comes the fear, the nauseating shame that it wasn\u2019t Nigel at all. It was you.<\/p>\n That\u00a0fear and shame beats around our guts and it stops us speaking out, changing our own behaviour and, worst of all, intervening to interrupt the behaviour of male colleagues we know to be abusive.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n I\u00a0feel that fear and shame, too,\u00a0so\u00a0let\u2019s give it a voice, because it has one in my head \u2013 and we may as well go with Nigel.\u00a0<\/p>\n Whenever\u00a0I\u2019ve tried to articulate something about other men\u2019s behaviour, Nigel pops up and says, \u2018But you\u2019re no better! You\u2019ve had drunken sex! You\u2019ve woken up in a stranger\u2019s bed! You\u2019ve tried to wangle one more drink back at yours! You\u2019re the worst!\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n \u2018And\u00a0if you so much as draft that tweet you\u2019ll be cancelled faster than \u201cBen Elton Live From Planet Earth\u201d\u2018(seriously, check it out).\u00a0<\/p>\n As\u00a0men it is our duty not to ignore that voice and stay silent in fear of our own clumsiness being exposed, but to listen to it then go back through the Rolodex of flings, flirtations, parties and one night stands and ask where our behaviour has been found wanting.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n Was\u00a0she too drunk? Was I too drunk? What was the dynamic that evening? Did I pester? Did I engineer a situation where it was \u2018easier\u2019 for her to have sex with me than it was to arrange transport home, or to find her friends?\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n As\u00a0embarrassing as this self-examination may be, we must accept the difference between how we behaved privately and how we present ourselves publicly.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n We\u00a0must commune with our own sense of shame.\u00a0Only then will we have the confidence to speak out against sexual assault. There are men in our industry raping women and it has to stop.\u00a0<\/p>\n There\u00a0are things we can do that go beyond introspection. If you have power and are a \u2018gate-keeper\u2019 for your industry, how does gender affect the operation of said gate? Do you expect something from women you wouldn\u2019t expect from men, or see your status as a right\u00a0to be accommodated by women?\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n Do\u00a0you touch the women you work with more than the men? At all? Why? What might that feel like? What is it like to be touched, even just on the arm, by a man who is responsible for whether you get paid? It must feel f**king horrible, right?\u00a0<\/p>\n \u2018Oh\u00a0you can\u2019t even bloody look at a woman without being hauled in front of the courts these days!\u2019I hear you cry. Quite the opposite.\u00a0<\/p>\n In 2019, it was revealed that only 1.7% of rapes in England and Wales were prosecuted. Sit with that statistic for a while, the full brutality of it.<\/p>\n If your immediate reaction to an allegation of rape is,\u00a0 \u2018Well why aren\u2019t the police involved?!\u2019 or ,\u2018Where\u2019s the\u00a0evidence?!\u2019 \u2013 it\u2019s right there, 98.3%.<\/p>\n You\u00a0may think your hand on the shoulder is fine (and it may well be!) but the woman you flirt with knows, that if you were to threaten her and force yourself on her, then 99 times out of 100 you would get away with it.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n To view this video please enable JavaScript, and consider upgrading to a webbrowser thatsupports HTML5video<\/p>\n We\u00a0all need to take responsibility for that complete failure of basic justice and human rights.\u00a0<\/p>\n On\u00a0a brighter note, there are also proactive things we can do to make our workplaces better. For example, flood the place with women. In comedy, the shift in atmosphere backstage is remarkable when instead of one woman (or none) there are two, or three, or, God\u00a0forbid FOUR.\u00a0<\/p>\n Suddenly\u00a0that one woman doesn\u2019t represent all women, she has support, confidantes, shared experiences \u2013 some of the many things men take for granted and exist wherever we go. And the gig is\u00a0better\u00a0<\/em>for it. It\u2019s more interesting, it feels more energetic and connects with more people in the audience. And, somewhat crucially for comedy shows, it\u2019s funnier.<\/p>\n On the rare occasions I\u2019ve been in writers\u00a0rooms with a woman (and it\u2019s never been more than one) you would not believe the difference it made \u2013 the topics that opened up, the jokes that came from nowhere, the experience of 50% of the population suddenly having a voice in a television show.\u00a0And, yep, funnier.\u00a0<\/p>\n Comedy\u00a0needs more female acts, producers, promoters, writers, all-female line-ups and all-female writers rooms. But this won\u2019t happen unless our industry becomes a safer place.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n We\u00a0have lost too much talent, brilliant women who could not tolerate another comment, another sleazy guy, another assault.\u00a0Comedy is a bleaker place for their absence.\u00a0<\/p>\n Platform is the home of Metro.co.uk’s first-person and opinion pieces, devoted to giving a platform to underheard and underrepresented voices in the media. <\/strong><\/p>\n Find some of our best reads of the week below:<\/p>\n Emily Bashforth explains that, even though Katy Perry was married to Russell Brand, she doesn’t owe anyone a response. <\/p>\n A mum to a 15-year-old vaper shares her concerns about the proposed ban on single-use vapes and how it might impact addicted teens like her own daughter. <\/p>\n An uplifting piece from Emily Powell, who ran away to Vegas with her groom and got married in a 15-minute-long, $150 ceremony officiated by Elvis. <\/p>\n And Pranjal Jain made us all cringe when she shared that she accidentally said ‘I love you’ on a first date after a language translation error. Her date’s reply left her gob-smacked. <\/p>\n Men need to stop accommodating other\u00a0men we know to be a threat. I\u2019m speaking directly to the male comedians in my industry now. You know all the rumours, the stories that nearly came out, the names mentioned backstage \u2013 onstage, even \u2013 as well as the injunctions taken out, the NDAs signed.\u00a0<\/p>\n Of course there must be opportunity for\u00a0people to address their behaviour, to make direct apologies to those they have mistreated and space for them to change.\u00a0But until they do, don\u2019t work with them.\u00a0Don\u2019t write for them. Don\u2019t gig with them or appear on the same platform as them. If your agent represents them, have a word.\u00a0<\/p>\n This advice isn\u2019t just for comedians,\u00a0either \u2013 anyone can confront bad behaviour when you see it. I don\u2019t mean getting into a fist fight in a bar with an a**hole but saying to friends, \u2018I don\u2019t like the way you talk about her\u2019. Stepping in when your friend is pestering someone in a pub, or a club,\u00a0or at work.\u00a0<\/p>\n Don\u2019t leave and roll your eyes. Give\u00a0women a way out. Be a spare wheel. Call a cab. Be active in this. Starve this behaviour of oxygen.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n And, finally, if someone speaks up,\u00a0or shares their story, contact them, reach out and most importantly, believe them.<\/p>\n![](\"https:\/\/metro.co.uk\/wp-content\/themes\/metro-parent\/img\/fallback.png\")
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