Girls Aren't Funny

“Women aren’t as funny as men” Germaine Greer on a TV show in 2009

“The reason why you know more funny dudes than funny chicks is that dudes are funnier than chicks” Adam Carolla a US radio presenter, while promoting his new book in 2012: Not Taco Bell Material

“Women can be funny, they’re just not given the chance” Lynne Parker, founder of ‘Funny Women’, writing for the Guardian in 2009

Claire Douglass, Tinsel Edwards, Miriam Elia, The Girls, Sadie Hennessy,
Catherine Magnani, Sarah Maple, Twinkle Troughton, Sig Waller

A public furor and raging debate ensued Greer’s public remark and more recently Carolla’s declaration, “The reason why you know more funny dudes than funny chicks is that dudes are funnier than chicks”. This opinion is widely held and is still fervently debated. If you are a female, being funny is ‘not something regularly associated with attractiveness’ observes Lynne Parker for the Huffington Post, although contrariwise for a man it is considered an attractive trait.

Greer later elucidated by saying that she thought females lacked the humour of their male counterparts due to social conditioning, for generations women have been supposed to be passive, and being funny would be unattractive and threatening to a man.

We have been thinking about all of this and have decided to set ourselves the challenge of proving to everyone that GIRLS ARE FUNNY! The purpose of this exhibition is to spread the word that girls, women and ladies alike can be funny. To do this we have carefully selected a talented group of female artists whose work does actually make you smile, chuckle and laugh out loud.

To broaden the platform we will also be screening several short films on the opening night, including a performance by the fabulous Bryony Kimmings, ‘One of the funniest, most charming things I’ve seen in an age’ Time Out

“A woman especially, if she have the misfortune of knowing anything, should conceal it as well as she can.” Jane Austen