This week, I watched the Fortune Feimster’s stand-up performance, Sweet and Salty. I chose to watch this special not only because of my inherent interest in stand-up comedy, but because it caught my attention because she is not only a woman, but she is openly gay. I thought that this performance may be interesting to discuss in relation to this class and our investigations into the world of women’s humor. Here’s a quick background on Feimster, if you’re not familiar with her. Fortune Feimster is an actress, comedian and writer who grew up in North Carolina. She came out as a lesbian at age 25, and in 2008, she got engaged to her current fiancé. In her comedy, she enjoys making fun of her southern roots as well as her lack of typical femininity.
In Sweet and Salty, Feimster pokes fun at when she was a child playing soccer she yelled “Ow, my dick!” (Feimster, 44:39) as well as the fact that as a swimsuit, she would wear sweatpants and an oversized t-shirt with the sleeves cut off (Feimster, 11:03-11:11). Feimster then goes on to tell the story of her first “coming out” which is not what you may have initially assumed I just meant. Fortune comes from a family which used to have money. She shares this in Sweet and Salty explaining that her family mysteriously lost all of their money before she was born, moving the microphone out of her face to scream-whisper to her audience, “GAMBLING!” Per her mother’s request, Fortune attends debutante training which trains her for the debutante ball and “coming out party” which presents her to the world as an “upper class young woman making her first appearance in fashionable society.” She then jokes that this so-called “coming out party” just happened to be “the wrong coming out party” (Feimster, 19:43-22:35).
What captured my attention about Feimster’s humor, is she balances the self-depreciating humor with jokes which are merely just about herself. I would not say that her humor attacks herself in most cases during the performance, (although at times it does) but rather she uses sarcasm and clear dramatic irony to make jokes which are centered around her life. Because Feimster does not subscribe to all the “typical” attributes of a woman due to her personality, I felt that much of her humor did not fit into the described humor that Barreca describes in “Getting It” in They Used to Call Me Snow White... But I Drifted. Barreca does touch on the humor of so-called “Bad Girls” which says that the girls at vocational schools who were sometimes seen more as one of the bros sometimes subscribed to a humor which was less feminine, but by no means was Feimster a Bad Girl, she was simply...gay (Barreca, p. 6). Feimster doesn’t make jokes about her children, her home, or attacking those who have authority over her. In class, we discussed the idea of imagining jokes being made by a different person and seeing how the effect of the joke may change. I did just as such during Sweet and Salty. I imagined Feimster’s jokes where to be made by a man. Much of her comedy still held up. I believe this may be due to Feimster’s outward presentation, sexuality, and lack of traditional femininity. I am not trying to label Fortune as anything other than a woman, nor am I attacking her sexuality and stereotyping that all lesbians must be “butch”, but rather I believe that these aspects of herself lead her humor to transcend the gendered line of humor.
While this stand-up only made me laugh out loud a few times, I did still enjoy watching it. I enjoyed relating the content to what we have discussed in class. I also enjoyed supporting the comedic career of a lesbian woman, because who knows what adversity she may face in this world of internet trolls, woman haters and homophobes. If you have access to Netflix, I would definitely recommend watching this stand-up. If you don’t have Netflix and have interest in watching the special, let me know and we can grab a cup of coffee or something and watch it together because I would gladly watch it again.
For those who may be interested, Feimster also has a podcast, which she discusses random things with her fiance in a light hearted but sincere way.
Hannah, I absolutely love Fortune. I encountered a clip of her stand up while scrolling aimlessly through Facebook one day. Her storytelling is so smooth and comfortable in a uniquely intimate way. How she embraces her image is powerful and gives a new perspective on femininity. I will definitely have to check out her new special!
ReplyDeleteI like how you are kind of poking holes in Barreca's assessment of humor's relation to gender, because I didn't agree with how rigidly Barreca defined the way women use humor and the way men use humor. Barreca seemed to say that "all male comedians do this, this, and this all of the time" and "all female comedians do this, this and this all of the time", and this analysis abandons the fluid nature humor has nowadays.
ReplyDeleteI have never heard of this comedian, and I am always looking for new (preferably female, queer, POC, etc) comedians to watch, so I definitely will be checking out her special! As a lover of podcasts, as well, I would like to see what her podcast style is like. Also, the contrast between the family's coming out party and the implied "coming out" party is hilarious. In one sense, it is a representation and extravagant display of her imposed femininity and class. However, the other "coming out" represents her unique and defiant-of-the-norm sexuality and subsequent lifestyle. I very much enjoy queer comedians that are able to make uniting comedy out of their experiences that straight people and LGBT+ can both have a good laugh at.
ReplyDeleteLots of good points, Hannah. We will talk about what difference queerness makes in comedy and clearly you have identified some possible starting points here.
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