The online phenomenon of ironic comedy has grown exponentially over the past decade largely due to the increasing popularity of sites like Reddit, 4chan and, more recently, Tumblr, Twitter, Facebook, etc. Irony has evolved immeasurably from Ray Bradbury writing a book about burning books. Irony is now millions of young people declaring "Dicks Out for Harambe" without any explanation for those who don't get the joke. (No, I won't explain the joke.)
Users on these sites have, over the years, essentially developed their own language of comedy -- one that can typically only be understood by others who have been involved with the internet for just as long as they have or longer. As someone who has been on the internet for at least a decade, ironic comedy comes naturally to me. I can easily understand and speak its language. But I'm also extremely critical of it.
The internet, specifically since the ascension of anonymity, is a breeding ground for hatred and online comedy is not exempt. Sites like Reddit and 4chan have always been men's turf, safe spaces for the Everyman to put on a mask and spew hateful rhetoric towards Others. (Don't believe me? Content warning for literally every upsetting thing you could possibly think of. Please don't click this link.)
Women and all intersections of women, have largely been excluded from this evolution of language. Mostly because we've always been the butts of the jokes, sometimes because irony is just chalked up to being "a man's game" due to its history and reputation on bigoted websites. More feminine-oriented sites like Tumblr, Twitter and Facebook are platforms where women have begun to vocalize their comedic sides. But we continue to be interrupted, spoken-over and ridiculed at every attempt. In the past, I've addressed the benefits of seeking out funny women on the internet and my beliefs still stand.
Irony has grown so much that it's become a new genre of journalism. Seriously. Incredibly popular sites like the Onion, Clickhole and the A.V. Club are recognizable, well-known, and generally understood as comedic satire. (Unless, of course, when your conservative uncle shares an Onion article with a wildly hot-headed criticism without realizing that the article was, in fact, satirical. Then it's funny for a completely different reason.)
But what else is incredible about these sites is that they occasionally attempt to address bigotry through their unique breed of ironic comedy. Articles like "Woman Takes Short Half-Hour Break From Being Feminist To Enjoy TV Show" and "Feminism In Action: This Man Loves Women So Much He Lives In A Compound With 17 Of Them" tackle misogyny in light-hearted, hilarious and singingly accurate portrayals of women's roles in the world.
But, of course because these sites are typically headed by the privileged, sometimes their "feminist" articles fall a little bit flat. This most frequently happens when satirical articles place the joke upon "overly sensitive" or "easily offended" feminists. These are negative stereotypes about feminists that, when "satired" by sites like the Onion, are counterproductive.
Enter: The Reductress.
The Reductress is a women-founded, women-aimed and women-written satirical news site which parodies the roles and expectations placed upon women all over the media. Its use of irony is just as funny, if not more so, than that of the Onion. Just last week, my best friend, her boyfriend, my girlfriend, a mutual male friend and I were all gathered around our phones reading off hilarious Reductress titles and laughing our butts off. That's right: we were in stitches at the article titles alone.
When handling feminism, this publication does so from the perspective of real women -- real funny women. The result is comedic journalism which never places women at the losing end of the joke. But instead it actually encourages people to laugh at the ridiculousness of the everyday misogyny. The result is feminist comedy, a genre we should all be appreciating.
The Reductress is the best of both worlds. Its brand of ironic comedy is modern, current and successful without sacrificing feminist values or succumbing to misogyny just for laughs. In fact, most of the articles on the Reductress parody those found in typical "women's magazines," so it finally feels like we, as women, are the target demographic and not just undesirables snooping around where we aren't welcome.
The Reductress slashes any stereotype that insists women, especially feminists, aren't funny. And it achieves this by highjacking a comedic style which has, for so long, been used against women at large. Plus, it is almost exclusively gynocentric. It's for these reasons that the Reductress team are some one of my biggest female comedic role models. I can't recommend them enough to women looking for more feminist online comedy and to anyone else simply looking to diversify their web browsing.
