Janelle Monáe: "There is an open war against women's rights"
- Until recently, humor in our country was practically a male stronghold . And still today they are a minority in television shows and shows. But things are beginning to change in the hands of a group of women, tanned before the cameras and in clubs, who are asking for passage and demanding more prominence . We talked with the main champions of this new feminine mood .
An image was recorded in the retina of all the spectators of the last gala of the Goya : the presenter Silvia Abril embedded in a huge strip of flesh color on the stage. And no, not for impositions of the script: "It was my idea, I wanted to make a sketch in which the women in the armchair were reflected , who are all angry because we want to be something that we are not and get into dresses in which we do not We were told to wear a black girdle, which stylizes more, and I said no, that flesh color. " And so he stayed on stage, accompanied by his partner and co-presenter Andreu Buenafuente , in briefs and with a perplexed face.
The occurrence did not go wrong, because the duo managed to break the streak of bad reviews that the presenters of the gala had taken in recent years and April will repeat next. Of course, with Buenafuente : "I have not gotten rid of Andreu . Now the challenge is to do it alone, say: 'Apart'. I'm going to have to buy cyanide," jokes the comedian, who has been doing comedy since leaving law studies to sign for the company Els Comediants , with which he was a decade before beginning his successful television career.
April , 47 , is one of the best known Spanish comedians today, one of the leading exponents of the increasingly numerous who are trying, based on work and much, much sense of humor, to open up. "The moment begins to be super tasty, it is something that had to happen. Women are late for this area, and few, but we are here to stay, " April says, this summer has presented 'Now I fall' (A3) replacing Arturo Valls .
Another of the best known among those few is Thais Villas , which has been making us laugh with their street interviews in 'The Intermediate' (La Sexta) for more than 10 years. "I have always had a tendency to humor to survive, especially when you get older, because this or you take it with a certain grace or you crush, and I decided first. You have no choice, just depress, but he has not called me God along that path, "says Villas , 42 ," you have to make things stand out, laugh, tend to happiness as it is. "
Villas was precisely chosen to present 'The Missing' (Movistar +) , "the first late night made only by women " (that is the official presentation line, the other, more thug, is the one that proclaims a voiceover at the beginning which welcomes "the program in which the only long tail is that of the bathroom"). This space, which began airing in spring and will continue in September with the second season, was born for the purpose of amendment. Even his name refers to a very commented absence: in 2018 the telephone chain rained criticism for the photo presentation of his humorous program at the Vitoria Festival : there were only two women in a total of 19 comedians . And that tide that seeks to increase the female presence in all areas has also reached the field of humor , until now mostly male in our country, with television programs, monologue spaces and shows co-opted by men. "The humor is done in bars and at night and it was not clear that the woman was there," says Olga Hueso , who has been in the last season of 'Paquita Salas' and has just joined the work ' The mother who gave birth ' .
Two examples from now on: ' La Chocita del Loro ', a place in the heart of Madrid's Gran Vía dedicated to humor, currently has 27 monologists on the bill, and among them there is only one woman . They are also a minority in 'The comedy club ', in La Sexta . "It's harder to open almost all work paths when you're a woman, that's not new, but we're on the right track," says Ana Morgade , 39 , who has been a presenter of this monologue program and has just said goodbye from ' Zapeando ', also from La Sexta . Morgade , who says that since childhood she has found it easy to slide "through the hills of ridicule," has managed to gain a foothold with her ability to sharpen everyday life , laughing at things as everyday as canned cans - "Lo that canned things endure! I think I have come to eat some sardines multiplied by Jesus, which was left over "- or what people sell online.
"There is a lot of female talent but very few opportunities," admits Lola Zambade , deputy director of 'The Missing' , "if there are no women, humor is very masculine, they provide another way to see things ." And what if they see different Villas and their companions. "At the beginning we looked a lot at the neckline, but it was nothing sexual, it was to know who they had to pay half," he said in the first Villas program. 'Those that were missing' do not leave puppets with their heads, they laugh even at their shadow . From aesthetic impositions to love failures, as Eva Soriano , 29 years old - "I am having more toxic relationships than asbestos" -, going through the products of the telethon, a whole reef for the beauty blogger and "influencer de garrafón " Anabel Mua , 26 , who tears tears of laughter when she tries the" lip strengthener. "
"It took a program like this to give visibility to women. It is said that we are not funny and of course we are! " Says another of 'The Missing' , actress Adriana Torrebejano , 27 , who exploits her vis more comical in this broadcast. " We have an obligation to laugh at almost everything , get into hostile land and say things that people do not dare," says another program, Susi Caramelo , who, between his collaborations on television and his show ' Pibonéxica ', his 38 years can finally live from comedy, after more than 10 in which he had to combine it with other survival work.
Something similar to this happened to Virginia Riezu , 43 , who is happy to have signed up as a collaborator in the program ' Everything is a lie ' (Four) . "Now is the time everywhere in 'Let's put an aunt.' We are already responsible for everything that others do. They tell you: 'Look, I'm not going to take you because a girl who made it fatal once came.' And when you act and it works out, they let you go, like compliment: 'To be a woman you are quite funny.' "
That compliment is precisely the title of his show , a really funny show, in which for an hour and a half he sharpens his miseries. With a gag star that never fails on his ears: "I have them like the handles of a cup of consommé. At school they told me that I was in brackets. I lie on my side on the bed and levitate a span, I had to do slits in the pillow, "he says between the laughter of the audience that fills the room on a Sunday afternoon.
Riezu , like many others, has been tanned by participating in open mics (open microphones, rooms where humor texts can be tested before the public) and in night bowling in booths throughout Spain . You have to have a lot of vocation , and a lot of desire, to go to a bar of bad death, let's say, on a roundabout on a regional road, on a Friday night to make the locals laugh. Or to try. So, bareback.
" I had to put up with many comments out of place by the public or even the owners of the premises ; one told me to take off the speaker because my panties didn't look good to me and another, that I was spliced. I doubt very much that they were made comments similar to an uncle. It is a hostile world for a woman, " Soriano acknowledges, who will start his own show, ' El sin de Eva ', in Madrid .
" There are bars that directly tell you that they don't want aunts, " says Esther Gimeno , another actress and humorist with many tables at 43 , who also complains that it is not considered "that female humor can be universal. they ask: 'What are you going to talk about, about women's things?' " It is true that the main material used by these comedians are themselves. "It is the most universal gag, laughing at yourself, making fun of your body does not fail in this profession," says La Terremoto de Alcorcón , very tanned in bowling and will soon present the program 'Niquelao' by Netflix .
Esther Gimeno sharpens social pressure to be a mother in her shows 'I am the monologue' and 'Like fists' : "I have a bastard biological clock, of those who make you signs, mine does not tick me, it makes me old tactac, you're going to die alone, "he says. Valeria Ros , 32 , a collaborator of 'Locomundo' (in # 0 of Movistar + ) and 'Zapeando ', who has also been in La Ser's modern language for three years, does the same with her insecurity: "I have a huge lack of love, I do not want to fall ill to anyone, I spent seven months with an uncle who called me Valentina and I never said anything, "says in one of his star blocks this humorist, precisely one of the two women of the already discussed controversy Photo of Movistar + (the other was Patricia Conde , who declined at the last moment to participate in this report due to agenda problems).
The humor of these comics also pulls sex too . "It is the first comedy material, when you have exploited it you can already throw in politics. We are like in the age of the turkey, talking about pussies and vaginas. The girls are going to take off with mocks, it is something that men have always done and now they do it. I wouldn't mind if the tone went down. This is like the uncovering in the Transition, "says Zambade .
Thais Villas agree on that - " we have been so long without being able to express ourselves that now things are going to the beast " - and Valeria Ros - "we have gone from feeling repressed when saying what we think to talk 90% of dicks and cunnilingus. Shouldn't we develop concerns so that they stop seeing us as gender and see us as original people? "-.
And they also agree to regret the susceptibility that is currently given here with humor. "Suddenly we have very thin skin. Spain has always been a country that has laughed at itself . I don't understand this setback very well," says Silvia Abril . " We live a tyranny of the politically correct, " denounces Olga Hueso , while Susi Caramelo complains that "we go back, people before did not put their hands to their heads for anything." Eva Soriano , who does not have hair on her tongue in her monologues, says that "there is a humor police that watches everything in case you can offend any group."
"People are still very conservative, there are issues that he prefers not to talk about," laments Silvia Abril , who, however, emphasizes the importance of expanding the themes of the comedy made by women: "We have to evolve, vary more. We have started laughing at ourselves but we must do it all. "
For that, naturally they need to be given spaces. "If they don't let you drive, even if you have a license, then you drive worse," says Lola Zambade . "The uncles take us many years of advantage, we are new", corroborates Valeria Ros . "The scriptwriters are men and do not think of women when writing sketches," says veteran Olga Hueso , who, at age 55 , adds the age lock to the genre, but says it is something that matches her To do comedy.
Silvia Abril herself , who premieres this season the program 'The group' in La Ser together with Toni Acosta and who dreams of her own space of humor on TV, admits that sometimes, seeing something, she has thought: "Why have they not called me for that? " "You have to change the heads of managers to have more women," he adds.
Because what is clear is that, as the Earthquake assures, " the feminine humor is a fashion like the animal print. It stays forever! ".
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