Everyone I know right now is counting down the days to All Jane No Dick, our wondrous celebration of women in comedy, so at least three people have emailed me today about this poster:
- Stacey Hallal/All Jane No Dick
It’s a doctored version of All Jane’s promotional poster, the original text replaced with what looks like an MRA-inspired misreading of the event. I say MRA-inspired, because I mean, “feminazi”? Really? Are we in sixth grade? I hoped it was a joke.
So I called up Stacey Hallal, creator and artistic director of All Jane No Dick, to look into it. Hallal told me that the All Jane team first caught wind of the posters when a Google alert popped up yesterday linking to a Craigslist post (copied below) organizing a protest of All Jane No Dick:
——Join me in protest of “All Jane No Dick” festival.—-
I will be following the events of the All Jane No Dick festival quietly protesting it’s sexist connotations. The outright segregation of any person’s due to their sex alone is prejudice. It’s simple, it feeds a sense of angst towards men just for being men.
I plan to stand outside the event as close as I legally can holding a sign. This wont be a verbal protest. Meaning, I wont be shouting any slogans, chants, or making comments to attendants. I would prefer that if any joins me, they don’t engage in shouting etc as well. I will however answer questions that people have if they wish to approach me.
You, being male or female are welcome to join me.
If you have a video camera, that would be hugely helpful to insure the protection of our rights. Or even just to video tape the protest. Journalist are welcome to come as well.
The statement is simple. Sexism is wrong. Period.
Thank you and hope to see you then. Please contact me for details. Thanks.
Matt
Hallal said that her first instinct after just seeing the Craiglist post was to let it go. But then she noticed that All Jane posters had begun disappearing and were replaced with the distorted protest posters. Organizing a peaceful protest is one thing, but actively working to undermine All Jane’s publicity is quite another.
“This person has been ripping our posters down,” Hallal said. “And that’s actually active damage to us. I wanna laugh it off as much as I can. But the fact that he’s destroying our marketing materials—it’s not harmless and it’s not funny.”
Putting on any large-scale arts event—and especially one that focuses on spotlighting people who are already marginalized within a given industry—takes a huge amount of time, effort, and funding. Artists need to be paid. Tickets need to be sold. “And being under attack is a threat to all of those things,” said Hallal. She told me that the All Jane team hasn’t found out exactly who is behind the posters being torn down, but that one of her colleagues, who had been in contact with the person via text message, was able to conduct a search on his phone number, allegedly finding records of annoyance call complaints.
What’s truly sad about all this is that All Jane No Dick is an inclusive comedy festival. To suggest that it is sexist or “man-bashing” simply because it highlights female and non-binary-identifying comedians makes no sense when you consider that only 17 to 19 percent of people working in the comedy industry are women. That’s what real, systemic sexism looks like.
“It’s sad to me that people continue to be threatened by the idea of women sharing their perspectives and experiences,” said Hallal. “[The person who did this] is a man who’s threatened by this event.”
COMIC SANS ALERT.
I get being pissed off at being excluded – whoever is putting up these posters sounds like a real dick.
Has anyone seen Ian Karmel?
“MRA as fuck”
What is her next festival going to be, a no coloreds event? The protest is stupid, but so is her exclusionary festival.
I know the majority of comedy shows in portland are primarily male lineups and can completely agree there needs to be a more open avenue for the female comedians to have access to the stage in an equal opportunity. But, playing devil’s advocate here, how big of a backlash would a festival get if it completely restricted females and stated males only? Also, I wouldn’t be so quick to say this non-verbal protestor from Craigslist is responsible for the posters. That’s just bonkers. Plenty of passive-agressive people to do that in Portland.
This is a brilliant way to draw attention to this festival and make it seem extra-edgy and relevant. I don’t actually think that Hallal put up these posters, but maybe she should’ve.
yeah, I tend to think if there was a festival of any sort boldly proclaiming the exclusion of women, that we would be seeing all sorts of posts here about SEXISM — but these pages here are not sympathetic to this.
Just as any racist posts are against the rules – except when they are racist about white people.
One day we will have evolved past this childish crap.
You dullards do realize events like this exist in order to showcase people that are under-represented, right?
Of course it’s a double-standard. This “childish crap” exists because of inequality – because women are otherwise under-represented in the comedy scene and because without this festival and events like it, there are many talented female comics that never escape the dregs of weeknight open mic nights.
When the “childish crap” of racism and sexism stop existing, events to fight them can too.
“How come there’s a Black History Month but no White History Month? That’s racist!”
This festival is to showcase and promote diversity, not to exclude. Lots of talent from all over the world and from many races will be performing. Everyone is welcome to come and enjoy a really good show. It’s hard to see a significant number of women in one show, so we should be celebrating this, rather than attacking it. I’m excited to go for the third year and I will not have any fear of being bashed because I’m a guy. Before bitching about something, people should consider what it’s all about
This is like a bunch of white dudes protesting an all black hockey exhibition game. Seriously do you not understand why there needs to be an all female comedy night? There are a gazillion comedy nights all over the city that are all male, all the time. Why does one all female night suddenly mean extreme sexism? wow.
“I plan to stand outside the event as close as I legally can holding a sign”
Guess it’s the All Jane One Dick festival now.
We shall not rest until the female to male ratio of professional comedians is exactly 1:1 also an equal number of people of different ethnic backgrounds must be represented for to create racial equality as well. Also please hold an amputee comedy festival because I feel as though they are underrepresented in the industry, if you don’t then you’re a fucking racist.
Lots of white dudes angry about not being the undisputed group in charge of everything anymore. Cry more beardhurt tears, dumbasses.
When I first saw these posters, I thought they were actually put up by the comedy festival, because god-damned!! They’re fucking hilarious! They should thank this guy for his brilliant guerrilla marketing.
Artemis of the Wild is probably doing this.
With all due respect, this fest is a response to the COMEDY INDUSTRY’s history of rampant discrimination against women.
Club bookers and Hollywood douches contest, to this day, that women aren’t funny, that all female comics are the same, that two female comics on the same bill is one too many. (Despite the hundreds of female comedy icons that have accrued decade by decade.) Hopefully someday this festival won’t be necessary, but take it from someone who makes a living in the comedy business, sexism is a very serious problem.
Go to bed, Vincent
Something’s off here… this feels like a “controversial” ad campaign. Does anyone else think it’s fishy that the sponsors of this event aren’t trying to track this guy down for putting their image on slanderous propaganda?
Also, how come the only person who’s spoken with this “Men’s Rights Activist” (come on, really?) is a comedian who’s on the festival? I think this “Matt ‘the lone’ Woof” character (that’s his alias for this protest–according to the “interview” with Amy Miller which was featured in Willamette Week) is a boogeyman created by someone involved with the festival.