Why this comedian is taking on the patriarchy through satire - Women's Agenda

Why this comedian is taking on the patriarchy through satire

For Graeme Bowman watching his wife Jennifer go from being a stay-at-home mum to a Masters student, then a Masters graduate and then an artist, was profound. His perception of her empowerment and the struggles she faced along the way made him realise for the first time just how damaging the patriarchy is to women and society.

Bowman started seeing evidence of this everywhere, and understood why fighting for women’s participation and empowerment is so important.

 “No matter what I saw or read about, I just kept coming back to this idea – the idea that the patriarchal system is the fundamental problem at the root of so many things,” Bowden told Women’s Agenda

He founded Wise Women Will Save the World, an online community to empower and support women and encourage the open and sensitive discussion of issues important to women and girls.

But he wanted to attack the patriarchy more directly as well; he wanted more cut through. He wanted to make people realise, the way he did, how high the stakes really are.

Being a comedian, Bowman decided to take on the patriarchy through satire. Along with his wife Jennifer and his son Thomas, who is an emerging actor and comedian, Bowman has created a satirical comedy show for the Melbourne Comedy Festival called Patriarchy – Where Would We Be Without You?

“I have a background in comedy, my son is doing work in acting and comedy and he is a newly graduated sculptor, as is my wife, so I thought I’d like to bring all our talents together and see what we can do as a family – and this is what we came up with,” Bowman said.

The show looks at the contradictions and dangers of a persistent patriarchal system, as well as the damage it inflicts upon those it excludes. It aims to use comedy and laughter to break through peoples’ assumptions and make them understand the true danger of the patriarchy – something he says is best achieved through creative and artistic mechanisms of storytelling, rather than statistics or graphs.

“Highly creative and artistic pursuits are the ones with the ability to connect head with heart and make people understand,” Bowman said.

Bowman describes this head-heart connection as an “ah-ha moment”. 

“That connection between head and heart is how you create ah-ha moments in people. That’s what we’re after.” 

“We won’t advance the plot by repeating the same statistics. You have to turn those statistics into stories, and bring them to life, before you have any chance of getting people to connect with them. If we want to cut through we need to present these messages in a different way – we are doing it by forcing people to let their guard down, by making them laugh.”

Bowman said even the traditional methods of communication he is subverting are a product of the patriarchy.

“Men like to think in terms of the linear and the logical, they like to break things down and putthem in boxes, and because our communication is male dominated, it ends up focusing on text and statistics. But that just doesn’t work,” he told Women’s Agenda.

“It’s about finding a different way to deliver the message, one people haven’t seen before – that’s why we chose comedy.”

Patriarchy – Where Would We Be Without You? will run between March 30 and April 5 in Melbourne.

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