EXPERIENCE
Rebel, cougar, boss bitch, nag… Throughout comedian and actor Doon Mackichan’s 40-year career, there have been countless roles based on sexist female tropes and stereotypes that’s she’s found herself reluctantly taking on or turning down. Here, she recounts a few
As a child, I kept a diary. I kept a record of my day: what I wore, what I ate, what walks I took, almost like a hospital log – abit sterile but with the odd silly drawing of my pet parrot. I abandoned this pursuit in my late teens and 20s, too busy being in love, forging my own path, only to take it up again in my early 30s, at the advice of an older actress I was working with. At the time, I was juggling two new babies with a theatre tour and there was certainly much more that I needed to make sense of.
At the beginning of lockdown, I reread the diaries. Some of the stories I felt needed to be heard: stories of a life so far spanning 40 years in ‘the business’, from the bear pit of the stand-up comedy circuit to groundbreaking comedy shows such as The Day Today and Smack The Pony. But also, stories about being a working mother in a business that does not exactly welcome babies and children, and of putting food on the table without selling out. Continuing to create in the chaos: loving, laughing, but also fighting – to be seen, to be included in the stories our culture is telling, to be respected at all ages.
In my new book, I tell these stories through the stereotypical female roles – my ‘lady parts’ – I’ve been asked to play over the years, each chapter defined by a different one: the desperate cougar, the bitch, the angry feminist, the hag. The truth is, my career has been defined as much by the roles I’ve said yes to as the ones I’ve turned down. And although we’re inching towards equality, culturally we’re still stuck in these gendered roles. It takes bravery to turn down work and it’s really hard not to sell out, but nothing changes if we don’t speak up. Putting the book together brought to light a common thread. I’m always the one asking the questions no one else is: ‘Where is the crèche on set?’ ‘Do we really need a rape scene here?’ I think we have a responsibility to the younger generation to band together and speak up.
THE FEED
While contemporary male stand-ups or sketch groups progresse
