Cover Photo: Barbra Streisand in ‘Funny Girl,’ 1968
Barbra Streisand in ‘Funny Girl,’ 1968

“If a Girl Isn’t Pretty”: When Beauty Is the Ideal and Humor the Fallback

“Being a funny girl like Fanny continues to skew the way I see myself.”

Funny Girl

Funny Girl

Funny Girl The Music Man, To twist the knife, patriarchal standards keep the bar for female beauty constantly out of one’s grasp—standards are often based on skinniness, youth, and whiteness. Yes, there are women who recognize their own beauty, and some who use their appearance as a means to an end. But the subjectiveness and bias of beauty standards means approval can always be withheld.

If they’re gonna laugh anything I might as well put on a show.

She’s wearing old jeans! She doesn’t have a boyfriend!

30 Rock SNL

Funny Girl needing

“People” is the cry of every funny girl, boxed into a corner by others’ perceptions: Even if we’re furious at the patriarchy for demanding we be beautiful, for not letting us be funny—even if we want to burn it all down and refuse to participate— funny girls are still people who need people.

NYC-based writer of feelings. 

Fiction an non-fiction in Cosmonauts Avenue, New York Magazine, Jezebel, Salon, and more.

katefustich.com

@katiefustich