 "I am Sorry That I Didn't Write a Comedy Piece," demonstrates how ridiculous and harmful the stereotypes of women can be. In Wendy Molyneux's response article to a bigger, widely read, sexist article, she aims and succeeds in presenting that the female gender is often believed by males to be dramatic, emotional, and weak, by using juxtaposition, satire, and hyperbole in her examples of gender-specific stereotyping. Although the title may suggest that her article is not comical, her use of literary terms and writing style give a comical meaning to a matter of serious subjects. 

Molyneux's article touches on all of the real, harsh aspects of being a woman, such as gender inequality and basic feminine characteristics in American culture and describing them as "crosses we have to bear" (Molyneux 417).  Describing them as "crosses we have to bear" insinuates that women have committed faults and now have to live with the consequences. When, in fact, women have done nothing to deserve the realities she describe.  For example, P.M.S., making seventy cents to the dollar, or needing to pay for a rape kit (Molyneux 417).  Molyneux manipulates the idea of bearing crosses in order to apply her point that women are made out to be weak by some men who believe that every goal women accomplish or every task they perform is simply to please men - a subject also tapped on by her use of extremely sarcastic exaggerations while specifically addressing making dinner in hopes of finding our way to a man's heart. By her writing style, Molyneux correctly portrays herself as a character who only lives to please men and is extremely emotional, and therefore stereotypically weak, by doing so.

The stereotypes laid out in this article are most of the common assumptions about the female gender all stacked together in eight short paragraphs, and they all come back to the stereotypical woman: dramatic and emotional. Even in the first paragraph of Molyneux's piece, she recalls that she was eating a "giant chocolate bar," and then "stopped crying" (Molyneux 416). Historically, women have been known to eat indulgent foods or desserts like chocolate when they are emotional or upset   one of the commonly false, typecasting examples on which the author touched to emphasize the dramatic behaviors women are believed to possess. The examples flood through her article, all in order to spite the harsh claim laid out by Christopher Hitchens in his Vanity Fair article, where he declared that women are not as funny as men. Completely proving his already incorrect statement wrong with her literary style and choice of words, Molyneux also, before addressing Hitchen's comments, theorized that there was not even a point to her writing - a dismal point that suggests some men think women could not even handle a task such as writing or comedy, among others. She brings this idea up again at the direct end of her piece, by reminding her audience that she "probably would have been terrible at [writing] anyway," for the female stereotypes and Hitchen's opinion would have gotten in her way of being able to perform and produce a well-written product (Molyneux 418). These negative self-claims also connect to another bigger idea of destructive, female self-image, which has been popularly recognized in the past few years. Molyneux affixes her satirical article that has a deeper meaning about being a woman, with a bigger picture about being the best woman one can strive to be. All throughout her article, she depicts a woman that is clearly not ideal or normal, but she still does not forget to reel in the realness and authenticity that womanhood brings when she mentions those "crosses we have to bear" (Molyneux 417). Being a woman and knowing what comes along with it, just like being a man, means being serious about the specific and neutral aspects regarding gender - a point that Molyneux regarded with her strong writing style.

All of the actions described by Molyneux's caricature narrator are simply ridiculous. However, the clearly obvious way where Molyneux continued to be absurd and comical the entire way through her article exemplified her fair, repeated use of juxtaposition. Molyneux constantly mentioned that she needed to "get serious and write comedy" as a way of slight preparation for actual writing, but mostly to mock the stupidity of the offer spoken about at the beginning of her article and the overall idea that women are not funny, but overly dramatic and emotional (Molyneux 417). So many of her ideas, however, are repeated in order to make a point heard. Fitting so many ideas into one piece of writing, Molyneux separates her style of her sentences throughout her work. She utilizes long sentences, usually filled with many items in the sentence, which appear to be fast-paced and typically packed with examples of different stereotypes.  Her artistic use of syntax is seen in her alternating, short sentences, that are blunt and to the point - sometimes giving her train of thought a bigger meaning. The contrasting utilization of sentence style reflects Molyneux as a writer; by switching back and forth between styles, instead of constantly having long or short sentences, she is able to get her point across in an easier and more attention-grabbing manner: an idea well planned out, for the points she makes throughout her writing are ones to which we, as a society, need to pay attention.

With her writing style, Molyneux succeeded in giving awareness to the stereotypes surrounding the female gender, with those stereotypes often brought to the surface by males. She proved with humor that those stereotypes, though shaped by facts, are not reflecting of real, everyday women. 

