
The question ‘are we a product of the environment in which we live?’ circulates the air still open for an answer. There is a theory called gender schema theory that refers to the theory that young women and men are a product and learn from the culture in which they live in. People are therefore a product of their environment and adjust to the culture norms and expectations of their culture. This is why stereotypes and racism, sexism, etc. are all prevalent in almost all cultures. One of the biggest stereotypes is for women and the perception of women has become very unrealistic and demeaning to women of all ages. Women are treated very differently than men, especially if they are people of color and it is the society that put these perceptions and stereotypes into place who should be looked at critically. Radios, television, newspaper, books, you name it, are making these overbearing expectations on women seem like the reality to their lives. Christopher Hitchens wrote an article on why women are not funny that was published in Vanity Fair. Wendy Molyneux felt the urge to come back and write an article responding to his article, I Am Sorry That I Didn’t Write a Comedy Piece. She points out all the stereotypes of women in a very humorous, satirical critical way very similar to Margaret Atwood’s piece, There Was Once who wrote a piece that involved two characters, one being very critical of the other’s way of telling a fairytale. Both Molyneux and Atwood responded in very feministic ways to people falling into the trap of believing these perceptions and stereotypes of women are true. Whereas Molyneux responds to one particular person who made a statement that is very sexist trying to make a point as a whole, Atwood criticizes the traditional fairytales that are inheritably sexist and biased when it comes to women. 

With one glance at There Was Once and I Am Sorry That I Didn’t Write a Comedy Piece, there are many similarities between the two. It is untenably present in both pieces that each one is trying to point out to the reader the perceptions and stereotypes of women and how they are detrimental to female’s self image and self worth. Both of these are done in very humorous, satirical ways. Molyneux in I Am Sorry That I Didn’t Write a Comedy Piece points out these stereotypes and perceptions of women by mocking everything people assume females associate with. Molynex starts off the text saying that after she saw the article asking women to submit more comedy pieces in response to Hitchen’s piece, “Why women Aren’t Funny”, she “put down my giant chocolate bar, stopped crying” and wrote a response to him (Molyneux 521). As the proceeds on she writes about how she “opens up a pink mac laptop” while wearing her “Mrs. Stamos t-shirt” that she got out of her “gigantic closer because women love to wear lots of expensive clothes and shoes all the time” (Molyneux 521-522). Throughout the entire piece she keeps using images that are stereotypical to women like her “cats crawling all over me, purring and being symbols of how lonely I am” and during writing the comedy piece gets distracted by cooking dinner because the “wafting smells of a home-cooked meal will lure men who are passing by to come inside and eat dinner” (Molyneux 522). At the end, after she is distracted by all of the things typical women would be distracted by she asked herself “what is funny” but doesn’t have answer because people like Hitchens say “women just aren’t funny” (Molyneux 522). Hitchen’s stated in his article that “for a women to say a man is funny is like a man to say a woman is pretty” (Hitchens 1). That is where the real problem lies. Women are looked out and judged based on their physical appearances, especially by men. These stereotypical women traits about having a pink laptop, or dying alone with 20 cats, or the only way to a man’s heart is how well she is in the kitchen (or the bed) is fueled by people like Hitchen who make an assumption that women just aren’t funny. 

In Atwood’s piece, There Was Once she has the listener use a satirical attack on the storyteller when he is trying to tell a fairytale. Atwood does this so the perceptions of female characters in fairytales are pointed out as very sexist and stereotypical.  It could also be read in a very humorous way because the listener interrupts and never lets the storyteller finish his sentences and making it “politically correct”. Atwood makes the listener’s arguments very far-fetched in order to highlight the valid ones like changing “there” to “here” and “was once” to “now” (Atwood 512). The listener wants the storyteller to change those words because the way society was back then or in the “medieval fairytale societies” is not the same as it is now in modern society. Things are more socially acceptable and women now are breaking down the typical stereotypes, ones that fairytales often present in their storylines. The listener is trying to get these traditional fairytales to be more socially conscious and aware of how modern times are changing especially for women and their images. Like Green says, “if women want to change the stereotype, then the tales of castles and princesses may need a little tweaking” (Green 1). For young children to live in a world where sexism and hurtful stereotypes no longer exist, we have to adjust the gender norms and expectations of their culture that they live in.

In There Was Once and I’m Sorry I Didn’t Write a Comedy Piece, both authors point out that these perceptions of women make them self-conscious and are judged solely based on socially constructed ideas. Atwood highlights how traditional fairytales are inherently sexist and biased towards women. The moral and story lines of fairytales have a reflection of society and modern times as it comes off very stereotypical towards women. Because fairytales are a common read for young children, the idea of this fairytale starts to become “a child’s world of imagination and pleasure, but they also provide a source of inspiration and role models” (Green 1). The listener criticizes the way the storyteller describes the girl in the story because “women these days have to deal with too many intimidating physical role models as it is” (Atwood 512). Then once the storyteller changes the world beautiful to over weight, the listener points out that girls get caught up in trying to fit the standard because there is no middle grounds and because a girl is overweight she will get made fun of. At the end of the piece, the listener asks, “this ends with a marriage, right?” because most traditional fairytales end with a man saving the women and tem living happily ever after (Atwood 513). This is where young girls get the idea that “women are weak and vulnerable and only succeed when a man intervenes” (Green 1). The reason why girls are getting caught up in the stigmas and stereotypes of girls are fairytales and their false perceptions of the reality of life. 

Just like Atwood did in There Was Once, Molyneux points out these perceptions of women in response to one man making a statement regarding women as a whole in I’m Sorry I Didn’t Write a Comedy Piece. Women are held to these standards to be pretty and perfect because they have to appeal to men based on their looks. Hitchen wrote in response to men’s goal to make women laugh that “women have no corresponding need to appeal to men in this way, they already appeal to men, if you catch my drift” (Hitchen 1).  In Hitchen’s article he always refers back to men and bringing back all of his statements regarding women to men and what men think. To him and to most guys, they want women “as an audience, not as rivals” (Hitchen 1). There is already a pre-conceived notion that women are automatically looked at as not funny. In Molyneux’s response she fires right back at Hitchen, criticizing who is he and who are men to say that women are not funny. Women have to prove themselves every time they do something in order to meet the expectations and standards they are held too, but why don’t men. Hitchen’s says “women and humor- should be so antithetical”, there are certain things society taught people, men vey well that some things women just cannot do. Atwood presents that topic in her piece when the listener is criticizing the storyteller probably even harsher because it is a male. The storyteller doesn’t think he is doing anything wrong because he is going off by what he knows, what the traditional fairytale’s expectations and pre-conceived notions have lined up for the tale to be told. 

Whether it is a traditional fairytale or a real life article, sexism and negative stereotypes towards women are very predominate still in modern society. Margaret Atwood’s There Was Once and Wendy Molyneux’s I’m Sorry That I Didn’t Write a Comedy Piece reveal the sexism and bias towards women in fairytales and real life articles throughout both of their pieces. Women suffer from a very young age to a very old age trying to live up to these expectations and standards society and men hold so high. Young children are learning a certain way of life and how to behave based on their culture norms and expectations when referring to what to think of the opposite gender and race. Men, like Hitchen who wrote an article on why women aren’t funny and very famous fairytales are reasons why these stereotypes have become so normal and a way of life. Women are finally taking a stand and making sure everyone, especially men, know that these expectations and stereotypes are not going to be what their lives revolve around.  
