Thinking more about Joan Rivers

[supergee]

She really was a trail blazer, and like Jackie Robinson, she shouldn't have had to do it and she paid a price. She was allowed to be a Female Comic, but she had to follow the rules: She couldn't be Too Pretty, but she couldn't simply be unattractive; she had to try and fail--the makeup, the hair color, the diets, eventually the disastrous plastic surgery--and she had to mock herself for failing. She also had to police the other women and not let them get away with having too much food or sex. It was a shit deal, and she could have handled it worse, and she really did move the sticks. Today's female comics and their audiences should be grateful.