Iain: Hello {{ subscriber.first_name | capitalize() or "friend" }}.
Heide: Do you want to know a way to get instantly annoyed?
Iain: Oh ho. Three newsletters in row in which we moan about something. Bring it on!
Heide: If you go to Google and type in “women aren’t”, what do you think the first several results are all about?
Iain: Ah! I bet I know what you’re going to say. It’s about women not being funny isn’t it?
Heide: It is. What is that all about?
Iain: We chatted about this in relation to Snowflake, didn’t we? (for which we’re still trying to find a better cover). There are some people who have reacted badly to the central character, Lori,
because she is irresponsible.
Heide: Yes, exactly! She is the agent of chaos, in a similar way to Clovenhoof in our most famous books, so of course she’s irresponsible, but we don’t see that same reaction to the Clovenhoof novels. In Clovenhoof, the actions of our male ‘idiot’ seem entertaining and palatable but some people
have disliked the female ‘idiot’ Lori. Do you think it’s a question of expectation?
Iain: Obviously people expect the devil to behave badly. Are you saying that there is an unreasonable expectation for women not to behave in a certain way?
Heide: I’m saying exactly that, yes. I think there’s still a gender bias in many of us that does not expect women to be irresponsible, loud or funny. I’d suggest that we see it in the way that comedy writing by women is sold. So often it’s dressed up as “women’s fiction”, as if a man would never
want to read it.
Iain: Do you remember how we came to the idea of Lori as a character? I don’t.
Heide: I do. One of us asked the question “What would Austin Powers be like if he was a woman?” and we decided that the answer would be something like Miranda Hart. Miranda was our original touchstone for Lori.
Iain: That’s interesting.
Heide: Miranda is fantastic. I’m ready to laugh just when I see her pull a funny face straight to camera.
