When three feminists gave their mic to a comedian, they betrayed their own audience

The comments section on social media – a terrible place to spend even a second of your valuable time – would have you believe that comedian Jack Steele ruined feminism for an entire cohort of Australian women on Wednesday night.

But blame for the abysmal failure of the now-viral prank, in which he joined an apparent feminist panel discussion to voice half-baked hot takes such as “chicks dig consent” and “I really like girl writers”, should not be given to Steele alone. We should hold space for the three prominent feminists who promised their fans an evening of “insightful discourse and thought-provoking discussions” only to make women’s time and feminist discourse the butt of a joke.

Steele’s attendance had actually been orchestrated as part of a skit for the second season of the TV show (Impractical) Jokers.

To their credit, Antoinette Lattouf, Clementine Ford and Yumi Stynes did tell attendees their “lively conversation on the intricacies of sex, love, relationships and marriage” would include “a special guest offering his perspective as a young male”. They also made the event free, meaning none of those in attendance paid to lose their night to what one attendee described as a “painfully unfunny” experience.

While signs were posted around the Sydney venue indicating the talk would be filmed, they failed to disclose that the filming was for a Paramount+ skit series Steele is starring in, or that the perspectives Steele would offer were actually lines fed to him by producers via an earpiece.

In being in on what was planned before it happened, Lattouf, Ford and Stynes willingly and knowingly made their audience and intelligent feminist discourse something to laugh at for the benefit of Steele, his colleagues and their yet-to-be-released series.

When you’re a young woman, hungry for opinions and ideas from the people you respect and admire, there’s a kind of magic that comes from going to these kinds of events.

You tentatively ask a friend whether they’d like to go with you, adding caveats that you totally understand if it’s not their kind of thing, only to have them reply with an all-caps “YES” and a fervent number of exclamation marks. Wow, you think, I’ve found my people.

Then, the night arrives. You make sure to get out of work on time and co-ordinate where to meet and debate the merits of getting dinner before or after (after, because you’ll have so much to discuss). There’s a kind of solemn sacredness when you walk in because here is a space where – in a world where women spend so much time worrying about everything and anything – you’re allowed to be shamelessly eager and enthusiastic, where you will hear nuanced perspectives and opinions from people who you look up to, where the things that women are most respected and valued for are their ideas.

According to one source involved in planning and filming the event, Lattouf, Ford and Stynes were aware of the prank ahead of time, but Steele had no idea what he was walking into. “When he saw the situation, his face just dropped,” the source said.

If the intention of the skit, and by extension the event, was to laugh at Steele feeling inept in the company of three intelligent women, that’s arguably not so much a joke as it is an accurate reflection of the world many women already live in. Whichever way you cut it, the joke doesn’t land and women’s time was given to a man without permission for free.

It’s an extremely rare privilege to be admired for your intelligence and how you see the world. It’s also one that, on the grand scale of time, is still relatively new for women to enjoy. That’s why it’s genuinely baffling that three intelligent and interesting women would do what they did on Wednesday night and now allow Steele and Steele alone to take the fall (none of the three panellists has issued a response to complaints from attendees) for it blowing up.

Then again, maybe, like most feminists, I just can’t take a joke.

Katy Hall is deputy opinion editor at The Age.

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