Comedian Jayde Adams has called out a stand-up critic who fat-shamed her in a review, revealing his comments represent a wider problem about sexism in the industry.
The Bristolian comic was angered after learning that a reviewer had branded her “hefty” and claimed she’d “thrown her weight around” during a recent gig at Norwich’s Laugh In The Park festival.
Noting how the review, which featured in the Norwich Evening News, did not touch upon the appearances of the three male performers on the bill that evening, Jayde called out critic Patrick Widdness on Twitter, writing: “Why is he reviewing my weight? He didn’t describe Rich, Stephen or Luke’s weight? Why mine?”
Speaking to HuffPost UK about the review, Jayde explained she believes this is a prime example of misogyny, which she says is commonplace in many stand-up reviews.
“I think this is lazy journalism at its finest and illustrative of the incredibly old fashioned challenges women have faced in the past, I’m just surprised it’s still happening,” she said.
“The main issue for me is the decision to review me on my image and not the three other male comedians for theirs and if he was in front of me, I’d ask him about his decision to do that and make him question if this is deep-rooted sexism.”
She continued: “The ‘throwing her weight around’ comment is also something I hear often as a working class comedian as is the word ‘unapologetic’ – these are descriptive words I hear a lot from male reviewers. Like I should’ve walked on stage and immediately said sorry for taking up space.
“People will never learn unless you question them. Hopefully he’ll think twice now.”
Asked how she believes change can be brought about, Jayde says: “More women reviewing stuff would be better. There’s some really great reviewers out there, but this has happened a lot.
“It’s a prejudice that many people have, but predominantly it’s male reviewers.”
Jayde covers topics including feminism and body image in her new Edinburgh Fringe show The Ballad Of Kylie Jenner’s Old Face, and calls for women whose confidence is low to come and see her perform.
She adds: “I am not a victim because I am adored for what I do.
“I’ve been called fat my whole life, I’ve always been chunky, but my mother put me in lycra from the age of five and made me dance competitively, so I was never allowed to be insecure about my weight. My mum made me learn to be proud of who I am, she never let me be a victim. But there’s a lot of people out there that don’t have that privilege.”
She added: “I’m a really funny comic and what I manage to do is to make really astute observations that are comparable to a middle class audience and I bring them to working class women. I’m talking about fat-shaming and feminism and [working class women] are the ones quite often ignored because feminism is seen as a middle class conversation.”
The critic has since responded to Jayde’s tweet, claiming that he mentioned her weight in his review as she “talked about it throughout the routine”.
“I applaud your self confidence and stand against fat shaming,” he added.