Dec 5: Margaret Cho

Margaret Cho (b. 1968)

Margaret Cho is a Korean-American comedian who is well known for using her comedy to make points about racism, gay rights, and feminism.

One of the first things that strikes you about her is that she's a minority woman in a male-dominated field (comedy) who doesn't have an unrealistic body shape.

The next thing that strikes you is that she's hilarious.

Just one of many Youtube videos of her

Margaret Cho's exceptional adulthood stemmed, in some ways, from a difficult childhood. She was bullied constantly, especially between the ages of 10 and 14. Helped through this difficult period by gay friends, music, and comedy, she "grew up fast and controlled her future" by launching into the world of professional comedy by the age of sixteen.

Cho on her experiences being bullied

Cho started to gain serious popularity in the early 90's, well-loved by college students and late night audiences, but the next chapter of her life was a rather dark one.

In 1994 Cho was picked to be the star of an ABC sitcom centered around a Korean family called "All-American Girl". The show itself was supposed to be based on Margaret Cho's views expressed in her stand-up acts. But since when have TV producers been progressive? They told Cho that she needed to lose weight and "act more Asian". The same sort of language that she had run away from in childhood had followed her into her sitcom. 

During the show and after its cancellation, she struggled with drug addiction and alcoholism as well as an eating disorder that landed her in the hospital with kidney failure.

Cho on body image and her past

These experiences became a part of her comedy. Her stand-up acts now include anecdotes about her mother, racism, substance abuse, LGBT rights, her own bisexuality, and Asian-American stereotypes. 

Some career highlights since then:

• Marriage equality: Gave money from her tours to gay-rights organizations such as PFLAG. When gay marriage was legalized in California, she was deputized to perform marriages in San Francisco.
• Went on Dancing With the Stars wearing a rainbow dress after a series of suicides by gay teens 
• Campaigned actively against the execution of Stanley Tookie Williams and the death penalty in general
• Played Kim Jong-Il on 30 Rock
• Won multiple awards and commendations from organizations such as the ACLU, GLAAD, and the National Organization for Women
• Wrote this awesome piece on diets

Margaret Cho is groundbreaking as a comedian. She's a woman, a person of color, and a bisexual. She uses her position of celebrity to make people think about the way they see issues of inequality and prejudice. I also love the way that she smashes the idea that women can't be funny. With male comedians like Daniel Tosh making rape jokes all over the place, there absolutely need to be more female voices making milk come out of our noses.

Oh, and she's a self-declared feminist, too. I like that.

Honorable mention: Elizabeth Cabot Agassiz (1822-1907), co-founder and first president of Radcliffe College (Harvard University's woman's college).