Dave Chapelle on Women

By Daniele Citti

Dave Chappelle is a very famous stand-up comedian in America known for The Chappelle Show, a comedy television series which ran until 2006. In the youtube video, Dave is performing at Washington D.C. in 2000 for his Killing Them Softly tour. Over the course of the video, Dave touches on a few different gripes he has in terms of the relationships between men and women and also on many of the stereotypes of both genders. He repeatedly talks about how “chivalry is dead, and women killed it,” and puts the blame on magazines such as Cosmo and on the common stereotype that women are materialistic.

According to Dave, the main difference between men and women is their “tests in life.” A woman’s test, he claims, is material and a man’s test is a woman. He says, “Men don’t buy nice cars for themselves, they buy them because they know women like nice cars.” Although meant for comedy, this statement calls into play the typical stereotype that women focus on material goods. As we all know, this isn’t true; women are a diverse group and cannot be easily summarized. Another argument against his statement is that men buy nice things just to impress women. I believe this to be an unfair representation of men. Men don’t base their decisions on what women want. We have other interests, passions and motives. Men, like women, aren’t such simple creatures.

The reasoning that Chappelle uses deducts that men are the hunters and women the prey. In a sense, he is right. The spin that Dave puts on this idea though is that the women are the prey that the men are hunting and materialistic goods are the bait. This also plays on the stereotypic traits of men and women that men tend to have a more violent and aggressive personality and are therefore the hunters while women tend to be more sensitive and soft spoken and don’t usually have high-paying jobs so they search for men with nice things who will support them in life.

Another topic that Dave touches on is the way that women of today dress. He comically explains the scenario where he and his friends are at a bar when an attractive woman walks by wearing revealing clothing. She then goes on to say, “just because I wear this clothing, does not make me a whore!” Dave agrees with her and recognizes that clothes do not make the person, but that it is very confusing to others when she wears that clothing. He is explaining how the clothes send a message off to men and if the woman didn’t want to attract that type of attention, she should have worn a more appropriate outfit. Many of the women in the world feel obligated to wear such clothing to look good and be “in”. Although they may be conservative in their attitudes, they wear the styles of today that send a completely different vibe to people. This leads, as Dave notes, to some serious confusion with men.

I think that Dave touches on some very important issues between men and women of today. Even though it was done in a comedic way, his statements can be looked at as a realistic way that men and women treat each other in today’s world. Yes, I did laugh, but I took note of why he is reinforcing old stereotypes and justifying bad behavior by men and the criticism of women.