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"I didn't necessarily always feel that what I was reading was how women actually talked, or it was an archetype I didn't fit," she said. "I wasn't going to be the prettiest ingénue or the character actress." Fey's "30 Rock" character, Liz Lemon, is a new kind of character, Cannon said: A real woman who's really funny as she faces real-life challenges. Headland says the new breed of funny female writers arose out of frustration, and feminism. "These writers ... are adept at really expressing those characters and writing those stories because I'm assuming they're struggling with the same thing I am, which is: What's going to happen to us? And what do we want to say to the women before us and also the women coming up after us?" she said. "There are new problems with being a woman that no one's talked about. There are new dilemmas that are coming up that just haven't really quite been articulated." Actresses such as Kendrick, Snow, Wilson and others say these new female-created characters look and sound more like actual women they know. "There's something to women writing for themselves, women writing for women, that just feels a lot more honest and therefore a lot funnier," Kendrick said. Still, despite this new wave of comedic opportunities, women are still drastically underrepresented as writers, directors and producers in both TV and film. "There's still only maybe three female writers or two female writers to 10 guys in any kind of writer's room," Cannon said. But at least women's voices are now in the mix. "You're not going to solve the problem, but you can start the conversation," Headland said. "I think part of your job, especially as a woman, is to let yourself be a little ugly and to show uglier parts of yourself. That's your job as a female artist."
[Associated
Press;
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