Gender bias in theatre.

As a female writer, I do find there is a certain resistance to the subjects I write about - people seem to become very uncomfortable hearing about 'the female experience'(although I obviously just think of it in terms of 'the human experience' - it just happens to be a female human). The other night I told my boyfriend I was attending 'Singular Women' downstairs at the Maj, and he joked that it would just be about 'my period, and my husband doesn't listen, and it hurt so much when I had a baby'. Although it was a joke, it did rather summarise how unwilling we are to be confronted by the voice of a minority. That's right, I said minority - because isn't that the type of reaction we have to shows about race, or perhaps, religion? I was a little surprised to find that the monologues were all written by a man... so, no, they weren't about periods, but I actually don't think they provided any insight into 'the female experience' or even 'the human experience' at all. I found them all a little stereotypical, verging on offensively so. When we write for another gender, do we tend to over-generalise (if that's even a possible concept)? Do we think we are being specific but we are simply writing what we assume to be the truth of another person's existence? Obviously, though, this could apply to writing about anyone other than ourselves... I do think it does occur quite a lot that we write stereotypically for another gender, race, or age - perhaps it is the mark of a good writer when this doesn't happen? Is this why certain writers appeal to us or are more successful than others? Something I've also noticed in Perth is the success of male directors over female directors. This is obviously starting to change with our two prominent theatre companies now sporting female artistic directors, but on a smaller level, there seems to be a lot of female directors who aren't given as much trust or acknowledgement as their male counterparts. I could also extend this to the comedy scene. The ratio of male to female comic performers is immediately noticeable. And I admit, I personally tend to prefer male comedians over female comedians. They tend to have a certain energy, a ruthlessness or drive that women often lack. (Generalising here of course, keeps your pants on - irony intended) The women who stand out tend to have that drive. I could then extend that idea to female performers in general... the ones that stand out have a drive/energy that connects with their audience. Is that a particularly male trait? Have years of social conditioning made us hold back as writers, directors, performers? And, back on subject *ahem*, I'm not surprised women were more critical of women. Hasn't the female vs. female competitive spirit been rather well documented? Food for thought. Because we all like eating.