So this Feminist Walks into a Bar...

Previously, feminism has been written off as fundamentally humourless – 2013 is the year that officially changed. The winner of this year's Foster's Comedy Award, Bridget Christie, is not only a woman (which in itself was long overdue) but one doing a show about feminism. And she wasn't the only one, with venuemates at The Stand, Mary Bourke and Nadia Kamil, doing shows about gender issues too. What's more, all three shows were damn funny.

So what's going on? Our social dialogue has changed and the way we think about feminism has too, becoming a common part of daily life for many. Christie's show, A Bic For Her, takes its title from an ill-advised range of ladies' pens, the Amazon listing for which was subject to a lengthy, worldwide, hilarious reviewbombing. It was feminist activism that made us giggle.

Comedy requires some degree of familiarity to work, which is why most standup is still observational. Since feminist ideas are becoming increasingly familiar, there's more room for comics to toy around with their funny sides. Though, what's really caused things to shift is we have a much bigger crop of female comedians than ever before.

Personally, the majority of Fringe shows I've loved in the last few years have been by women, and I think there's a reason for this. Male comedians have something of a career path laid out for them: sculpt your hair, struggle into skinny jeans, make bland observations about banter with your mates, and soon you'll hear the panel shows calling. Many resist, but the lure is strong, so those who were mediocre to begin with feel destiny calling.

While this has been going on, as well as years of nonsensical "are women funny?" debates in the media, they've been continually overlooked. There are female mediocre comedians, but they drop out because they have nowhere to go. The ones who stick around are those who really believe in what they're doing, like the gloriously surreal Bridget Christie, who's been slowly building up her audience for years.

It can lead to explosively original, funny shows, like this year's Panel Prize winner Adrienne Truscott, who skewers rape culture while naked from the waist down. Her brilliant, daring show has a real substance, is absolutely hilarious (you haven't lived until you've seen a woman impersonating Travis Bickle with her vagina) and all in, was probably the best thing at the Fringe. In fact, the only weakness was that her targets – Daniel Tosh and various Republicans – have all been discussed to death. That's how much a part of our culture feminism has become.

Elsewhere, there were women unapologetically talking openly about themselves. Nat Luurtsema told some very frank stories about sex, while Juliette Burton's heartbreaking, sweet show discussed the eating disorder that almost killed her. It's sad then, that much of the Fringe gossip was dominated by a spat between two women, with Scotsman critic Kate Copstick telling Sarah Millican to "go away, lose some weight and come back when you're funny."

Copstick defended herself with that remark which has begun many a sexual harrassment tribunal – "what, can't I make a joke now?" – but the damage was done and the court of public opinion was happy to call bullshit, leaving the veteran critic occupying the same territory as Jim Davidson and other relics of fondly-forgotten eras. This illustrates why comedy and feminism have finally found a way to work together; almost as much as the great shows above. Feminism is about exposing ridiculous ingrained conventions, weak ideas, lousy attitudes and lazy sterotypes – and that's also exactly what comedy is supposed to do, too.