Missing Stairs and Trapdoors

Please note that I use ‘he’ when talking about predators and ‘she’ when talking about survivors. I want to reflect the gendered experience of harassment and to emphasise the role of misogyny. I am not saying that women and enbies can’t be perpetrators or that men can’t be victims.

In the light of recent events on the Brighton stand-up scene, I am using the metaphor of a ‘missing stair’ as coined in 2012 by Cliff Jerrison to describe a certain type of predator and the community’s response to them.

“Have you ever been in a house that had something just egregiously wrong with it?  Something massively unsafe and uncomfortable and against code, but everyone in the house had been there a long time and was used to it?  Oh yeah, I almost forgot to tell you, there’s a missing step on the unlit staircase with no railings.  But it’s okay because we all just remember to jump over it.

“Some people are like that missing stair.”

There are loads of ‘missing stairs’ in stand-up comedy. We (mostly, sometimes, when we remember) warn new guests to jump over them. And when a guest falls through the stairs and breaks her leg, we have no problem believing that the missing stair is how she hurt herself. 

Of course, someone hurt themselves falling through the stairs – a missing stair is very unsafe.

And there are comforts to the missing stair being so visibly dangerous. We pile in to console the woman with the broken leg and share our own stories.

I’ve tripped over it myself a few times. I know other people who’ve fallen through. You know, someone should really do something about that missing stair.

But sometimes a dangerous self-satisfaction creeps in amongst the uninjured guests.

Why was she climbing those stairs in the first place? Everyone warned her there was a missing stair. I’ll never fall through the stairs and break my leg – I’m smart enough to jump over the missing stair.

Jerrison argues that instead of telling guests about the missing stair, castigating them for not jumping over the missing stair and feeling smug that we’ve never been hurt by the missing stair – we should fix the goddamn missing stair.

And he’s right. But missing stairs aren’t the only problem with this house.

Some predators are trapdoors. Usually, they operate like a normal bit of floor. They’re safe, secure and supportive. Mostly they’re covered by a rug so no one can even tell it’s a trapdoor. No one thinks they’re a hazard.

Then, every so often – usually when there’s no one else in the house – the trapdoor is left unlocked, a guest falls through and breaks her leg.

When the guest tells everyone in the house that she broke her leg falling through the trapdoor, she gets a much more muted response than the woman who fell through the stairs.

What trapdoor? I’ve never seen a trapdoor, never mind seen anyone fall through it.

And the other guests don’t really want to hear about the trapdoor anyway.

We’re already dealing with multiple missing stairs – now you want us to sort out this trapdoor as well? At what point can we just enjoy this house party?

There are predators in the stand-up community who are outwardly welcoming and kind. They may have supported you in the past. They may even be your friend.

But just because a trapdoor functions as a floor most of the time, it doesn’t stop them from occasionally being unlatched and breaking someone’s leg.

Missing stairs and trapdoors aren’t perfect metaphors for predators in comedy. For one thing, the two aren’t sentient and they don’t decide to be dangerous. Whereas the number one thing that would stop victims being hurt by missing stairs and trapdoors is for men to stop being missing stairs and trapdoors.

I don’t have easy solutions. But I will say that as well as fixing the missing stairs, we should also believe our fellow guests when they tell us there’s a trapdoor in our house.