Every time someone tries to tell me there's no such thing as a funny female comedian, all I hear is a four-second-long fart noise. It's really distracting.

Every time someone tries to tell me there's no such thing as a(n) [insert positive adjective] female [insert occupation], my ears are filled with the painfully grating, unharmonious, relentless sound of rancid flatulence. Please, make it stop. I can't listen to it anymore.

Guess what? There is no lack of talented women in any field of skill. I hope that doesn't come as a shock to you.

But, on the off chance that you are surprised, I'm here to tell you that it's somewhat not your fault.

Neither popular media nor the mass population of men wants to support talented women or give them the platform they need in order to be supported. I know that sounds like a bold, sweeping statement, but it's not actually that difficult to notice. For example, out of the first 50 highest-rated stand-up comedy specials on Netflix, only four are women comics. Is this the fault of Netflix for not streaming more female comedians? Partially. Is this the fault of male Netflix subscribers for not giving female comedians high enough ratings? Partially. Again, I'm sure that sounds inflammatory, but honestly? Bill Burr can easily pull a five-star rating yet Jen Kirkman struggles to reach three? There seem to be a lot of books being judged by their covers here. Either way, there are plenty of factors which contribute to low female talent visibility.

It's not always our faults that we're not exposed to credible women. There are things we can't control which influence the media, products, and services we consume. We can't control publishing houses who don't publish female authors. We can't control television network producers who don't hire female late-night TV hosts. We can't control internet algorithms designed not to recommend female-led social media accounts, online videos, or productions to users. And, oftentimes, we hardly even notice that nearly everything sold to us -- from the video games we play to the clothes we wear -- are produced by men.

But just because we're not served female-made content doesn't mean it's not out there and high quality.

What we can do is seek out a more diverse selection of our daily needs. We can circumvent the system which endlessly suggests male-dominated commodities.

Some time ago I made a pact with myself to constantly seek out and prioritize services produced by women. I decided to start seriously considering the gender implications of every single thing I consume -- from food to television to tattoos. And I don't keep quiet about it at all.

Whenever a friend suggests I watch a new TV show or movie or read a new book or graphic novel, my first question is always, "Are there women in it?" When the answer is, "Yes," because I typically don't consider the suggestion any further if the answer is, "No," then my follow-up question is typical, "Are they well-written women?"

Sometimes when I ask that first question to male friends making those suggestions, I'm met with a very common selling point: "He's aware of his privilege; he's a feminist; he's not offensive."

Here's my retort: I don't really care. It's great that there are male content creators out there who believe in feminism, but that wasn't my question. I asked if the suggestion was a female-led service, not if it was male-but-female-friendly. The former does drastically more help for feminism than the latter, and that's not debatable.

I didn't make the decision to seriously prioritize woman-made products, content, and services in order to be trendy or cool. I did it because it substantially improves the way I live my life. And it could improve yours too.

The minor effort it takes to seek out talented women is well worth the payoff of a diverse flow of media and resources, I promise. We should all be striving to enjoy goods and services from people of all different backgrounds and lives. I find, now that I choose to emphasize media made by women, LGBT+ individuals, people of color, people with disabilities, and any intersections of those categories, that I'm genuinely discovering more interesting, funnier, more complex, and just better content. I'm enjoying stories typically untold. Wouldn't you like that too?

In true progressive, feminist, millennial fashion, I'll leave you with a few of the great tweets I found last year which inspired me to start prioritizing gender and intersectionality in media:

Baron Schwartz, @xaprb, "I challenge you to follow more women on Twitter. It's transformational. Also, given choice btw RTing identical content, RT her not him."

Grace Spelman, @GraceSpelman, "also, following more women (whether they're doing comedy or not) improves ur Twitter experience tenfold. I know ppl will back me up on this"

Also, to the tsunami of men whining online that women aren't funny, watch Ali Wong's Netflix special, "Baby Cobra," and stop farting directly into my ear canals. Thank you.