And “If you’re still unsure about what a woman is,” writes Bridget, “a woman is often contextualised in social situations to make it easier for you to understand the point of her.”For those who haven't yet heard of Bridget, some more info: a comedian, author and left-wing commentator, she is on telly sometimes, being witty on programmes such as Have I Got News For You. She has a sort of on/off Guardian column, which is excellent, and in which she exposes the logic of the Tory government as deranged. She has also written a book, called A Book For Her, mostly aimed at girls, which Jon Ronson called “a kind of genius” and Caitlin Moran described as “a cool, clear glass of sane in a world of unbearable woo-hoo.” And finally, she is still doing stand-up, all across Britain.So that’s what Bridget does. And if you don’t know her work we urge you to go and find it: on YouTube, in your local branch of Waterstones, or in the newspaper. Here, she speaks to Refinery29 in quite a self-deprecating manner about how she got where she is in her career today, why left-wing comedy is better than right-wing comedy, and what she would have the world do differently.It was always comedy – from about the age of four really. I thought I would be a comedy actress. I do love doing serious drama and plays but I was always cast in the comedy parts in am-dram things, and then in drama school things. Even if they weren’t comedy parts I would accidentally do them in a funny way. So I think I always gravitated towards humour. It was a big thing in our house. If you could make people laugh you'd be more likely to be listened to. I was fighting with eight brothers and sisters so I needed people to know that I existed.Yes exactly.[Laughs] No... it wasn't too bad. Just a regular school. Boys and girls. But I do get that humour is how a lot of people deal with things. It can make appalling things much less frightening. Me and my dad talk about really dark things to do with health and death quite often, and we have such a good laugh about it. Although it’s not everyone’s way.The chapter in my book about FGM is another example, I ran that past [the co-founder of anti-FGM organisation Daughters of Eve] Leyla Hussein ... and her mother... and they said that sometimes it’s good to laugh at ideologies and violations of human rights, precisely because they are so awful. You can talk about it in a depressing way.... but I want to talk about these things and I'm a comedian so I sort of have to be funny.Oh thanks. I've finished that now, thank god. They asked me to do 18 columns and I thought, 'I don’t have 18 thoughts in my head.’ It’s quite stressful doing them. They wanted me to be topical but you have to write them a week ahead, so by the time Saturday came around it would feel old. I found them quite hard, to be honest. But lots of people read the columns and came to the shows, so it was worth it.