Sophie Duker @ Pleasance Courtyard

Sophie Duker is a bona fide powerhouse; she's not only a consummate stand-up, but also an activist. Cheerfully outspoken on any number of issues (the Fringe's whiteness problem, for example) she embodies 'being the change you want to see', whether that's opening Wacky Racists, the London comedy club with a focus on platforming women of colour, or throwing mid-Fringe parties for artists of colour and developing a group chat to keep those performers connected. In her new show she sets her sights on straight men, probing her own and others' ambivalence.

Duker examines a notorious recent survey showing many women are more likely to choose being stuck in a forest with a bear than a man. It's a stark indicator of anxiety about male violence, and Duker recounts some occasions when she's personally felt vulnerable: a handyman revealing his crush, after leaving his tools (lol) at her home; a high-handed comedy club owner giving feedback in a locked room; a lift in a stranger's car. She worries about her own enduring need to please – and the universal recourse to a bright smile to hide fear and placate threat.

Duker worries about her nephew, a sweet boy, now a deep-voiced man: will he be a threat to women? She impulsively promises him a car to stop him signing up for the army and feels his heart beating when they hug, prompting the simple but enormous realisation that men are people, too. Instead of picking up girls like she fears, he picks up his grandmother and drives her to Boots.

Duker doesn't mince her words in her Hot Beef Injection (an allusion to a moment of casual verbal violence in The Breakfast Club), but her sunny confidence and rhythmic cadences ensure hard truths can be heard.

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Sophie Duker: Hot Beef Injection, Pleasance Courtyard (Forth), until 30 Aug (not Weds), 8.30pm, £21.50/£18.50