Gendered Humor

LouieW

By gendered humor I guess I mean the kinds of jokes that exploit perceived differences in how men and women act for laughs. One example of that type of humor would be when people make jokes that are supposed to appeal to women by saying disparaging things about men or vice versa.

First off, I think that brand of humor, like that grounded in racism or sexism, has the fairly obvious problem of generalizing women/men and treating them as a block for the sake of getting some cheap laughs. What is even worse in my eyes though is that gendered humor encourages the whole boys vs. girls junk by reinforcing stereotypes and stuff like that.

I may be wrong about this, but I feel like society could really benefit from people having more interactions with those of the opposite gender. My impression is that a lot of conflicts between men and women (either in a social or romantic context) come down to a lack of mutual understanding. That being the case, most anything that supports the idea that men and women are irreconcilably different creatures strikes me as harmful to gender relations as a whole.

I think that generally the more you enforce strict gender norms, either in behavior or in perceptions about the opposite gender, the fewer points of commonality men and women see in each other since the male/female distinction becomes that much more pronounced. While there certainly may be differences between men and women worth recognizing, gendered humor goes too far in the opposite direction by encouraging a battle of the sexes mentality rather than actual dialogue about those differences.

Anywho, I suppose part of what inspired this thought was watching the Daily Lives of High School Boys and being bothered by this type of humor in it.

InsanityAddict

Research backs you up: http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2007/11/071106083038.htm (the same type of study was also done for racist jokes but I'm too drunk to look that shit up)

Formaldehyde

If only you were too drunk to post. (Damn!)



But seriously though, thanks for that link.

glennmagusharvey

First off, I think that brand of humor, like that grounded in racism or sexism, has the fairly obvious problem of generalizing women/men and treating them as a block for the sake of getting some cheap laughs. What is even worse in my eyes though is that gendered humor encourages the whole boys vs. girls junk by reinforcing stereotypes and stuff like that.

most anything that supports the idea that men and women are irreconcilably different creatures strikes me as harmful to gender relations as a whole.

gendered humor goes too far in the opposite direction by encouraging a battle of the sexes mentality

Holy crap, are you reading my mental opinion database?  I really dislike gender jokes.

It doesn't help that the majority of them mock women.  But I dislike ones that mock men, too.

Related IJBM: guys-versus-girls arrangements when playing party games such as Taboo.  When that happens I'm actually tempted to team up with the opposite sex group, in part to protest such arrangements.

Counterclock

Fight the man, Glenn!

Saturn

IJBM: Any kids show that has a boy v girl competition EVER.

The boys will always go "HURR DURR YOU CAN'T PLAY YOU'RE GIRLS"

The girls then teach the boys a lesson by winning.

The only kids show I've ever seen surprisingly avoid this was Victorious, where it was a contest to see who could go longer without texting.

Ironweaver

Gender humor annoys me a lot, too.

But I'll never give up my ethnic jokes. >

InsanityAddict

Here we go: http://www.psychologytoday.com/blog/humor-sapiens/201107/does-racist-humor-promote-racism

Ironweaver

Still not. >

Seriously, though, here in the Balkans, one of the first thing we do upon meeting someone from another ethnic group is to start exchanging ethnic jokes. Then everyone laughs. It's something of a custom.

I am fully aware of the implications, but it's still too good to give up.

InsanityAddict

Meh, much the same here with dudettes, Middle-Eastern and gay peeps-it's okay to joke about it if you're bros. If you mind your audience, don't try to relativize feelings away if someone does get offended and the jokes go beyond 'lol rehashed stereotype for shock value'(unless the punchline is ridiculing the stereotype by extrapolating it to the most ridiculous extent), saying that they can't be made is hopelessly patronizing, especially if that notion completely disregards local context/subculture.

LouieW

InsanityAddict,
Ditto what Formaldehyde said about that link. I am a little surprised that sexist jokes would seemingly have such a direct effect on people, but I guess the idea that they can change people's perceptions or reinforce certain negative attitudes is a legitimate one.

Saturn,
IJBM: Any kids show that has a boy v girl competition EVER.

The boys will always go "HURR DURR YOU CAN'T PLAY YOU'RE GIRLS"

The girls then teach the boys a lesson by winning.
I feel like maybe the underlying idea of those kinds of plots could be somewhat positive (i.e. girls are not inferior to boys), but yeah, I could see how they could actually become counterproductive if it gets to a "girls are just better" level and ends up encouraging boys to hold a grudge against girls.

Nyktos

It's just a really boring plot at this point even if the message is positive(ish).