This study challenges many ideas on how disparaging humor pushes negative racial and gender stereotypes.
Authors and social scientiets, such as Rappoport (Punchlines: The Case for Racial, Ethnic and Gender Humor), demonstrate that humor can be used to create and reinforce social identity within the big white melting pot of America. In other words, our stereotypes and representations are what divides social identities and any identity is better than no identity at all ...
In thinking about this, I can't help think of the "default American" being some massive blob-like evil creature that is trying to consume all minorities!
As the only Canadian on the football team, I can't go a day without a South Park or Eh! joke being shared around me ... truth is, even if these jokes get offensive, I like the fact they keep me away from those who share them (I'm proud to be Canadian despite the number of beaver, flapjack, maple syrup and jean tuxedo jokes) ... the jokes keep me me? What do you think? Is this the same for other groups? I do realize groups such a illegal immigrants get much harsher criticism than lonely old Canadians so what do these groups feel like? I also realize that Canadians aren't usually labelled a race of people - but maybe that's just your opinion;)
Very interesting- glad to see an overview of some new sides to the argument surrounding offensive jokes. The types of offensive jokes that affect me the most, personally, are sexist jokes, so I'll answer your questions in terms of that. Jokes about women are actually quite rare in everyday conversation (at least conversations that include females, which would be the only ones I've seen of course.) What irks me much more is definitely the more subtle and true forms of sexism, e.g. bosses treating men different than women in the workplace. If I were to hear some sexist "jokes," I feel like usually the main idea of them are that "women belong in the kitchen" but in a sense, such jokes cause bonding among females who all definitely do not belong in the kitchen. So in a sense we bond over the ridiculousness of them, I suppose.
ReplyDeleteThis makes me think of How I Met your Mother. If any of you have seen the show, they are always making jokes about how Robyn is Canadian. I've seen every episode of that show, and the other day I met a Canadian in a bar who was wearing a Canucks jersey and had an accent and I just thought he was the coolest person alive! It was like being in an episode of How I Met Your Mother. Rather than judging him, every time he did something that further emphasized the fact that he was Canadian, I loved it! And he thought it was hilarious that I was as interested in it as I was. I think that there is definitely something about being a part of a group that can bring people together, even if they are parts of different groups.
ReplyDeleteI think this relates back to the article we read at the beginning of the quarter, "Doing Race", by Marcus and Moya, which said that one of the ways that people conversations people had about race was "It's a [fill in the blank] thing, you wouldn't understand", and another was, "I'm [blank] and I'm proud." I think this relates to any time some one is labeled as part of an "outgroup," and it's a way to cope with it. I have, like Alissa, bonded with other females over the preposterousness of sexism, and this is a way of saying, hey, yeah, we're not in the guy-club, but the girl-club is awesome so it doesn't matter. And about Brian's being Canadian, since he doesn't have other Canadian's to bond with directly, he has to take on more of an "I'm Canadian and I'm proud!" mentality. Maybe if Alissa or I were the only female in a group of guys, we would have to take on that conversation as a coping mechanism, too.
ReplyDeleteOh yeah, absolutely. Last summer I worked in an intern class of 7 guys and one other girl. This extreme ratio made it sort of a "boys club" and sexism ran a lot higher than usual. The other female and I discussed this really often, but used it to bond together.
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