A scientific research found that men and women share much of the same humor response system; both use to a similar degree the part of the brain responsible for semantic knowledge and juxtaposition and the part involved in language processing. Still it is said that women have less capacity of create laughter and understanding of comedy.
We have laughter arising from the comic and from humor but humor is the consummation of the instinct of laughter. Humor teaches us to smile philosophically at the superiorities and inferiorities of mankind. So it becomes one of the means of communication and expression for all. But unfortunately like language humor too became gender constructed means of communication. Like behavior that which we think of as ‘womanly’ or ‘manly’ behavior is not dictated by biology, but rather is socially constructed. And a fundamental domain in which gender is constructed is use of language and expression of non-verbal.
The common belief in this social construct is humor mainly (though not always) associates with jokes, puns, cheap sticks and tomfoolery and women should not involve themselves in this cheap business of laughter. And those who like to cut jokes even just for amusement or for comic relief are always taken as vulgar or with ‘cheap’ intentions.
Generally, Gender is conceived as a system of meanings that influences access topower, status, and material resources. Humor is conceived as a mode of discourse
and a strategy for social interaction. But how women use humor, respond to humor and reproduce humor is very much controlled by the gender system. Here it is not said, controlled by MEN but it highlights the working of different social institutions which are basically patriarchal, control the mind make up of both, men as well as women. So whenever they come across to each other or intersect somewhere in life, the imbalance due to the power game has been created. Social institutions like religion, marriage, family and community with the patriarchal foundation have a definite scripting for men as they are superior and the women are inferior.
Humor as a social interaction has influenced by following factors and it has become more social and gender consturct than individual’s (male’s or female’s) tool of expression.
The superiority of male over female nourishes the male-ego in the Indian context. In every human being there is a cultural psychological space that lies between universally shared wishes of the inner world and the specific restrictions placed on them by a particular society. The treatment given to male and female in India and in different social institutions in Indian context increases the discrimination between male and female.
The socialization of members and especially girls leads to women themselves accepting their secondary role in family. For a long time academics have been studying the process of socialization however it only meant understanding the traits of masculinity and femininity. Gender roles are conceived, enacted and learnt within a complex of relationship so when it comes to laughter or expression of sense of humor, for women it becomes hesitant, weak and humorless.
When this discussion travels from gender discrimination towards sexuality it is observed that woman embodies the boundaries of licit and illicit forms of sexuality, she is the guardian of the nation’s morality. Further by bestowing her with spirituality- the notion of ‘Shakti’ in the Hindu tradition, for instance- the woman’s sexuality is effectively erased in favor of a ‘pure’ ideal. And for a family she is wife, mother with beloved and loving who is a picture of grace and harmony.
So her involvement in sexist jokes or relevant humor is forbidden. But due to her weaker and submissive status, men direct their humor around her and target her personality and her sexuality in their so called ‘intellectual humor’. The themes of this humor objectify women, emphasize their sexual availability (all women always want sex even if they deny it), and silence women’s voices. If a woman with opinion who is a threat for today’s powerful men, protests to such female directed jokes, again they try to silence her by blaming her as lack of Sense of Humor.
They imply that women speak in particular ways because they are women. The supposedly fundamental attributes of women and men (which define masculinity and femininity) are believed to determine gendered roles and actions. Here this discussion asks the question of how and why gender is continually negotiated and re-enacted in discourse like humor and other aspects of social interaction.
At the interactional level, people use gender cues in deciding how to behave toward others in social interactions. Moreover, such gender categorization is not simply a way of reacting to differences, but a way of creating them. When people are treated as gendered beings in ordinary daily interaction, they may come to behave differently in return. Here, the opinion of Cherrie Moraga explains the rationality of the conflict, ‘If women’s bodies and those of men and women who transgress their gender roles have been historically regarded as territories to be conquered, they are also territories to be liberated’.
Finally in the discourse of gender and humor it is essential to assert Meredith’s view from The Idea of Comedy: ‘But where women are on the road to an equal footing with men, in attainment and liberty…there…pure comedy flourishes’. (Comedy is an expression and for this pure expression of Heart and emotions, there needs not only equality but liberty of being for this half population i e women)
Dr Seema Ghangale
Assistant Professor at D Y Patil School of Law and facilitator for Workshops in Feminist Discourse, Gender sensitization and research design