Laughing Away Pain
Can jokes really be useful in overcoming emotional struggles of oppression?
Protest are commonly very serious and solely directed towards social, political, or economic change. Oftentimes, forms of protest such as marches, sit-ins, boycotts, and strikes are very serious because they illustrate emotional and physical pain. Typically there isn’t any laughter, rather protesters sometimes cry when expressing their frustration with their oppression. However, comedy and the use of humor can be very effective in making a statement. In the recent women’s march, knitted pink “Pussyhats” were worn in solidaity by thounsands of women despite gender identity, sexuality, race, and class. To many, the idea of wearing pussycat ears is funny solely because of the word pussy. However, women in the march were trying to change how society views the word. The Pussyhat company claims that, “In order to get fair treatment, the answer is not to take away our pussies, the answer is not to deny our femaleness and femininity, the answer is to demand fair treatment. A woman’s body is her own. We are honoring this truth and standing up for our rights”. The women marched and wore Pussyhats as a way of empowering themselves. They gave strength to a “funny” word that was previously used to belittle them. The women were fighting against President Trump who is sexists and lacks empathy towards everyone, especially women.
Pussyhats are not the sole example of how laughter is used to cope and overcome oppression. During segregation, blacks often made race jokes to distract themselves from their inferiority. Sometimes they “put down” white people and put up black people and vice versa. Their jokes were “rituals” that made them feel powerful. Blacks finally had control of some aspects of their life and literally laughed away their pain and oppression. It was a shield and survival method for blacks to protect themselves from the emotional pain of feeling helpless and inferior. Comedy was a tool that helped African-Americans to overcome not feeling like a human by being forced to sit on the back of the bus, drink from separate water fountains, and to enter a building from the backdoor. Making jokes made segregation a little bit easier because it did not hurt as much, for it was a shield.
I completely understand how laughter and jokes omit pain. I have personally made race jokes to my closest friends. As a young black woman, I am vastly inferior to a white male by both being a woman and being black. In today’s society, women only make 79% of what a man earns while black women make 60 cents of a man’s dollar. As a result, my inferiority is doubled because of something that I can not change about myself. I make race jokes to my friends that look like me and can truly understand what it feels like to be a black woman because of the same reason why comedy was used during segregation. It distracts us from the realities we experience daily from not being considered smart or pretty enough. Making jokes does not mean that we are content with our social standings, rather it is a starange expression of pain and resentment. Hence, comedy is a form of parrhesia. Parrhesia is free speech which is spoken by someone who is inferior and who is typically criticizing something. My friends and I were using parrhesia because we are inferior black women who criticize our lack of power compared to a white man by saying jokes. We speak our truth to each other and bond of common oppression.
Although race jokes are very controversial, they must be said in an environment where everyone feels comfortable and people understand each other’s perspective. Race jokes often have stereotypical roots and may come off as offensive. When I make a contentious joke, I always say it to my close friends who I share common race, gender, and class depending on the joke. Doing this eliminates the chance of hurting someone’s feelings because both of us understand the true meaning of the joke by experiencing it daily. Jokes typically become offensive when it is said to someone who differs from oneself. This can seen in men who make jokes to other women like they are incapable of driving a man in a car and because it is his duty to drive a woman around. In this example, a woman may be offended by this joke because she is completely capable of driving a man around; however, gender norms force men to drive women. If this same joke was made by a man to a man, the possibility of someone getting offended is lessened because the two would understand each other’s perspective. Overall, if you want to make a controversial joke, make it to someone that you share race, gender, class, ideals, religion, etc. with.
In essence, laughter can indeed be useful in emotionally protecting oneself to get through oppression, for comedy was used decades ago during segregation and it is still used today with Pussyhats and race jokes made daily.
