Feminists learning to laugh with it

Even as a woman, when talking about female issues, I genuinely feel detached.

I read this article on Medium “Yes, Black People Can Be Racist.” The author writes that she herself is a racist, but as an adjective, not a noun, and that her racism is conditioned by the environment she grew up in — “I am racist because I am American.” Similarly, females can be sexist because it’s an unavoidable consequence of growing up in the human world.

A big problem with sexism: it came up as an issue, but in this century, no huge social “incidents” happened, so we accept the problem as normality, a part of our daily life.

No urgency.

BLM movement is all over the country right now, even around the world, because George Floyd incident happened.

But why do we have to keep silent until something happens?

We, human beings of the 21st century, always think that we evolve with the times. We believe that the nonexistence of incidents is due to the world getting better. We believe that all kinds of discrimination are declining because of the society becoming more inclusive. But is it? Or is it just we ourselves are more accepting of discrimination so it seems to be disappearing? Didn’t our overtolerance cause the nonexistence of incidents?

I’m getting used to COVID-19 because I’ve been living in the pandemic for too long. Sexism is like a pandemic — I’m used to it because I live in it ever since the moment I was born into this world. I learn to live with it. I learn to laugh with it.

People criticize certain female comedians for only talking about topics regarding women. Little do they know, it’s a 5-second laugh on stage, but it might have taken a good cry to write down that joke. I admire female comedians for addressing their pain this way. But at the same time, it’s kinda sad that humor is the only way to address a serious issue, the only way that’s acceptable for this world full of vigilante hunting for over-correctness.

When a feminist gets serious over “trivial” issues, people laugh at her for “over-correctness”. We still haven’t fully addressed the wrong, how can we over-correct? But still, she stops being serious, and turns the microaggressions she encountered into jokes and tell their friends to make them laugh and to make herself feel less burdened.

It seems that a good laugh does heal the pain. I love comedy and I watch a lot of it, but I do wonder sometimes: are we numbing ourselves and avoiding the real actions, which we know are more painful to execute?

Comedy is a good way to present issues, but they can’t stay as a joke. Because they are not.

I don’t blame the female comedians for telling those jokes. They’re not the problem. They’re the brave ones paving the way. The real solution only comes when the problem creators see the pain beneath those jokes instead of laughing it off.

And by problem creators, I mean us all.