Plights of Funny Female
“Plight of the Funny Female” is a relatable blend of personal anecdotes and research that reveals problematic discrepancies to empower women to own their humor. Often in this piece, the author first introduces a research result, and then makes her commentary or personal experience the punchline. For example, after describing the analysis of laughing episodes that concluded women laughed more in the presence of men, Khazan jokes about her boyfriend’s response to her question about his preference for humor in sexual partners. Through using this strategy, Khazan actively subverts the research she describes. By finding humor in scientific material that brings up disturbing realizations about her gender, she demonstrates that women, indeed, can be quite funny.
Although Khazan deals primarily with gender and not with culture, I was personally struck by the relevance of her point to my experiences. However, I would be curious to see if there is research about the intersection of race and gender when it comes to perceptions of humor. As a woman of color with an accent, I find it particularly difficult to land jokes because humor is so culturally determined. A lot of the meaning gets lost in translation, both in timing and in delivery. Still, I think it’s impossible to ease the impact of my gender and race on this phenomenon without more careful self-study or by contextualizing my experience within intersectional psychology.
The research Khazan quotes is also primarily on Americans, so it would be useful to see whether cultural norms and expectations affect the interplay of gender and humor in other countries. When I lived in China, I felt freer to use humor as a tool to break tension or present my disagreements with policies and behaviors in a more pleasant and proper way. However, the men at the receiving end of these comments often seemed tense and uncomfortable or would actively lash out and try to “put me in my place.” Rather than deter me from being myself, these experiences inspired me to seek new environments in which I could be appreciated for the full range of my humanity.
