Humorless feminism

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Revision as of 10:35, 9 December 2006 by Lquilter (talk | contribs) (some basic notes about humorless feminism)
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Feminists are routinely lampooned as humorless creatures, as in the classic joke: Q: How many feminists does it take to change a lightbulb? A: That's not funny! (that actually is kind of funny, at least to some feminists).

This stems from at least two responses to feminism:

One, the defensive reaction of anyone who feels they are being critiqued or criticized; it is a subtle attack. It works like this:

A says something sexist ("Women can't drive.").
B calls A on the sexist comment ("You know, that's really not true, and in fact is a sexist generalization.")
A responds by bringing up humorless feminism: Geez, feminists have got no sense of humor.

A attempts to diminish the critique by simultaneously reframing the original comment as "merely" humorous, and suggesting that B is not on the ball and is missing something.

Two, this is also a response to the general characterization of women as humorless.