Women and Humor

After reading Christopher Hitchens article "Why Women Aren't Funny" and discussing this issue in class, it was refreshing to see that most if not all of the class disagreed with Hitchens points.

I think that women are just as funny as men. I do, however, believe humor all depends on the person and what they think is considered funny. The article stated that men tend to be more vulgar and inappropriate with their humor, but with all of the clips from class we watched today, women can be just as sexual and inappropriate and it is still just as funny. Someone made a good point though that women tend to be more reserved when it comes to humor, because women are placed under so much pressure from society to act in a certain way. But once women feel as though they can be themselves and are comfortable, then their humor is more likely to show. I think that men have an easier time making jokes and getting placed into that "jokester" role, but that does not mean that women are unable to take on that role as well, it may just take longer for them to transition into it.

The article also argued how women don't need to be funny. Well if thats the case, then no one NEEDS to be funny. I mean, if no one was funny, that would be boring and quite frankly, it would suck. But to say that women physically have the powers to attract men and humor isn't needed is just wrong. Everybody likes to laugh, it shouldn't matter who is responsible for making us laugh.

Several points were also made in class about women's appearance and how women in comedy tend to be attractive, or really play down their looks in order to have their humor shine more. I think that in our society, there are those girls who are good looking and the general misconception is that they have the looks, therefore they don't need anything else to attract others. Some girls who may be a little more insecure with their looks or feel as though they need an edge, use their humor as a way to attract people and to stand out from other females. But it shouldn't be one or the other. Women should feel like they can be funny AND good looking. They should not settle for one or the other because that's what society is telling them to do.

I found this quote from Tina Fey that i think sums humor up nicely:
"You can tell how smart people are, by what they laugh at."

Humor isn't determined by your gender, it is determined by what you constitute as funny.