Female humour

[Svenskaflicka]

It's my firm belief that men and women have different kinds of humour. I think that women have a very down-to-earth kind of humour, that not only makes us endure hard times and lazy or insensitive men, but also makes us laugh at our own imperfection.

The other day, my best friend came over, and we talked about this and that, and about our long gone youth (we're both 27 now), and the days when we were slim and strong, and her body was in such a shape that you could see her musces through her skin, in the shape of a bump on her upper arms, and checker board abs.

"Well, I may be chubby today," I said, "but I still have that muscular line going down my stomach, if I hold my breath. Look!"

And I hitched up my T-shirt and showed her.

"Yes," she said, "and when you're sitting down like that, with your belly making a horizontal line, you actually have squares on your stomach, too!"

When we realized the humour of her line, we laughed until we had tears running down our cheeks.

Female humour...

 

[MathGirl]

Female humour...

I didn't know there was any. What humor I have, I got from my father, so it tends to be masculine. I think.
MG

 

[Guest]

Svenska-mou, you've touched on something profound. I think women's humor is inextricable from body and soul; we do not separate ourselves so easily as our male company. (I also presume you are speaking of personal humor, vs. professional or other structured comedic forms.)

Women are more intimate in friendship. We discuss the depths of our feelings and the depths of bodily functions too, including the relationship between feelings and body parts or functions. So the humor engaged, even used for personal expression, is markedly different than that of the visual/superficial or more cerebral* focus of men. (*By cerebral I am not refering to the intellect.)

I know this may sound simplistic or too black-and-white, but on some level there is truth in it. I just can't imagine men laughing with each other in quite the same way I do with my closest girlfriends. I think the closest most men come is through bathroom humor (think of farting or belching contests).

There may also be a parallel here with the difference in humor among nationalities (e.g., Brit humour, or Yorkshire vs. ?).

I'm interested in hearing from other women, and the men too.

Perdita

John Garfield

 

[Guest]

Re: Re: Female humour

I didn't know there was any. What humor I have, I got from my father, so it tends to be masculing.

As you like it, MG, but I think the word is splenetic, and not necessarily masculine. It's evident in most of your posts, and at the root of many rhetorical devices aimed at sarcasm, facetia, and mycterismus (also known as the fleering frumpe).

Politely, but not mockingly,

Perdita

Shakespeare

 

[MathGirl]

Re: Re: Re: Female humour

Originally posted by perdita Shakespeare

Frank Shakespeare?

 

[Guest]

Re: Re: Re: Re: Female humour

Frank Shakespeare?

No first name required; definitely not Frank though.

Perdita

 

[gauchecritic]

So the humor engaged, even used for personal expression, is markedly different than that of the visual/superficial or more cerebral* focus of men. (*By cerebral I am not refering to the intellect.)

I just can't imagine men laughing with each other in quite the same way I do with my closest girlfriends. I think the closest most men come is through bathroom humor (think of farting or belching contests).

Perdita

Can I just cut in here and deny vehemently the really really dark and sticky tar that I have just been painted with.

If there is one thing I hate more than anything else (sociologically I suppose) it is toilet humour.

The biggest laughs I get are from wordplay, comic characterization and improvisation (when pronounced properly) and so too do my brothers. And my best mates at school.

Can I propose instead a generational sticking-at which applies to both genders. Assuming that everyone is exposed to all varieties of humour as they grow it seems to me that as we mature our tastes change in all things, fashion, music, people, books, pastimes etc.

With humour (and doubtless other things from the list too) we find a type with which we are most happy. From the top of my head the generational growth could be >10, >15, >25, >40 and then beyond we may apply particular types of humour with particular age ranges and could place them thus, toilet, slapstick, cerebral, intellectual (for want of a better term)

From this list (non-exhaustive and certainly not researched at all) we find a humour which makes us laugh most. We find friends who share it and with whom we feel most comfortable.

However this is not 'The Truth' and takes no account of nature/nurture, globally humorous things or why farting is ever considered funny. (Or why, curiously, men ogle strippers and women laugh at them, at least until they're drunk enough to suck their cocks in front of an audience at a 'hen-night')

This must be the longest post ever for me and I still can't understand how I take humour so seriously.

Gauche

Pratchett

 

[MathGirl]

Originally posted by perdita I think the closest most men come is through bathroom humor (think of farting or belching contests).

Dear Perdita,
And what's wrong with a little toilet humor? Hear about the guy who had hemorrhoids so bad that..........
MG

Max Headroom

 

[Guest]

Guache:

Gauche: I was trying to address something too personal I think, and I was not thoughtful. I apologize sincerely for the tar.

Your expression is gratefully received, and I am happy to know of your own dislike for WC larfs. It’s just been my own experience (3 brothers and 3 husbands) that many men get stuck in the toilet (genre-wise).

Culturally speaking, I don’t think I’ve experienced a ‘hen night’, but it sounds promising.

Cordially, Purr

 

[gauchecritic]

Re: Guache:

If that title is purposeful then that is really funny. It's still funny if it's a typo.

Gauche

 

[Alex De Kok]

This thread reminds me of something I read recently (don't know where), that

"seventy-five percent of men find farting funny and zero percent of women".

I happened to mention this to my wife as we were getting ready for bed. I don't think she stopped laughing for nearly half an hour!

Alex

 

[Guest]

GAUCHE: It was a typo. I do it often but usually catch it. Glad you enjoyed it though. (I think it's Spic humour.)

Purr

 

[gauchecritic]

GAUCHE: It was a typo. I do it often but usually catch it. Glad you enjoyed it though. (I think it's Spic humour.)

Purr

That was even funnier.

Gouache

 

[Guest]

entendres

I'm beside myself with quivery laughing and coughing. I'm going to stop now. I need an entendre-checker, eh?

Purr

 

[MlledeLaPlumeBleu]

I think in a lot of cases, women are better than men at laughing at their own expense. What I think of as "female
humor" often seems to be self-deprecating (this also extends to gay male humor). I think this is a result of having been brought up with the expectation that we need to constantly question ourselves- appearances, behavior, perception by the world at large. Think of how many women eagerly embrace therapy. There's kind of this "Well, of course there's something wrong with me!" kind of mentality. By contrast, most men would rather toodlewhack for alligator gars with their hog-legs than undergo any kind of analysis, particularly if the feedback is less than favorable.

Think about it- even those of us girls with the most progressive upbringing were expected to be able to be vigilantly self-aware and self-critical- not necessarily negative, but this was often the outgrowth. The other outgrowth is self-preservationist we-shall-endure bend-but-don't-break self-effacing humor.

Boys, by contrast, are often told by doting mothers how wonderful they are, how talented, how no girl is good enough for their little prince. Thus men sometimes lack the skills for self-analysis and tend to take themselves much more seriously. Women are constantly prodded and assessed a lot by everyone, whether we love it or abhor it, so it is less of a shock when it happens. We almost expect it. My boyfriend is a scientist- kind of a golden-boy, overachiever type. The slightest criticism of his work or methods, well-intended or not, can put him off his feed for days. Then of course I'm required to do the "cooing and reassuring thing" but that's another story.....lol

PS My personal humor is definitely more "male" in nature, judging from the amount of women I appall on a daily basis.

mlle

 

[Gabriel_Lee]

Boys, by contrast, are often told by doting mothers how wonderful they are, how talented, how no girl is good enough for their little prince. Thus men sometimes lack the skills for self-analysis and tend to take themselves much more seriously.

Look what I can do, Mum:

 

[Quasimodem]

As you like it, MG, but I think the word is splenetic, and not necessarily masculine. . . .

Splenetic

When it comes to venting spleen through humour, the only thing more bilious making than two women speaking about the men that they presumably love, is two drag queens who are having a cat fight.

 

[MlledeLaPlumeBleu]

Ow, e's so clever, my littol Alfie! Lookit 'im make 'is food dance lieddat! Such a clever littol boy!

 

[MathGirl]

Re: Re: Re: Female humour

mycterismus

Dear Perdita,
Lovely word. What does it mean? My dictionary doesn't know. Sounds like some kind of fungus infection.
MG


Bruno Hauptman

 

[gauchecritic]

In some smiling sort looking aside or by drawing the lip awry or shrinking up the nose, as he had said to one whose words he believed not, "No doubt, sir, of that" —Puttenham


Gauche

 

[Quasimodem]

At least this "mycterismus" doohicky is related to a form of irony!

 

[Guest]

Mlle: yours is the best use I've seen made of those bananas.

Grateful for the laugh, Trova

 

[Vincent E]

Some of this is going way over my head. All I know is that the day I find a woman who appreciates Monty Python, Benny Hill, and the Three Stooges I am grabbing her.

Of course I could get into a lot of trouble if I grab her in public, but I'm willing to take my chances.

 

[Guest]

Hey Vincenzo, I like that you're willing to get in over your head.

I'm so NOT into Benny Hill though.

cheers, Perdita

 

[DurtGurl]

the day I find a woman who appreciates Monty Python, Benny Hill, and the Three Stooges I am grabbing her.

Personally, Im waiting for a man who likes "Hee Haw" and looks like Virginia Woolfe.
DG