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Gender & conversational humour What is humour?•“Instances of humour included in this analysis are utterances which are identified by the analyst, on the basis of paralinguistic, prosodic and discoursal clues, as intended by the speaker(s) to be amusing and perceived to be amusing by at least some participants” (Holmes and Marra) Why do we use humour•Construction of in-group cohesion•Construction of solidarity•Hedging face-threats•Managing tensions•Alleviate the impact of authoritative behaviour•Challenge authority Women and humour•Women are often considered humourless•Can’t produce humour•Don’t appreciate humour•Don’t tell jokes Females and Humour?Women are considered to have a sense of humourwhen they respond to and appreciate it not when they produce itAs a consequencewomen use humouronly when among themselvesWomen never use humourin mixed-sex groupsWomen are neither expected nor trained to use humourin publicGrotjahn: “the woman of today had better not show her wit too obviously if she is young and intelligent forshe will scare the contemporary male who is easily frightened in his masculinity” Exercise•“The truth is …that women have not only no humour in themselves but are the cause of the extinction of it in others. This is almost too cruel to be true, but in every waywomen correspond to and are representative of nature. Is there any humour in nature? A glance at the zoo will answer this question… [w]omen are the undifferentiated mass of nature from which the contradictions of real and ideal arise and they are the unlaughing at which men laugh.” (Blyth, 1959) Exercise•“Great comedians have exploited the funniness of women… [who are] unable… to comprehend the laughter they evoke in the presence of their male colleagues” (1973: 197) Exercise•“I wonder why it was that when a man tells a joke and women don’t laughwe are told we have no sense of humor, but when a woman tells a joke and men don’t laughwe are told we are not funny” (Jenkins) Women and humour•Since the advent of alternative comedy in the late 1970s there has been a slight improvement in women’s representation as comedians, although Littlewood and Pickering commented that alternative comedy remained elitist (1998:300). Cook (1994) comments that his selection ‘reflects the one in ten ratio of women to men on the circuit’ (p.13). StudyCrawford and Gressley:Questionnaire enquiring about self-report data on use of humourin the following categories: hostility, cutting, sarcastic, humourat others expense, jokes, creativity, spontaneous, can think on feet, real life, stories and anecdotes, caring, to alleviate anger and tension. FindingsCrawford and GressleyMen used creativity dimension significantly more than womenMales reported to enjoy slapstick and hostile (e.g.racist or sexist) humourMales: more use of formulaic jokingFemales: more anecdotal humour Study•Vitulliand BarbinQuestionnaires on whether subjects thought that humourwas a male oriented or female oriented activity and if there is a perceived difference in reaction to humourdepending on whether the initiator was male or female. Findings•Vitulliand Barbin•Men more than women thought humourto be a male oriented behaviour•School more than college males thought humourwas a male oriented domain•School more than college females thought that humourwas a female oriented domain Study•Ervin-Tr i p p a n d L a m p e r tInvestigated humourin naturally occurring situations. Findings•Ervin-Tr i p p a n d L a m p e r t•Men are more likely to initiate a humorous key•Women are more collaborative in their humour•Men’s self-directed humouris more novel and tends to be more false/exaggerated•Women volunteered real stories about themselves to heal old embarrassments and build togetherness•Women use humourto share and cope•Men use humourto defend and equalize Study•MitchellCollected jokes. Findings¢Mitchell¢Men told more openly aggressive jokes¢Men seemed to enjoy competitive joke-telling sessions¢Women rarely participated in these sessions¢Men were more likely to use jokes to deride someone they did not like¢Women preferred to tell jokes in their homes/small groups of close friends¢Men enjoyed joke-telling to larger audiences¢Men told a higher percentage of obscene jokes (religious, ethnic, racial, death and drinking)¢Women used more wordplay¢Women used more question and answerjokes Gender DifferencesMale Humour•Exclusive•Challenging•Segmented•Pre-formulated•Self-aggrandizingFemale Humour•Cooperative•Inclusive•Supportive•Integrated•Spontaneous•Self-healing Homework•Reading•Holmes, J. 2006. Sharing a laugh. Journal of Pragmatics 38: 1, 26-50.