The Bitchin’ Table: I have all the senses, except for humor.

Hey all you loyal readers, welcome to another edition of The Bitchin’ Table with Katie O. and KillerTofu. Each week we like to shoot some sass and no topics are safe. This week we’re chattin’ about feminism and laughing, which in appropriate situations go hand in hand.

KillerTofu: Hey Hey Katie O.!

Katie O.: Why hello there, KillerTofu!

KillerTofu: So, I was at a cocktail party earlier this evening. Yes, because there are so many of them happening around these parts, and somebody invited a FEMINIST.

Katie O.: I hope they had that shrimp in the fancy sauce.

KillerTofu: Which pretty much killed the mood, she didn’t laugh at one of my holocaust jokes.

Katie O.: What a drag, feminists are so BORING and serious all the time. I have never met a feminist who laughed at that joke about touching children that I like to make. Who doesn’t find that funny? Come on.

KillerTofu: Seriously, when I rented AUTISM! The Musical so we could all hang out they just implied that I was tasteless.

Katie O.: How is that tasteless? Those feminists are just so deprived.  Wanna hear a good one, KillerTofu?

KillerTofu: I’m not a feminist, so I’d love to.

Katie O.: Perfect. What do you tell a woman with two black eyes?

KillerTofu: See an optometrist?

Katie O.: Nothing. Someone already told her twice!

KillerTofu: AHAHAHAHAH

Katie O. : HAHAHA, isn’t domestic violence just the best?

KillerTofu: Oh man that’s a stitch.

Katie O.: I mean, really, it’s not like 4.8 million women don’t face intimate partner violence assault and rape annually or anything.

KillerTofu: Nah, feminists just inflate those numbers to seem more important.

Katie O.: God, why do those feminists keep stepping out of their proper place, making my Manwiches in that kitchen?

KillerTofu: Mmmmmm processed meat products. Anyhow, I just know that not everyone is as level headed as I am. I mean, not everyone can listen to some feminist put down their awesome sense of humor and not feel threatened.

Katie O.: Well, don’t we need our sense of humor to reinforce our own privileges and prejudices about other groups?

KillerTofu: Or when a feminist tells me that saying “That’s so Gay” is not acceptable. Anyone else would get offended about being called out on homophobia. But not me.  Haha good point Katie O.!

Katie O. : Here’s the thing, KillerTofu. I am a feminist. I am proud of that fact. And I also think I have a pretty decent, biting sense of humor that has even made people laugh in the past. What aren’t funny to me, however, are jokes that denigrate women, queer people, people of color, and other minority groups. Because then you’re just reinforcing a system that keeps these people oppressed, and oppression, shockingly, is NOT hilarious.

KillerTofu: Agreed, the idea that feminists aren’t funny is just a threatened reaction to experiencing a logical rebuttal to oppressive dialogue. It’s popular to say that feminists are trying to police what people say, similar to reactions of political correctness.

Katie O.: No one likes being called out on being a racist asshole (except for the REALLY racist assholes, but that’s a whole different conversation), so people get defensive and make up myths of the humorless feminist which go hand-in-hand with the sexually frigid or repressed feminist, who just needs a good fuck by a good man to get over her feminism.

KillerTofu: Haha, Katie O. you put it perfectly.

I think people need to realize that when they make jokes that reinforce stereotypes or are generally detrimental to minorities it isn’t humor that is funny because it’s speaking to something “fundamentally true” that people “just don’t want to acknowledge”. That is a popular defense for offensive jokes.

Generally those jokes are considered funny because they are at the expense of another group of people.

Katie O.: Plus the fact that you feel comfortable joking about someone being molested, for example, means it’s an experience you’ve been privileged enough not to experience. But (as you can see in our rape joke bitchin’ table) you can seriously hurt someone. Not only are you reinforcing your own attitudes that sexual assault is insignificant, but you could be saying that to someone who has been sexuall assaulted!  Would you joke about the Holocaust to a victim of it? God, I hope not.

KillerTofu: Seriously, I think it’s appropriate to say that feminists have a very good sense of humor, even when it comes to their perceived lack of sense of humor.