Tuesday, October 14, 2008

Nancy Walker and Relation to Humor

Nancy Walker talks about women’s humor in her book A Very Serious Thing. Through these writings you can gain insight into the views, acceptance and an all around depiction of women’s humor at this point in history.




Brief understanding of Nancy Walker:

Nancy Walker was a professor at Vanderbilt University where she taught English, and was also involved in the Women’s Studies program. Walker died in December of 2000, but her memory lives on through her several books that inflict her “sense of humor as well as her contributions to the effort to recover how women’s humor shapes and is shaped by American culture” (Warren).

Why women couldn’t write humor:

“What from a woman’s pen? It takes a man to write a comedy--no woman can” (Walker 74). This quote is an example of the views of the nineteenth century on humor and who should be writing it. Men were thought to be superior to women in all aspects, including humor. It wasn’t accepted that women could be or should be humorous; it was a man’s job. Women were thought to be nurturing, gentle and definitely not humorous because “the aggression and dominance of the humorist’s stance is not ‘appropriate’ to women” (Walker 79). Men claimed the dominate role, and when women questioned this role, or tried to take on power themselves, it was clearly not accepted. Even though women permitted men to be superior to them, they would often use humor as a way to disguise their aggression towards men, but couldn’t express this outwardly in order to maintain a normal life. As Margaretta Newell states, she “does not find it surprising that wives laugh at their husbands’ jokes instead of telling their own--it is a matter of economic survival” (Walker 76). Women feared economic instability if they chose to challenge their husbands’ views on humor, so they went along with their husbands’ jokes, and expressed their humor behind closed doors.


The Battle of Intellect, Male vs. Female:

At this point in history, women were also stereotyped as being less intellectual than men. This is in part due to society’s acceptance that women had smaller brains in comparison to men’s, therefore making women unable of being up to par with men in the humor department. Reflecting back on the standards that women in humor dealt with, “the most sobering effect on an attitude toward women that denies their intellectual capacity is the stunting of natural curiosity and ambition--the waste of potential talent and the narrowing of lives that might otherwise be expansive and fulfilled” (Walker 81). This quote is a perfect example of how women were expected to behave by societal norms and not be humorous; due to this, they were missing out on the opportunity to explore their humoristic ability and intellect.




Women know your Limits!

Purpose of pseudonyms:

Women wanted their humor to be taken seriously and at the same level as if it were written by a man. They knew if they were to publish their writings under their names, they would be judged based on the fact that they were women, therefore, their work wouldn’t be acknowledged. This is why many women writers in the nineteenth century used aliases. Another reason why they published their writings under another name was because women didn’t want their humorous pieces to be compared to their other writings. One woman named Edna St. Vincent Millay used the pseudonym “Nancy Boyd.” She is described as “a serious writer for whom humor was a sideline, an avocation” (Walker 4). It is unfortunate that women couldn’t take credit for their humorous works, but by disguising their identity, they could make sure their pieces were getting the appreciation they deserved.

The below videos show women's role in the society at this point in history.



A Good Housewife






Leave It to Beaver

Focus of Humor:

One important aspect of humor is that the audience can relate to it. If the audience can’t connect to the humor, they won’t find it funny, which is the sole purpose of humor. Women writers focused their humor on their lifestyles, they talked about “common female experiences such as motherhood, and although they do not create specific negative stereotypes of men, they make clear that a group other than themselves made the rules by which they must live” (Walker 13). It is also important to note that over time, as things change, so does the focus of humor. Things that were funny at one point in time, now, may not raise one laugh, because life then, isn’t what life is now. Women have been “influenced by many of the same trends in fashions, in humor, as men have been, such as the shift from dialect humor to a more urban word play at the turn of the twentieth century writers developed forms suited to their own lives and needs: the domestic saga, a skit, and a humorous fantasy”(Walker 12). As times changed so did the styles of women’s humoristic writing.



This video shows how moms were depicted in comedies on television.



The "Mom"tage


This video shows women's humor in a modern, familiar setting, and proves how the focus of women's humor has changed through the years.



Iliza Shlesinger: Women on Women - Comedy Time

Culture has a great affect on humor, as culture changes, so does humor. Women’s lives have changed over time and “women have assumed an increasingly larger role in the world outside the home, women’s humor has reflected this transition and consequently it deals with a wide variety of cultural issues” (Walker 172-173). This shows that overtime women’s focus of their humor has changed due to their changing lifestyles, and their increasing role in society. Women have come a long way, not only in humor, but they must continuously fight for their right because of their “inferiority and subordination and a testament to their spirit of survival in a sexist culture” (Walker 183).

Women have become more accepted into the world of humor, although they may not have been welcomed or encouraged to take place in humor, they have made an imprint, and continuously strive to put forth their own insight. Women overcome many challenges today but still find a way to express themselves through humor.


Works Cited



"A Good Housewife." YouTube. 12 Oct. 2008. <http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5WVEsfTaecI&NR=1>.



"Iliza Shlesinger: Women on Women - Comedy Time." YouTube. 12 Oct. 2008. <http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=E20f-EohHsE>.



"Leave It To Beaver." YouTube. 12 Oct. 2008. <http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Od4DPR3lySE>.



"The 'Mom'tage." YouTube. 12 Oct. 2008. <http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4v1Bpjl3MLc>.



Walker, Nancy A. A Very Serious Thing: Women’s Humor and American Culture. Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press, 1988.


Warren, Robert Penn. “Creamed and Molded.” 10.2 (2002). Center for the Humanities. 12 Oct. 2008 <http://www.vanderbilt.edu/rpw_center/ls02b.htm>.


"Women--Know Your Limits!" YouTube. 13 Oct. 2008. <http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WdrlpjWrC4s>.


Kevin S. Dehn
Rachel Kohler
Section 001

5 comments:

English 201 Students said...

I thought this group did a good job of getting their point across. I always love youtube videos and I think they help catch readers' attention and make it more interesting. I enjoyed the "mom tage" video showing different mothers in comedies over the years. I found it halarious because they all just look the same, no matter how many years pass. Their hair-dos and clothing are all the same and they always look just peachy like nothing ever goes wrong in their life...the "perfect domestic housewife".
Good Job Bloggers!

-Dana Heileman

English 201 Students said...

I thought this group did a really good job with this blog. I really liked the video's they selected. I liked the women know your limits video and also Iliza Shlesinger. I have learned a lot from this like blog. Like the whole thing of females brains are smaller than the men. I do have to admit that it is kind of weird hearing a women doing stand up. But just because no one women has ever done it before doesnt mean one cant. I think some people are just stuck back in the day when women really didnt have a say in anything. All there were allowed to do was be a house wife.

-Sharonda Greene-

Sarah said...

This group did an excellent job distilling the important aspects of Nancy Walker that we discussed in class. I agree with you when you write of women who use “humor as a way to disguise their aggression towards men.” This seems to dovetail nicely with many of the theorists we’ve already discussed—and speaks to the ways in which humor, according to walker, binds communities of people together through their shared sense of belonging/understating. That’s why, as Bergson reminds us, humor works best at the level of the general.

Good point when you write, “Women feared economic instability if they chose to challenge their husbands’ views on humor, so they went along with their husbands’ jokes, and expressed their humor behind closed doors. Humor really is the privilege of those with the most power. I think we saw this again today as we discussed the stories of Aimee Bender.

Nancy Walker does a nice job of showing how women’s humor has evolved at the same time feminism evolved. This is, perhaps, one of the most fundamental and underlying theories of her work. Women were literally seen as less intellectual than men, as your post points out. Hawthorne once described women writers as “a damn mob of scribbling women.”

This, too, is an excellent point: “One important aspect of humor is that the audience can relate to it. If the audience can’t connect to the humor, they won’t find it funny, which is the sole purpose of humor. Women writers focused their humor on their lifestyles, they talked about “common female experiences such as motherhood, and although they do not create specific negative stereotypes of men, they make clear that a group other than themselves made the rules by which they must live” (Walker 13). It is also important to note that over time, as things change, so does the focus of humor. Things that were funny at one point in time, now, may not raise one laugh, because life then, isn’t what life is now.” Humor is cultural, in that it is tied to particular cultural moments.

Your videos do a nice job of demonstrating your points. I find the Leave It to Beaver introduction particularly compelling because, in light of the paragraph now, it’s humorous to OUR contemporary culture because we see the use of stereotypes. However, then, at the time of the show, this intro was not intended to be humorous.

Overall, great post. Thanks for the insights, and I look forward to hearing what others have to say.

English 201 Students said...

I really thought the youtube clips you chose added a lot to your posting. I found it very interesting, and think everything tied together nicely!
-Karen Taylor

English 201 Students said...

This blog was done very well. The videos were quite humerous, and connected very well to what the group wrote about in the blog. I think it is interesting how much society's views on women have changed over the years. It sure is a good thing they have though, because I know I would hate to be only a housewife!
-Amanda Recker