Surfing the Rape Wave: What Tosh Teaches About Humor, Power and Privilege. In a promo video hyping Comedy Central’s highest-rated show, host Daniel Tosh promised, “On season 3 of Tosh.0, we’re raping everybody.” The clip’s copy read, “It’s about to get pretty rapey up in here.” Apparently, that should have been printed as a buyer-beware on tickets for Tosh’s gig at the Laugh Factory last weekend. If it had been, one woman in the audience might not have fled the building, stunned and frightened, after Tosh joked that it would be hilarious if she were gang-raped in the middle of his set.
By now most of the internet has heard (and exploded over) the young woman’s account on Tumblr of what went down: she had a problem with his bit about “rape jokes always being funny… rape is hilarious,” so she committed an act universally reviled by comedians: she heckled him. What happened next sparked a heated debate online and in the press about comedy and rape culture. This is not that video. “I believe you can joke about anything. Oh, but Jenn, you’re not a comedian!
Definition regression analysis. There Was An Awkward, Rape-Insinuating Joke At This Official Xbox One Event. Microsoft's keynote speech at E3 on Monday had it all. At the video game expo in Los Angeles, Microsoft gave gamers the Xbox One's release date (November), its price ($499), a new "Metal Gear Solid" and... a casual rape joke? That's what many felt following an off-the-cuff remark during a segment where a male producer and a female Xbox community manager dueled on stage in a demo of the fighting game "Killer Instinct. " After the male producer jumped out to a commanding lead, the two began to banter.
"Whoever thought it was a good idea that I play against a producer is going to get it,” the Xbox manager says shortly after the on-screen fight begins. “Come on, you got to practice before you get on stage before millions of people,” the producer taunted. “I can’t even block! You’re too fast," the woman shot back.
“Just let it happen, it’ll be over soon,” the producer replied, which prompted audible laughter from the audience. “You have a fight stick!” “No, I don’t like this!” Earlier on HuffPost: Women_dev Info Page. Cover Stories Behavior: When Is It RAPE? Be careful of strangers and hurry home, says a mother to her daughter, knowing that the world is a frightful place but not wishing to swaddle a child in fear. Girls grow up scarred by caution and enter adulthood eager to shake free of their parents' worst nightmares. They still know to be wary of strangers.
What they don't know is whether they have more to fear from their friends. Most women who get raped are raped by people they already know -- like the boy in biology class, or the guy in the office down the hall, or their friend's brother. The familiarity is enough to make them let down their guard, sometimes even enough to make them wonder afterward whether they were "really raped.
" So the phrase "acquaintance rape" was coined to describe the rest, all the cases of forced sex between people who already knew each other, however casually. These are not idle distinctions. When a story of the crime lodges in the headlines, the myths have a way of cluttering the search for the truth. Black comedy. A black comedy (dark comedy) is a comic work that employs black humor, which, in its most basic definition, is humor that makes light of otherwise serious subject matter.[1] Black humor corresponds to the earlier concept of gallows humor.[2][3][4][5][6] History and etymology[edit] Irony Origin of the term[edit] Breton coined the term for his book Anthology of Black Humor (Anthologie de l'humour noir), in which he credited Jonathan Swift as the originator of black humor and gallows humor, and included excerpts from 45 other writers.
Breton identified Swift as the originator of black humor and gallows humor, particularly in his pieces Directions to Servants (1731), A Modest Proposal (1729), A Meditation Upon a Broom-Stick (1710), and a few aphorisms.[8][11] The terms black comedy or dark comedy have been later derived as alternatives to Breton's term. Adoption in literary criticism[edit] By contrast, blue comedy focuses more on crude topics, such as nudity, sex and bodily fluids. Notes[edit]
Magazines - Feminist Majority Foundation. General Interest Ms. Magazine This legendary feminist magazine, co-founded by Gloria Steinem in 1972, continues to produce hard-hitting investigative reports and in-depth feminist analysis of national and global issues. It also includes book reviews, commentary from prominent women, coverage of feminist events, and the famous "no comment" section. Ms. was rated by Good magazine one of the top 50 magazines in the United States and is widely regarded as an influential thought leader and valuable tool for feminist activists, leaders, and teachers.
Ms. is published by Liberty Media, LLC, which is wholly owned by the Feminist Majority Foundation. Bitch Bitch offers its readers a "feminist response to pop culture," featuring witty critiques of TV, movies, magazines, and advertising, interviews with feminist celebrities and newsmakers, and book reviews. Jezebel Celebrity, Sex, Fashion for Women. Off our backs Off our backs is a news journal by, for, and about women. Academic & Art Career Health. Raw Scenes, Unspeakable Violations. Li Xinmo was chewing a razor blade. Yan Yinhong was simulating being raped by a policeman. Fenni was keening, a cloth with bloodlike stains wrapped around her eyes, while Lan Jiny was crouched on the floor, methodically popping 108 red balloons — a figure that approaches ’s gender imbalance of 118 males to 100 females — then drawing baby boys’ penises in celebratory gold on old bedclothes from a Beijing birthing hospital, a reference to the skewed boy-girl gender ratio in China from sex-selective abortion and female infanticide.
Ms. Lan allowed a final balloon to be a girl, a token female in a male-controlled world, she said. It was the second annual “Bald Girls” feminist art show, this time called “Bald Girls: A Door.” “The heaviness comes from our lives, from the experiences that so many women have buried deep in their hearts. “Chinese people are very good at covering up their feelings,” Ms. Ms. “The policeman represents dictatorship,” she said later. Ms. In a recent essay, Ms. Patton Oswalt on “prodigalsam” plagiarism flap: “There’s no wiggle room there” Patton Oswalt has written a lengthy post for his blog about, among other topics, @prodigalsam, the now-offline Twitter user who rose to online fame by copying the structure and substance of famous Twitter users’ jokes. (For his part, Sammy Rhodes, the University of South Carolina campus minister behind @prodigalsam, told Salon he saw his tweets as “a riff [...] not a rip-off.”) Oswalt believes that Rhodes and other plagiarists whom he’s confronted in the past benefit from a cultural attitude that comedians are somehow less special or artistically ambitious than other culture industry professionals: Most people are not funny.
Doesn’t mean they’re bad people, or dumb, or unperceptive or even uncreative. Just like most people can’t play violin, or play professional-level basketball, or perform brain surgery, or a million other vocational, technical, aesthetic or creative pursuits. Everyone is created unequal. But for some reason, everyone wants to be funny. And let’s go back even further. Can a show about murdering women actually be feminist? The endless parade of serial-killer dramas on TV today raises an uncomfortable question: What does it mean that we as a society seem to find violence against women endlessly entertaining? ”The Fall,” a BBC2 series now streaming on Netflix, forces us to take a hard look at ourselves as viewers and what we like — and makes the powerful point that killers who target women aren’t as deep or interesting as other shows make them seem. At first glance, the show might look like “Law & Order: SVU,” or pretty much any murder series of the last decade.
A man, a grief counselor, married with two adorable kids, cannot control his urges to hurt and control women. We don’t know much of his background, or his past crimes, but we come upon him in the beginning of a killing spree in which he stylizes the dead body. The police try to track him down with the help of a super-detective, one devoted solely to the job, so much so that she sleeps at work. These are fair questions. Feminism and Comedy: More Humor Research: Aggression and Joking. German scholars have published a study in the Journal of Pragmatics stating that humor plays a significant role in establishing social hierarchy. This study basically reiterates what feminist humor scholars have been saying all along: The power dynamics of gender dictate and guide the use of humor.
From Ben Leach's great piece in the Telegraph: The theory explains why until recently it has been extremely rare for women to tell jokes in front of men, according to Helga Kotthoff of the Frieburg University of Education.She said: "Those 'on top' are freer to make others laugh. They are also freer to be more aggressive and a lot of what is funny is making jokes at someone else's expense. "Displaying humour means taking control of the situation from those higher up the hierarchy and this is risky for people of lower status, which before the 1960s meant women rarely made other people laugh - they couldn't afford to. " Feminism and Comedy: We Killed: What Other, More Legitimate Reviewers Are Saying. As a feminism and comedy blog, we are obligated to inform you of the newest book on women in comedy: "We Killed: Women in American Comedy," by Yael Kohen.
I haven't read it yet, but I can summarize its reviews for you: New York Times: Janet Maslin writes for the NYT that We Killed is filled with stories from people in the industry and is "...apt to raise more questions than answers. " Maslin slights the book a few times, for not being as good of an account of Saturday Night Live as another book which focuses entirely on Saturday Night Live and not coming to any solid conclusions about women in comedy. (This article initially screwed up and credited a different author for the book. NPR's Linda Holmes calls it "sprawling" with "some sections are substantially more interesting that others. " Teen Vogue: So Teen Vogue is decidedly more positive, calling it "as entertaining as it is informative. " Here we go- Kohen may have summarized her book for us right here: *Emphasis very much my own.
Lindy West on Being Fat and Dealing With Online Trolls. Feminism and Comedy: On Making a Rape PSA. A Guest Post by Annie Laferriere When I find myself annoyed with or upset with something, my general reaction is to throw jokes at it. Not being the most aggressive of people, I find it a cathartic way to state my opinion. The babble going on a few months before the election, spurred by the rape comments made by Todd Akin and Richard Murdoch made me laugh a lot. Then I got annoyed that such stupid statements were getting so much air time. Then I laughed a little more. And then I texted ten of my comedienne/actress girlfriends and said, "Hey I have a really funny idea for a sketch about rape. Rape is such a sensitive topic and I worried about offending people. The PSA was scripted, but a lot of improv ended up in the final cut. Annie is an LA-based stand up and improv comedienne.
Feminism and Comedy: Okay, we're not quite done talking about sexual violence and comedy... Sady Doyle wrote to comedian Sam Morril about his jokes about rape/hurting women. If you've seen much stand-up, you've likely been in her situation before. You go to a show, you're having a grand old time, and then some ass gets onstage and thinks it's funny to make a date-rape joke. I paid $4 for this? Then Sam Morril wrote a response where he says he knows more about comedy than she does, and it's ironic and Sarah Silverman makes rape jokes so he can, too, blah blah blah, and he obviously doesn't get it. He says that because his feminist mom, manager and ex-girlfriend think his rape jokes are funny, it's cool. Sounds a lot like "but my best friend is ________. " Hey Sam: 1) Sure, you have the right to make jokes about rape (and the Boston marathon and the n-word.) 2) You're still responsible for the impact of your comedy on the world. 3) There's a huge difference between a woman joking about being raped and a guy joking about raping. 4) Look at where your power is aimed.
Feminism and Comedy: Badass of the Year: Lindy West. Patton Oswalt writes on rape jokes, heckling and joke stealing. By Dylan P. Gadino | June 17, 2013 at 12:31 pm | 6 comments | News, Opinion | Tags: Patton Oswalt Patton Oswalt on Friday posted a lengthy missive that had comedy fans chattering all weekend. The three-part “Closed Letter To Myself About Thievery, Hecking and Rape Jokes” found the always-introspective Oswalt amidst a heightened degree of self-revelation and theory. In the first part of his essay, he admitted the time he once, during the infancy of his comedy career when he was just 19 years old, unwittingly stole a joke from comedian Carol Leifer.
And he addressed a more recent matter, wherein he called out a pastor who was lifting jokes from comedians and pasting them into his Twitter feed. Comedians don’t write their own jokes. His thoughts on heckling during a live comedy show serve as a reminder to all would-be comedy goers: Comedians don’t want to be heckled; you don’t make the show better and you are a rude, disrespectful jerk.
Patton Oswalt Wrote a Piece About Thieves, Hecklers, and Rape Jokes. 'The Chicago Tribune' Is Wrong About Hecklers; Patton Oswalt and Steve Heisler Are Right. Why Daniel Tosh’s ‘Rape Joke’ at the Laugh Factory Wasn’t Funny. The far-right Christian Patriarchy—brought to American audiences by the Duggar family—is on the verge of collapse after a series of alleged sex scandals involving the movement’s leaders.
Jim Bob and Michelle Duggar have put many years and a lot of work into putting a smiling, nearly normal-seeming face on the extreme Christian right. The couple adheres to a fringe strain of fundamentalist Christianity dubbed the “Christian patriarchy” or sometimes the “Quiverfull” movement, and while there is a lot of internal diversity to the movement, they generally preach a combination of beliefs that run counter to mainstream America: absolute female submission, a ban on dating, homeschooling, a rejection of higher education for women, and shunning of contraception in favor of trying to have as many children as humanly possible.
The strategy has been surprisingly effective, with Michelle Duggar being able to act like she’s just like any other reality TV star, giving sex tips and sharing recipes. Why Daniel Tosh’s ‘Rape Joke’ at the Laugh Factory Wasn’t Funny. Daniel Tosh Apologizes For Rape Joke Aimed At Female Audience Member At Laugh Factory. UPDATE: Laugh Factory owner Jamie Masada, who claims to have been present the night of Tosh's show, has told Buzzfeed that the comedian's exchange with the offended audience member didn't happen the way she described. According to Masada, Tosh didn't make a joke about the woman getting raped and the topic arose when the comedian asked the audience what they wanted to talk about and someone said "rape. " He says that this is when the woman called out to Tosh, and that he responded like so: "Daniel came in, and he said, 'Well it sounds like she’s been raped by five guys' — something like that.
I really didn’t hear properly. " He also alleges that the woman stayed for the entire set and did not complain to management until after the show. PREVIOUSLY: Comedian Daniel Tosh has apologized today for making a female audience member the subject of a rape joke at a recent stand-up show in Los Angeles. After I called out to him, Tosh paused for a moment. @danieltosh daniel tosh Did Tosh go too far? Louis C.K. on Daniel Tosh’s Rape Joke: Are Comedy and Feminism Enemies? Rape culture. Writing about rape journalism.