A Joke from Women's Studies Class. Is it Still Funny?

[NuttyFluffers]

I remember, oh this was around 1996, I was taking a Women's Studies class. It was one of the more entertaining and enlightening classes I've ever had the joy of attending. Such a refreshing change of pace, though the course load was still as demanding as could be expected from any intense humanities class. I really enjoyed the alternative viewpoints from my previous, well, indoctrination, and the space allowed to absorb this and possibly lead to a perspective shift. The analytical breakdown of what makes us function, and how we are conditioned by society, was a valuable gift for further critical thinking in the future -- which I was already quite solidly trained in along with Western Civ conditioning.

So, the teacher, as we were talking amongst ourselves, and others were in general grousing about the state of affairs, makes an amusing comment to elevate the mood while driving a critical point home. She said:

"Y'know, if all these horrible systematized things, such as oppression, brainwashing, threats,
blackballing, and other abused facets of society's authority could be traced to a group of evil, straight,
white, old men we could go find the boardroom, take an assault rifle, and solve the majority of the
world's problems."

We all laugh, because it is patently ridiculous that there's some sort of highly specific "embodiment of oppresion," some sinister cabal with tentacles everywhere, is currently making the world a far worse place than it can be. The issues we deal with are part of our current framework of our society and will self-perpetuate unless we step back and analyze ourselves and choose to make change. It was so apparent, a simple little off-color joke could dispel so much bitterness and restore such clarity.

And lately... I'm not so sure if that sarcastic deflection is entirely wrong. Isn't that funny? Today there's an uncomfortable truth in those words now that definitely wasn't there 10 years ago. If pressed, one could almost give the evils a name. It's silly, but when I think back on that comment, I still laugh, but the laughter is different now. It must be the unwilled bitter tears that come with it... How are you left after this bit of nonsense humor nowadays?

[murielm99]

1. I'll tell you what's NOT funny...

I did a master's degree in elementary education three years ago. I tried to inject some of what I had learned in women's studies into the way I thought we should teach. Basically, I wanted to give girls and equal chance in the classroom. I did not want them to grow up thinking that they could not understand math and science. I wanted to be sure they had role models, contemporary and historic. I was especially interested in seeing that gifted girls received equal treatment in the classroom.

I received the worst arguments from the women in my classroom. Several of them questioned the research I found. They felt that girls were favored by teachers, and that boys actually were at a disadvantage in school. Everything they said was anecdotal, and not backed up by the years of careful research I had discovered.

Hell's bells! My own daughter had been a part of a somewhat famous study on how girls learn vs. how boys learn. When her physics teacher found out that the very bright girls felt the class was a shark tank, he let the girls design their own way of learning, doing what felt comfortable for them. He found out a great deal about female learning styles vs. male learning styles. He published his study. Most universities, in the sciences in particular, are trying to be sensitive to this problem.

I thought that maybe I was getting these arguments because of where I chose to take my classes. It was in a university that was located in a mostly white, affluent suburb. If I had gone to the urban branch of the school, I might have met more diverse and open-minded women. What are they going to teach our little girls?

These evil groups of white men who make your joke less funny these days? Try the conservative think tanks that are doing their best to change our world and take it back to the fifteenth century. Conservative think tanks certainly frown upon women's equality. They are trying to dismantle public education, too. It would be nice to have some laws limiting their funding and influence on government and corporations.

[bobbieinok]

3. 'boys are at a big disadvantage in school'--that's the really big, in prob

problem now. That's what everyone's supposed to be concerned about; that's where the money is for studies and 'solutions.'

[Solo_in_MD]

4. There are studies that back that up

which some here have rejected out of hand, IMO wrongly.

[bobbieinok]

7. it just seems like there's much more concern about this

which is a relatively recent phenomenon, I think.

And no big concern for the problems girls have faced for years. AAUW did studies about girls problems, like how they weren't called on, their comments were only heard when repeated by a boy, etc.

I just get so angry that something is a major problem when males are affected, but there's often just a 'so?' attitude when females are affected.

An example: 10+ years ago I attended an NEH summer study program. Each of the younger women academics knew 1 or more women who suffered from anorexia or bulimia; several had friends who had died from one or the other. Each was bitter and felt, based on experiences as a woman in academia (facing discrimination, harassment, etc), that the problem was basically ignored b/c it affected women; several said that there would be a major federal program to address the problem if males were affected......Quite frankly, I was stunned at the strength and depth of their bitterness (doubtless at least partly driven by their experiences as women students, grad students, and faculty).

[Solo_in_MD]

9. I use the substitution approach for things like this

Substitute girls for boys, black for white, abortion for guns, etc to see if the someones view of the problem changes. It can be quite telling.

I also have a bias for subjects with decimal points and binary results. Those tend to have the best track record with respect to merit not gender or other factors.

[BlooInBloo]

14. I call it the "blindly unthinking false equivalence approach"...

ymmv I guess...

[FloridaPat]

6. Thanks for posting such great insight.

[Freedom_from_Chains]

2. Well there are certainly more concrete things one could

point to these days in reference to the stated joke. But as you pointed out earlier, it's not quite that simple.

But I did like your comment about self introspection is the answer. America is a country that desperately needs to start practicing some.

[Shipwack]

5. The joke is -not- funny, it's dangerous...

Like a lot of humor, it distracts from the problem... Not all those embodying oppression are male or white. Perpetuating that myth allows them to trot out non-white, non-males out to "prove" that their policies are fair. "Look! The President doesn't really hate black people! He had -two- in his cabinet!"

[NuttyFluffers]

11. um, that's why it is funny, because it shows the myth *is* nonsense

or obviously understood that it at least *should be.*

the joke *was* poking fun at the dangerous myth, by pointing out its ridiculous logical conclusion. it essentially was pointing out the logical fallacy, and doing what you'd prefer us to understand -- that no stereotype embodies an evil -- except with a far more concise method of humor. humor often neuters dangerous distractions by pulling the gaze away and seeing it from another perspective. so, as i see it, i don't think you really got the whole joke in context. yet i'll take it as perhaps my description wasn't good enough, though.

the shameful part is life should nowhere near approach such ludicrous statements. and in this current time life is uncomfortably approaching what should be polar concepts, as well pointed out by a bit of nonsense humor. life imitating art if you will, and not for the better.

PS; sorry for resurrecting a dead post, but i just got back to my computer after partying recently...

[bperci108]

8. Sometime listen to the song "Halliburton Boardroom Massacre"

By David Rovics.

The song: http://www.soundclick.com/util/DownloadSong.cfm?ID=2706103&ref=2

(The recorded-over-the-phone sound is just that. Imagine the subject of the song being interviewed over the phone after the events depicted; It isn't just a "bad recording".)

He gives his music away but if you like his stuff, support him. Buy a CD or two.

At: http://www.davidrovics.com

He's one of my favorite Lefty songwriters.

[Cerridwen]

10. I'd like to be able to introduce your Women's Studies prof

to my Soc 101 prof who, in 93 or 94, was teaching our class about the Trilateral Commission, showing video of 1950s interviews of CEOs of major corporations who discussed how they went into "3rd world nations", used their money and influence to create political and economic turmoil, took U.S. government, pro-business tax breaks due to "loss of profit" caused by the unrest then used the turmoil to justify paying the people of those countries slave wages while denying them any of the benefits or industrial safety measures which, even in the 50s, these same CEOs were bitching were "costing them money, dammit!"

I'd like to educate your prof about corporate "personhood" and the unintended consequences of the 14th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution.

Does she know about the history of the Federal Reserve? Is she familiar with the old money banking families who run it?

Did she also join in heaping ridicule and disdain on, then First Lady, Hillary Clinton when she introduced the U.S. public to the idea of the "vast right wing conspiracy"? Had she ever heard of Paul Weyrich, Richard Viguerie, Phyllis Schlafly and the John Birch Society, the Free Congress Foundation, the Joseph Coors founded and funded Heritage Foundation, the Gablers and so many others? Did she know the same names keep coming up in the political arena and in policy making circles? Did she know of the stealth campaigns begun in the 70s and 80s in which members of these groups were elected into such innocuous positions as school board member, justice of the peace, family court judge, the PTA and election board members from which they influenced textbook content, sex education content and availability, election rules and procedures and from which they spring-boarded into positions of farther reaching influence and power?

Did she know of the overlap of family names, minions and organization members in the above mentioned groups and events?

Nothing against your Women's Studies prof; many people had blinders on until the 2000 coup d'etat; which so many think "suddenly" happened, fully formed and executed and totally unprecedented, out of "nowhere"; like Athena from the head of Zeus. We, the People of the U.S. have been warned over and over by people who have brushed up against these networks of exploiters. Funny, huh? Their words never made it into our school books.

Naw, I might have laughed at the time, at the naivete of your prof and so many like her who think these people are in just one board room in just one country, that they've just appeared on the scene and that we have all their names. You see, during that time I was busy trying to educate people about much of which I've just posted and fighting against those about whom I posted. These many years later, I finally have a bit of validation for my "kooky conspiracy theories."

Cold comfort, that.

[NuttyFluffers]

12. oh, she knew a good deal of that.

it's just she wanted to point out how dangerous it was to reduce a problem to scapegoats. as you pointed out there really *were* evil, straight (i honestly don't know about this one), white men who caused horrific crimes this last century. but they aren't all the same men now, or were the same men during the turn to the 20th century. that's the rub -- it's a system that perpetuates itself by finding willing participants to fill these heinous roles. she was pointing out that killing a handful of people, in the end, won't really "save the world." instead we must all look within ourselves, break the wires of the birdcage of societal calcification and cruelty, and "save ourselves." the change has to reach the embed of the systemic.

the uncomfortable part was my jadedness coming to the surface and starting to see the joke in a less pleasant light. and i was wondering if the trials of these times was making anyone else as jaded. hence, is it still funny? and funny how? bitter? silly? ...

[Cleita]

13. There never was a women's studies course when I was in

College. I actually had to sit through a painful marriage course that basically taught the subjugation of women to men, yet somehow I and many of my girlfriends, actually came to the same conclusions that the women's courses are probably still teaching today.

I could tell you guys stuff about what we had to put up with in school and later at work that women even fifteen years younger than us didn't have to put up with. And yet the younger women think we are full of BS. They just didn't know that the more gender friendly situations they walked into after we metaphorically burned our bras for them weren't there until the end of the seventies.

[hyphenate]

15. Just remember this photo

made for all the world to see. It makes the point more eloquently than any amount of words.