Campaign seeks to give visibility to the consequences of sexist humour

22/03/2017

Humour is an essential part of our lives: it helps us release tension, it strengthens relationships and social ties, it gives us pleasure and can be used to break taboos and criticise society. It is in definite a type of cultural capital. However, humour also has a social function: in words of Bourdieu, humour serves to disseminate the habitus established by those in power. In other words, more times than not, humour reproduces mental schema created by a hegemonic culture which, in our society, is patriarchal.
 
It can thus be said that humour is closely related to power and is therefore not neutral, because it is used from up to down. It is then that humour stops being funny and turns into a tool of social control. Many times humour reproduces sexist stereotypes, trivialises gender violence, fosters rape culture, disseminates toxic models of beauty, punishes all non-hegemonic masculinities, etc. This cultural production in the form of sexist humour provides continuity to the patriarchal system and male domination.
 
There is a need to break the chain and become aware of the important consequences of being an accomplice to sexist humour. There is a need to become conscious of the limits of humour, which resides in guaranteeing the safety of those who suffer structural violence. That is why the UAB Observatory for Equality launches this campaign with the dissemination of four posters depicting four sexist jokes and their consequences. The campaign includes the hashtag #JoNoRic (I'm not laughing) so that all those interested can interact on social networks and show their rejection of sexist humour.

- Posters