Discrimination Of Women Drivers

Sexist Humor: harmless fun and games or toleration of gender hostility?

Question: An article titled "Sexist Humor No Laughing Matter", describes a recent research project led by a Western Carolina University psychology professor indicates that jokes about blondes and women drivers are not just harmless fun and games; instead, exposure to sexist humor can lead to toleration of hostile feelings and discrimination against women. Also from the article: "Sexist humor is not simply benign amusement. It can affect men’s perceptions of their immediate social surroundings and allow them to feel comfortable with behavioral expressions of sexism without the fear of disapproval of their peers,� said Thomas E. Ford, a new faculty member in the psychology department at WCU. “Specifically, we propose that sexist humor acts as a ‘releaser’ of prejudice.� Granted, many men wouldn't do this, but for the men who complain about having to act "pc" at work, maybe they're missing out on their boys club atmosphere they were use to. I'd like to see the same research applied to women.

Answer: Gotta love Object of its Ire saying she's always found sexist humor offensive after complaining about "witch hunts", the evils of "political correctness", and making comparisons with the Nazis of people who condemned her for stuff like "joking" about dressing in a KKK outfit for Halloween! To answer your question though: I generally oppose sexist humor (and other jokes - or "jokes" - targeted at some group on the basis of stereotypes) for reasons that don't require research - just good sense. So much of it isn't funny, a lot is completely tasteless, some of it is downright hurtful - some deliberately so, and it perpetuates stereotypes (often downright asinine stereotypes) and therefore sloppy thinking. But some of it actually is funny (I recently posted an example stereotyping men that most agreed was clever), some is harmless and not really hurtful, and it depends a great deal on context, e.g. it's not appropriate in the workplace and you shouldn't tell such jokes around impressionable children, because they may fail to distinguish between stereotypes as a basis for humor and stereotypes as an "education" in how the world really is. As for specific studies, I have never seen one that didn't raise serious methodological questions. If exposure to sexist humor is correlated with a study group making more sexist decisions than a control group, does this prove an effect from sexist humor generally? Or does it instead prove that people in the group are primed by the humor to recognize the expectations of the researchers? Common sense would suggest that people who share sexist jokes on a regular basis would be much more strongly correlated than hearing a sexist joke on a particular day and that people who are conscientious about sexism would tend to reject sexist jokes anyway. Obviously, I'd need to see more of the research though, but these are my impressions from the limited information.

Sexual Discrimination in the UK?

Question: Women drivers have fewer accidents and then they are less expensive ones anyway so women are a better insurance risk, right? Everybody knows this because they keep telling us that it is so. Now watch the the TV ad for Sheila's Wheels, a woman-only motor insurance company. The one with the Pink Caddy. During most of the ad there is nobody at the wheel of the car except for one brief shot where the thing is being driven by a kangaroo (of indeterminate gender) and in over half the footage the car is going BACKWARDS at HIGH SPEED. How stupid do they think we are? I guess all the Iraqi WMD's we never found are in the trunk, huh?

Answer: ask that steve irwin bloke... oh no you cant, he is dead. oops.