Psychology Behind The Unfunny Consequences Of Jokes That Denigrate

A joke isn’t just a joke. elycefeliz, CC BY-NC-ND

By Thomas E. Ford, Western Carolina University

Q: Why did the woman cross the road?
A: Who cares! What the hell is she doing out of the kitchen? 

Q: Why hasn’t NASA sent a woman to the moon?
A: It doesn’t need cleaning yet!

These two jokes represent disparagement humor – any attempt to amuse through the denigration of a social group or its representatives. You know it as sexist or racist jokes – basically anything that makes a punchline out of a marginalized group.

Disparagement humor is paradoxical: It simultaneously communicates two conflicting messages. One is an explicit hostile or prejudiced message. But delivered alongside is a second implicit message that “it doesn’t count as hostility or prejudice because I didn’t mean it — it’s just a joke.”

By disguising expressions of prejudice in a cloak of fun and frivolity, disparagement humor, like the jokes above, appears harmless and trivial. However, a large and growing body of psychology research suggests just the opposite – that disparagement humor can foster discrimination against targeted groups.

Desert Hearts: The 1986 Film About Lesbian Awakening That Gives Carol A Run For Its Money

BFI Flare: London LGBT Film Festival

By Florence Sutcliffe-Braithwaite, UCL

It’s 1959, and Vivian, an immaculately manicured and tightly controlled English literature professor from Columbia University, is arriving in Reno, Nevada, to stay on her friend Frances’ ranch while waiting for her divorce to come through. Prospective divorcees have to be resident in Nevada for six weeks: long enough for Vivian to fall in love with casino change-girl and artist Cay, a friend of the family. It’s the beginning of an awakening.

This is Desert Hearts, a 1986 film with striking parallels to last year’s hit Carol. First shown 30 years ago at London’s first gay and lesbian film festival, it returned this year to BFI Flare, serving up a heady mix of 1950s rock ‘n’ roll, casinos, cowboys, and lesbians. The success of Carol and the return of Desert Hearts reflects our need for stories that show not only the difficulties, hostility and discrimination faced by lesbians, but also offer up the possibility of honesty and love.

New Book Addresses Question: Joan of Arc, Lesbian or Transgender?

Joan of Arc: Her Trial Transcripts, by Emilia P. Sanguinetti (PRNewsFoto/Little Flower Publishing)

Pope Francis will release this week his long-awaited document on Catholic Church teaching related to the 2014-2015 Bishops' Synod on the Family. 

The pope's document will likely provoke divergent opinions about the contributions that lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender (LGBT) persons can make with regard to the spiritual growth of the Church.

With the publication of Joan of Arc: Her Trial Transcripts, author E.P. Sanguinetti provides readers with a modern English translation which clearly presents evidence that one of the Church's preeminent saints was likely a lesbian and transgender person.

A Storm In A Twitter Cup... [The One About That Milo Unverified Account Thing]

With the #JeSuisMilo hashtag spamming Twitter these last days, you could easily make the mistake to think that someone called Milo got killed by some terrorists... 

I mean, after all, the anniversary of the dreadful events in Paris was only a few days ago and nobody would trivialise what happened then by using a hashtag a la #JeSuisCharlie for something silly, would they?

Oh, yes, they would... and they bloody did!

Click here to see tweet on Twitter

The Hotel Barclay - New Horror Web Series Becomes An Internet Sensation With Debut Of Season One

Photo Credit: Aaron Needham (PRNewsFoto/The Hotel Barclay Series)

From the brilliantly perverse and dark mind of Writer/Director Leah Myette comes The Hotel Barclay, a provocative, new, thirteen-episode web series that has horror fans across the country singing its praise with the release of Season One on YouTube (October 1, 2015). 

The highly anticipated Season Two, featuring seven additional, bone-chilling episodes will be released once a week starting Jan 19, 2016.

The Danish Girl: All Skirt And No Substance

Eddie Redmayne stars as Lili Elbe.

By Clare Tebbutt, Nottingham Trent University

It was with some trepidation that I went to watch The Danish Girl. Prior to its release the film had already attracted accusations of transphobia for director Tom Hooper’s decision to cast the cisgender actor Eddie Redmayne in the title role of Lili Elbe, a trans woman.

Lili Elbe was one of a good number of people in interwar Europe who felt the sex they had been assigned at birth was incorrect. How, I wondered, would a film that had arguably opted to undermine Lili’s womanhood in its choice of actor, handle the complexity of sex and gender at this time?

The answer, perhaps predictably, is not very well.

#LGBT - New Songs Make a Positive Statement for Transgender Artist [Video Included]

Rizi Timane -- recording artist, author, actor, and life coach to the transgender community -- has just released three new trans-affirmative singles: "Yeah! It Feels Good to Finally Be Me," "Let's Make Love," and "I'm Beautiful," all of which are available for download from iTunes and at www.rizitimane.com.

We Did It! The End Of Fossil Fuels Has Begun…

Dear amazing Avaaz community, 

World leaders at the UN climate talks have just set a landmark goal that can save everything we love! This is what we marched for, what we signed, called, donated, messaged, and hoped for: a brilliant and massive turning point in human history. 

It’s called net-zero human emissions -- a balancing of what we release into the air and what is taken out -- and when the dust settles and the Paris Agreement is in the hands of lawmakers, clean energy will be the best, cheapest, and most effective way to keep their promise. This gives us the platform we need to realize the dream of a safe future for generations! Out of great crises, humanity has borne beautiful visions. World War II gave rise to the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, an enduring standard for our spirit and capacity as one people. The fall of Apartheid led South Africa to the single most bold and progressive constitution in the world.

Ambitious visions like these rely on movements to carry them into the mainstream, and on movements to make them reality in our everyday lives. Today is no exception: 

Click to read the story of our climate journey and join the celebration.

UK: Don't Disappear! - #RegisterToVote [Video Included]

Image via HopeNotHate

The following is an email from HopeNotHate I've received earlier today and I'm sharing it here because the advice given in it does actually concern everyone who hasn't registered to vote yet, whatever their political views... 

Definitely worth a read.

Stay visible!

Loup Dargent

Three Principles For 2015 - Our Most Powerful Petition Target Ever

"The path to changing the world requires us to walk the longest journey - the journey within - to change ourselves. When 500,000 of us pledge to live 3 simple but powerful values in 2015, we'll invite world leaders to join us."

>> Sign the petition here!

Book Tour: 'The Other Me' by Suzanne van Rooyen [Giveaway Included]

"Fifteen-year-old Treasa Prescott thinks she’s an alien. She doesn’t fit in with the preppy South African private school crowd and feels claustrophobic in her own skin. Treasa is worried she might spend life as a social pariah when she meets Gabriel du Preez. Gabriel plays the piano better than Beethoven, has a black belt in karate, and would look good wearing a garbage bag. Treasa thinks he’s perfect. It might even be love, as long as Gabriel doesn’t find out she’s a freak..."

In today's Book Tour post. we have not only three excerpts from 'The Other Me', but also an international Giveaway (good luck to all of you)... Enjoy!

Dark Day For Gay Rights

Dear friends,

Two Indian Supreme Court judges just decided that gay sex is illegal. ILLEGAL!! But if we act fast we can help reverse this crazy backwards ruling.

Men and women in India now face police harassment and life imprisonment. This hateful decision is being met with outrage, and if we now show India that outlawing love is making them an international embarrassment we can get the Indian Parliament to fast track passing a law that the judges have to respect.

Click here and sign now to help love conquer fear in India. When we reach 1 million we’ll get all our names written on hundreds of giant hearts ringing the Indian parliament, then place prominent ads showing that the world will no longer accept making love illegal. 

Controversy Persists Over Sex Scenes In 'Blue Is The Warmest Colour'

Controversy persists over sex scenes in 'Blue is the Warmest Colour' (via AFP)

The director of a highly charged lesbian love story that dazzled Cannes said Monday he felt "great regret" at a controversy that has threatened to overshadow the film's rapturous critical reception. Abdellatif Kechiche, director of "Blue is the Warmest…

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Cover Reveal: 'The Other Me' By Suzanne van Rooyen [Giveaway Included]

It's with great pleasure that we're hosting today the Cover Reveal for another novel by Suzanne van Rooyen...

Suzanne is no stranger to this corner of the Blogosphere as, not only we have hosted a few Book Tours and Cover Reveals in the past for her previous books, but also, she wrote a very informative article for us (QUILTBAG Protagonists in SF/F YA Literature) that happens to mention... Whovians of the world rejoice!... Captain Jack Harkness, from Doctor Who and Torchwood!

Find out more about her new book and... Enjoy!

Loup Dargent

PS: By the way, there is a Giveaway at the end of this post, with the opportunity to win a $15 Amazon giftcard. Good luck to all of you!

Stephen Fry: Twitter Helps Me Avoid Journalists

Stephen Fry: Twitter helps me avoid journalists (via AFP)

One of the joys of having six million followers on Twitter is never having to talk to journalists, British actor Stephen Fry said on Friday in a foul-mouthed rant against a hack who questioned whether he wrote his own Tweets. "One of the chief glories…

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Tiny French Village To Become 'Oasis' For Ageing British Gays

Tiny French village to become 'oasis' for ageing British gays (via AFP)

Salleles-d'Aude is a picturesque village like so many in France, with vines, a tree-lined canal, a church... and soon, a "private oasis" for ageing British gay people -- reportedly a first in the country. The brainchild of 66-year-old Danny Silver,…

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British PM Survives Gay Marriage Vote

British PM survives gay marriage vote (via AFP)

British Prime Minister David Cameron headed off another Conservative rebellion Monday after the opposition Labour Party helped him see off a "wrecking amendment" which had threatened his gay marriage bill. Tory MP Tim Loughton had proposed the amendment saying that if gay couples were allowed to marry…

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Same-sex marriage gains traction around world

Same-sex marriage gains traction around world (via AFP)

While in Tokyo for the city's first Rainbow Week, Boris Dittrich could not help but notice gay pride marchers with banners demanding marriage equality in the land of the rising sun. "I asked why and they said, 'Well, we've seen what's happening in other countries and we feel the time has come to push…

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Protesters in final bid to block France gay marriage law

Protesters in final bid to block France gay marriage law (via AFP)

Tens of thousands of opponents of a gay marriage bill thronged the streets of Paris Sunday in a last-ditch bid to block the legislation, under the watchful eye of police after recent violence over the divisive issue. Paris police estimated the march attracted 45,000 people but organisers said 270,000…

Edie Windsor: 'rock star' of same-sex marriage fight

Edie Windsor: 'rock star' of same-sex marriage fight (via AFP)

An 83-year-old widow will carry the hopes of America's gay community on her frail shoulders when she takes her landmark same-sex marriage case before the US Supreme Court next week. Edie Windsor, a lesbian who married in Canada, is seeking to overturn the federal Defense of Marriage Act, which has…