How many lesbians does it take to screw in a light bulb?

Abstract

This paper explores how humor reveals shared aspects of a culture of lesbian communities in the U.S. For lesbians, jokes and other forms of humor are an active, narrative means of self-construction and community imagining that help lesbians negotiate their positions both inside and outside mainstream culture. Whether consciously or unconsciously, much of lesbian humor challenges the dominant culture by rejecting its definitions of and presuppositions about lesbians, and by making lesbian experience central to its understanding of normalcy. Whereas the term "lesbian joke" usually activates a sex frame for the dominant culture, much humor created by and for lesbians is based on a switch from a sex frame to a non-sex frame. When lesbian jokes "are" about sex, they affirm the right not only to private sex, but also to public representation. Perhaps the most surprising aspect of lesbian humor is what it does not include. For the most part there are no references to heterosexuality, to harassment or to oppression, but many references to a self-empowering, self-conscious community based on cooperative principles.

Representing Sexuality through Folklore: Erotic Folktales and Online Jokes as ‘Mirrors’ of Gender Hierarchies

“…While research has identified many cases in which sexual jokes are a means of female empowerment against the patriarchic society and the fixed, maleconstructed gender roles and hierarchies it imposes on women (Crawford 1995;Franzini 1996;Bing & Heller 2003;Reichenbach 2015), the jokes analyzed here mostly evidence their psychological function as an outlet that allows free expression of repressed, forbidden sexual impulses. Additionally, the analysis of the sexual jokes suggests that these particular examples work more as means of subordination and disempowerment of women, rather than tools of resistance to and challenge of male structured gender hierarchies.…”

“…The relief function of jokes notwithstanding, more recent studies of feminist humor have elaborated on the manners in which such humor challenges traditional views of gender by targeting men, resists dominant constructions of femininity, as well as opposes gender inequalities and hegemonies in a patriarchal society with an aspiration to reform it (Crawford 1995(Crawford , 2003Franzini 1996). In a study on lesbian humor, Bing and Heller (2003) show how sexual humor can challenge dominant culture and its definitions and presuppositions about lesbianism. The authors demonstrate how lesbian jokes help lesbians construct and negotiate (homo)sexual identities as an empowering mechanism which through transformation, resistance, and subversion challenges dominant views and presuppositions.…”

The Persuasive Force of Political Humor

“…Shaw's design theory is indicated by metadiscourse as she (Shaw, , p. 443; see also “Men illogical,” ) humorously states, “We used to believe that women were the sentimental sex, but they can not hold a tallow candle compared with the arc light of the men. Men are so sentimental in their attitude about women that they cannot reason about them.” Here, getting the joke depends on voters recognizing romantic relationship scripts (Bing & Heller, ) involving partners becoming less solicitous of each other over time, but that factor alone does not account for whether voters will openly appreciate the humor. Both proponents and opponents of woman suffrage charge the opposition with sentimentality and emotional excess.…”

“…Men are so sentimental in their attitude about women that they cannot reason about them." Here, getting the joke depends on voters recognizing romantic relationship scripts (Bing & Heller, 2003) involving partners becoming less solicitous of each other over time, but that factor alone does not account for whether voters will openly appreciate the humor. Both proponents and opponents of woman suffrage charge the opposition with sentimentality and emotional excess.…”

Frame-Shifting in Humor and Irony

“…An even more complex example of the use of humor to create and maintain social structure is provided by Bing and Heller's (2003) analysis of lesbian humor, beginning with a variation on the familiar "lightbulb" joke, "How many lesbians does it take to screw in a lightbulb?" Bing and Heller relate and analyze several different punchlines, many of which play in one way or another on the sexual innuendo that nonlesbians would typically expect.…”