Sexist humor and social identity: the role of sexist humor in men’s in-group cohesion, sexual harassment, rape proclivity, and victim blame

Abstract

Jokes have been recognized as ways in which negative attitudes and prejudice can be communicated and enacted in hidden ways (e.g.,

YouTube science channel video presenters and comments: female friendly or vestiges of sexism?

“…Sexist behaviour may be combatted by education about appropriate online behaviour, by comment moderation or through more active policing by the channel owner, YouTube or other users (Potts, 2015) (e.g., clicking the YouTube "Report spam or abuse" button). Education may be effective, since males may not be aware that their behaviour is inappropriate (Thomae & Pina, 2015). Science channel owners should also consider the implications carefully before creating videos that might attract sexualised comments.…”

“It was only harmless banter!” The development and preliminary validation of the moral disengagement in sexual harassment scale

“…At the behavior locus, people cognitively restructure detrimental behavior as being socially or morally acceptable (moral justification). For example, gender harassing acts such as sexist joke-telling serve the social function of strengthening male in-group cohesion and solidarity (Thomae & Pina, 2015). Additionally, harassing behavior such as "girl watching" (see Quinn, 2002) fulfils the social purpose of building a collective masculine identity among members of male peer groups, and promoting loyalty and adherence to masculine gender norms (Quinn, 2002;Saunders & Easteal, 2013).…”

Research Methods in Psychology: A Feminist Exercise to Facilitate Students’ Understanding of Operational Definitions, Observation, and Inter-Rater Reliability

“…Specifically, gender harassment is defined as a "broad range of verbal and nonverbal behaviors not aimed at sexual cooperation but that convey insulting, hostile, and degrading attitudes about women" (Fitzgerald, Gelfand, & Drasgow, 1995, p. 430) Tying to earlier discussions of humor, I present background on empirical research that documents the ways in which sexist humor contributes to tolerance of gender-based harassment and gender inequity (Bill & Naus, 1992;Ford, Wentzel, & Lorion, 2001;Love & Deckers, 1989; F o r P e e r R e v i e w Thomae & Pina, 2015). For instance, both correlational and experiment research have documented that exposure to sexist jokes is linked to victim-blaming and endorsement of rape myths (Ryan & Kanjorski, 1998;Thomae & Viki, 2013).…”