Ukrainian Female Humor During the War: Analysis of the Ukrainian-Language Telegram Channels of 2022-2023

Abstract

The article presents the results of a socio-philosophical study of the Ukrainian women‘s humor, which has embodied by the jokes of Telegram channels. A review of the theoretical heritage of researchers of women's humor and humor in conditions of war. It‘s substantiated that the study of female humor during the russian full-scale invasion is relevant for Ukraine. In particular, a query in the GPT 4.0 chat has been used to justify the relevance. It‘s also noted that the study of humor during the war goes beyond the analysis of theoretical provisions to the solution of applied problems. The humorous Telegram channels were selected for the research according to a specified number of criteria. For that selection, the ratings of Telegram channels were used, taking into account the number of subscribers and coverage. To relate the channel to the presentation of Ukrainian humor, it had to be Ukrainian-language and had checked for the absence of calque/fakes, which indicated by the Center for Countering Disinformation under the National Security and Defense Council of Ukraine. Russian-language humorous Telegram channels were viewed and used for comparison, but their names are not indicated in the present article. An intersectional socio-philosophical analysis was also conducted, suggesting the intersection of the following vectors: gender, national identity, civil position and social status. The scientific investigation confirmed the gendered humorous practices in the four areas previously highlighted by H. Kotthof. At the same time, a number of features of modern Ukrainian female humor are also noted. It has been demonstrated in the present article, that Ukrainian-speaking female humorous channels could be considered as prevention and counteraction to sexism and male domination. It has been also noted that the comic misandry of Ukrainian women cannot be considered as sexism, with the exception of hatred of men from among the Russian invaders. The vast majority of jokes in the female humorous Telegram channels correspond in their characteristics to the signs of feminist humor outlined in T. Hraban's study. There are also a number of jokes based on the traditional paradigm in intergender interaction. It's also has been shown that viewing Ukrainian humorous Telegram channels may improve the adaptation processes and facilitate women's response to a stressful situation. It is noted that humorous channels, returning women to peaceful topics, create an environment of peace and overcoming anxiety and can become a platform for fraudsters, information warfare and psychological operations.