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The Funny Bone in Adam's Rib |
| Section: BOOK WORLD / REVIEWS |
| Author: Suzanne Fields |
| Publication: The world & I online |
| Issue Date: 6/1/1991 |
| Size: 2,182 Words, 12,569 Characters |
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THEY USED TO CALL ME SNOW WHITE ... BUT I DRIFTED
Women's Strategic Use of Humor
Regina Barreca
New York: Viking, 1991
223 pp., $18.95
Is there a woman anywhere who hasn't laughed at a joke she didn't understand? Or worse, a joke she didn't think was funny?
It's hard to forget how you wanted to show that you were knowledgeable, sophisticated, and "with it," but you didn't really want to laugh. You hated yourself for being dishonest, but it was better than being embarrassed. As much as you hated yourself for dissembling, you hated yourself more for not "getting it."
Several questions plague the listener when a joke falls on deaf ears: Why am I so limited in my experience? My information? My worldliness? There's also that brief moment of terror that reveals ...
. . .
...alf the human race the 'other' half," writes Barreca. Only a sense of humor can unite radical and traditional women.
If this book is unlikely to do that, it is at least a start. If misogynists ought to shut up, feminists ought to lighten up. Women could follow the advice of Lily Tomlin's bag lady, who, when asked by an out-of-towner, "How do I get to Carnegie Hall?" replied: "Practice!"
(830 of 12,569 characters)
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