Sunday, August 23, 2009

Laughter: The Latest Act of Aggression

No joke. Just when you think you've heard of everything: "Humor is an act of aggression." From the Telegraph:
The ability to make others laugh confers a degree of control which dominant people exploit to show they are in charge, claims Helga Kotthoff of the Frieburg University if Education.

"Those 'on top' are freer to make others laugh. They are also freer to be more aggressive and a lot of what is funny is making jokes at someone else's expense," she said.

While the claim is patently ludicrous, if Helga is your formulaic angry feminist, her projecting aggression onto something as benign as humor and laughter fits the template for how feminist ideology operates. So how does one go about liberating him/herself from this devious form of control? No more jokes? I guess then, we have to take this study seriously and not laugh at it...

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