Humor analysis in the context of online feminist communities. The example of the “30-year-old, unmarried women” page
The present study examines the humour that is (re)produced and disseminated within the self-proclaimed feminist group “30-year-old, unmarried women” on the online platform Facebook. The aim of this paper is to highlight the gender issues that fuel the group’s humour, to explore its function as well as the presence of sexist discourses within the humorous material. To examine the above questions, 174 posts were analyzed, collected from March 2020 to February 2021. The Discourse Theory of Humor (Tsakona, 2020) was used as a methodological tool for the analysis. The analysis shows that the material used to produce humorous posts by the administrators of the group draws from women’s everyday lives and conveys their shared experiences of oppression. In addition, for the most part it uses practices and strategies typically found in sexist humour. More specifically, it makes use of self-deprecating language and sexist stereotypical representations that target various gender categories. This practice has been documented in the literature as creating ambiguity regarding the target(s) of humor and more likely obscuring the intentions of the administrators.