Ideas Behind Final Paper

In my synthesis paper, I focused on the power relationship that Susan Purdie proposed in her essay "The Butt." The general consensus among the articles that the class was assigned to read (namely Von Hahn, Hitchens, and Valenti) was that men had the upper hand and that women were often times made the butt of the joke. Purdie asserts that the butt must engage in humor at their own expense, making themselves the butt of the joke, in order to gain any sense of power in this relationship. Therefore, a woman would have to engage in jokes that women are the butt of in order to achieve and establish power, even though such jokes could potentially perpetuate any sexist stereotypes and discrimination that result as a consequence of such jokes.

This idea interests me, and so that's how I plan on transitioning from my synthesis paper to my argument paper. I'd like to look at men's dominance over the comedy industry, how women can use comedy to break down stereotypes and discrimination, and any obstacles that may hinder them from accomplishing this. My intention is to structure my paper so that I first take a look at how sexist jokes, humor, and comedy in general help in the creation of stereotypes and the maintenance of these stereotypes, and then dive into how sexist jokes effect social expectations and toleration of discrimination. From there, I'd like to work my way into how women can and do use humor to deconstruct patriarchal ideals and stereotypes.

Anyway, this is what I'm working with so far, and, of course, I'm open to any suggestions! Thanks. :)

Thesis for Final Paper

Research Question: Can women use humor as a tool to deconstruct patriarchal ideologies? How? What obstacles do they face in doing so? How does men's control over the comedy industry affect their ability to succeed? What affect does sexist humor have on social standards?

Thesis Statement: Humor can be a subversive and an empowering tool for women, feminists, and other proponents of gender equality to deconstruct patriarchal ideologies and sexist stereotypes and redefine gender roles. Historically, however, men have controlled the dissemination of humor, determine what is and what is not acceptable as humorous discourse, and have used humor and jokes to create and perpetuate patriarchal ideals.

I posted this thesis statement to the discussion board during week six and didn't receive a whole lot of feedback from the class. I'm not sure why, but I figured that if I needed to make any substantial changes to it, someone would've spoken up. As a result, I've decided to stick with it, and I've found four sources (in addition to the articles provided for the class) that I intend to use in my argument paper thus far.