Humor in Gender and Embodiment Issues

Emily Toth is responsible for the first Humane Humor Rule: "Never target a quality that a person can't change. The original humane humor rule appeared in "Female Wits" by Emily Toth The Massachusetts Review Vol. 22, No. 4, (Winter 1981). Based on this first humane humor rule, a number of other humane humor rules have been posited, such as 1. Target yourself, i.e. use self-deprecating humor. 2.Target your own ethnic group or gender, but no other ethnic group or gender. 3. Never target the victim. 4. Always target a strength so that it empowers rather than humiliates the target. 5. Be sure there is spatial, temporal and psychological distance before making fun of a difficult situation. And 6. Remember that Tragedy + Time = Comedy.

Also, the way we see the world is determined by the bodies we live in. George Lakoff gives evidence that our view of the world is largely determined by the body we inhabit: Old vs. Young, White vs. Black, Male vs. Female, Strong vs. Weak, Educated vs. Uneducated, Farmer vs. Rancher, Muslim vs. Jewish vs. Christian, Norwegian vs. Spaniard, Athletic vs. Clumsy, etc.

Don and Alleen Nilsen are suggesting the VARIES acronym to explain how embodiment affects language variation. The VARIES acronym explains linguistic diversity in the following ways:

V-VOCATIONAL JARGON AND HUMOR

Computer Guys, Doctors, Lawyers, Linguists, Teachers

A-AGE-RELATED LANGUAGE AND HUMOR

Children, Teenagers, Old People

R-REGIONAL LANGUAGE AND HUMOR

California, Canada, New York, South

I-INFORMAL OR FORMAL LANGUAGE AND HUMOR

Casual Acquaintances, Lovers, Friends, Relatives

E-ETHNIC LANGUAGE AND HUMOR

Blacks, Jews, Mexicans, Native Americans

S-SEX-RELATED LANGUAGE AND HUMOR

Males, Females, Lesbians, Gays

Give examples of how our world view is affected by our bodies: tall vs. short, fat vs. skinny, old vs. young, athletic vs. intellectual, boy vs. girl, etc.