Summary Why Women Aren't Funny | Vanity Fair www.vanityfair.com
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The text suggests that men are perceived as funnier than women, who are believed to lack the drive to impress, and that successful female comedians often exhibit masculine traits, reflecting an unspoken societal compromise regarding the "humor gap" between genders.
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Key Points
- The input text appears to be an incomplete or truncated article, as it does not contain a full title or any content beyond the first few paragraphs.
- The article seems to be discussing the perceived differences in humor between men and women, and why women are often considered less funny than men.
- The article cites a study from the Stanford University School of Medicine that suggests women have a different brain response to humor compared to men.
- The article suggests that women's focus on reproduction and childbearing makes them less inclined towards the type of aggressive, self-deprecating humor that is common among men.
- The article argues that men's need to impress women with their humor is a key factor in the perceived humor gap between the sexes.
Summaries
24 word summary
Men are funnier than women, who lack the need to impress. Successful female comedians exhibit masculine traits. The "humor gap" reflects an unspoken compromise.
53 word summary
Men are funnier than women, as humor helps men impress women, while women lack this need. Successful female comedians often exhibit masculine qualities. Men use humor to resist life's absurdity and assert dominance, while women's role as child-bearers imbues them with gravity. The "humor gap" stems from an unspoken compromise between the sexes.
121 word summary
The author argues that, on average, men are funnier than women. He contends this is because humor is a crucial tool for men to impress women, whereas women do not have the same need. Studies suggest women have less expectation of a reward and are quicker to identify unfunny material. The author acknowledges talented female comedians, but suggests the most successful tend to exhibit masculine qualities. He believes men use humor to resist life's "farcical" nature and assert dominance, while women's role as child-bearers imbues them with gravity. The author suggests men may subconsciously not want women to be equally funny, as it would threaten their authority. Ultimately, he believes the "humor gap" stems from an unspoken compromise between the sexes.
380 word summary
Why Women Aren't Funny
The author argues that, on average, men are funnier than women. He contends that this is because humor is a crucial tool for men to impress women, whereas women do not have the same need to appeal to men through humor.
The author cites a study from the Stanford University School of Medicine that found differences in how men and women process humor. Women were found to have less expectation of a reward (the punchline) and were quicker to identify material they considered unfunny. The author suggests this indicates women are "slower to get it, more pleased when they do, and swift to locate the unfunny."
While acknowledging that there are many talented female comedians, the author argues that the most successful ones tend to be "hefty or dykey or Jewish." He suggests this is because humor is "largely aggressive and pre-emptive," qualities more associated with masculinity.
The author contends that men use humor as a way to resist the "farcical" nature of life and to assert their dominance, whereas women are more inclined towards seriousness and solemnity. He argues that this is rooted in women's role as child-bearers, which imbues them with a sense of gravity and purpose that men find difficult to match with humor.
The author suggests that men may even subconsciously not want women to be funny, as it would threaten their position of authority. He argues that much male humor relies on the notion that women are "mere objects and victims," and that allowing women to be equally funny would undermine this dynamic.
Ultimately, the author believes the explanation for the "superior funniness of men" is the same as the "inferior funniness of women" - that men must pretend not to be the "servants and supplicants" of women, while women must affect not to be the "potentates." This unspoken compromise, he argues, is the root of the humor gap between the sexes.
The author acknowledges that his views on this topic may be controversial, but he stands by his belief that women's focus on childbearing and rearing makes them inherently less inclined towards the type of humor that men prize. He suggests that women may become funnier as they get older, but laments that this takes a long time to manifest.