Women are making great strides in the workplace these days: More women are currently running for President than ever before. Studies show more women are getting MBAs. The #metoo movement has made many companies more inclusive and transparent in their hiring and harassment policies. And a new California law requires all the state’s public companies to have women on their boards — and perhaps other states will follow suit.
I hope these trends continue. Women should be ambitious. We should be fearless. And we should aim high.
But according to a recent study, there’s one thing we should not do: crack a joke.
While using humor in the workplace is likely to benefit men by boosting their professional status, a University of Arizona study has shown that it has the opposite effect on women. In fact, female humor — at least on first impression — was generally perceived as “disruptive” while male humor was seen as “functional.”
Ain’t that a laugh and a half.
The researchers took a whack at explaining the disparity: Since many people still — consciously or unconsciously — stereotype women as being less committed to their jobs and more focused on family obligations, women’s humor may be interpreted as a sign they’re not taking work seriously. By contrast, men are largely assumed to be devoted to their careers, so a little jocularity — well, it just makes things so much more pleasant for everyone, doesn’t it?
But I’m gonna heckle that nonsense like it’s a bad comic at open-mic night. I think there’s something else at play here. Something more deep-seated. Even possibly … innate.
After all, this isn’t the first time or place that ladies have been chastened for letting perfect strangers have a peek (gasp!) at their hilarity. It’s a tale as old as your Aunt Fay’s dirty knock-knock joke — the one that always kills at family potlucks. There’s just something about funny females that makes people squirm, as if the very notion of a witty woman goes against the natural order of things.
Look, we all know anecdotally that women tend to be attracted to funny men (see Jessica and Roger Rabbit), and studies have shown it’s true. Turns out the reward center of the female brain reacts more strongly to humor than that of males. The thinking is this: Wit operates as a badge of intelligence, and women are biologically conditioned to seek out a smart mate. Or at least one that can still make them giggle when looks fade and lust dims.
But guys aren’t looking for the same thing. Sure, they swear they want a partner with “a sense of humor,” but scratch the enamel off that phrase and you’ll find it’s code for “someone who’ll laugh at my jokes.” Indeed, a study reported in The Atlantic found that male college students ranked attractive-but-dull women as (stop me if you’ve heard this one before) more datable than equally attractive women who were funny. I repeat: Funny made these gals less datable. I think a fella quoted in a 2012 Glamour article summed it up best: “Guys feel like being funny is a tool they can use when picking up/meeting/dating a girl to impress her, or get her to like him — and it’s a little intimidating when the person on the other side of the line has your secret weapon, too.”
The punchline in all of this? Women don’t seem to give a flying cackle anymore. As evidenced by the rise in female stand-up comedians (and the popularity of the brilliant Amazon Prime series “The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel”), clearly someone is ready to laugh with our side-splitting sisters — and by god, they’ve got yuks to spew!
Personally, there are few things I enjoy more than making strangers chuckle and snort — alighting on that awkward but universal truth whose well-timed utterance will elevate you from random-person-consuming-oxygen-in-room to worthy harlequin or quipster. So I’m not going to worry too much about a study that says women ought not generate LOLs on the job.
And you shouldn’t, either. I love to see my fellow communicators bust a funny on the job. “Disruptive” may have been a bad word once upon a time, but today it’s making exciting things happen. No joke.
About the Author
Starshine Roshell, 2019 AWC Headliner Award honoree and Santa Barbara Professional Chapter member, is a journalism professor, magazine writer, award-winning columnist and overwhelmed mother of two. Named for a song in the 1960s musical “Hair,” in which her father starred, Starshine grew up in Los Angeles on the soap opera sets and in the Sunset Strip nightclubs where her parents worked. She graduated UCLA cum laude and wrote for The Hollywood Reporter before joining the Santa Barbara News-Press as a news reporter, theater and rock music critic, Sunday columnist and deputy features editor. She resigned with dozens of colleagues in 2006 over the publisher’s breaches of journalistic ethics. Her syndicated column won a first-place award from the California Newspaper Publishers Association, and she has a second-place CNPA award for Business/Financial reporting. Starshine lives in Santa Barbara with her husband John, a graphic artist, and their two sons.
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1 thought on “Women Can’t Be Funny?”
Love this article – and your great books! And Starshine, I think of you and your wonderful name everytime I hear stories about the anniversary of Hair:-) – your folks got you a great name!!