Who's Laughing Now?

Exploring feminist social media tactics that use humor as a form of resistance to misogyny, the affective dynamics of shame, shaming, and shamelessness.

Online sexism, hate, and harassment aim to silence women through shaming and fear. In Who's Laughing Now? Jenny Sundén and Susanna Paasonen examine a somewhat counterintuitive form of resistance: humor. Sundén and Paasonen argue that feminist social media tactics that use humor, laughter, and a sense of the absurd to answer name-calling, offensive language, and unsolicited dick pics can rewire the affective circuits of sexual shame and acts of shaming.

Using laughter as both a theme and a methodological tool, Sundén and Paasonen explore examples of the subversive deployment of humor that range from @assholesonline to the Tumblr “Congrats, you have an all-male panel!” They consider the distribution and redistribution of shame, discuss Hannah Gadsby's Nanette, and describe tactical retweeting and commenting (as practiced by Stormy Daniels, among others). They explore the appropriation of terms meant to hurt and insult—for example, self-proclaimed Finnish “tolerance whores”—and what effect this rerouting of labels may have. They are interested not in lulz (amusement at another's expense)—not in what laughter pins down, limits, or suppresses but rather in what grows with and in it. The contagiousness of laughter drives the emergence of networked forms of feminism, bringing people together (although it may also create rifts). Sundén and Paasonen break new ground in exploring the intersection of networked feminism, humor, and affect, arguing for the political necessity of inappropriate laughter.

1. Introduction: What's laughter got to do with it?
2. #MeToo, outrage, and sexual shame
3. Affective homophily and the unlikely comedy of #MeToo
4. Counter shame, startle, and the unsolicited pussy pic
5. Shameless hags, tolerance whores, and the vibrancy of language
6. Manels, dadpreneurs, and the allure of binary gender
7. Conclusion: Laughter and networked absurdism
References
Index“Sundén’s and Paasonen’s unquestioned expertise in studying online porn, games, social media, and gender/feminist theory perfectly positions these scholars to undertake this work. The volume skillfully brings together multiple fascinating discussions of online sexism and harassment to consider the role of humor and laughter in speaking out and back against an increasing tide of toxicity. Innovative and highly recommended.”
--Mia Consalvo, Canada Research Chair in Game Studies and Design, Professor of Communication Studies, Concordia University; coauthor of Real Games: What’s Legitimate and What’s Not in Contemporary Videogames (with Christopher A. Paul)
 
“A rich and original contribution to understanding humor as political resistance to the misogyny plaguing social media cultures. This smart, savvy study of laughter as feminist resistance not only advances the fields of affect, media, and feminist studies but also offers a pleasurable balm for our dark times.”
--Megan Boler, Professor, Ontario Institute for Studies in Education/University of Toronto; author of Affective Politics of Digital Media: Propagandaby Other Means and Digital Media and Democracy: Tactics in Hard TimesJenny Sundén is Professor of Gender Studies at Södertörn University in Sweden.

Susanna Paasonen is Professor of Media Studies at the University of Turku in Finland. She is the coauthor of NSF: Sex, Humor, and Risk in Social Media (MIT Press).