“Women In Jokes”: A Linguistic Analysis of Jokes on Pakistani Social Media in Light of the General Theory of Verbal Humour

Abstract

 Social relations of power are established and negotiated through discourse and joke telling is one strategy among many to do so. The present study is an attempt to examine the representation of women in jokes, circulated on Pakistani social media, by addressing four themes: representation of women in general, women exercising skills/intellect, women as life partners and representation of teenage girls/young women. The study employs the General Theory of Verbal Humour (GTVH) by Attardo & Raskin (1991) as a theoretical framework. From different social media sources like Facebook and Whatsapp, twenty jokes pertaining to women have been selected randomly and analysed on the basis of the GTVH's six knowledge resources. The study reflects the realization that women are represented as talkative and ignorant beings, devoid of intellect; women as life partners are shown to be domineering and intimidating figures, and the representation of teenage girls/young women reinforces stereotypes circulated by patriarchy discourse. The significance of this work lies in the assumption that systematically analysing jokes about women may help in exposing casual sexism and empower women by provoking them to question instead of internalizing the stereotypes circulated through jokes.