Humor at the Expense of Blonde White Women
Throughout the history of mankind, human beings have expressed humor in the form of laughter; a sense of humor as we perceive it today is a relatively recent construct of modern day social scientists and psychologists (Holland, 1982).However, our sense of humor, as well as our conception of the same is not static but changes with the changing consciousness of the society.
As societies become more complex, our understanding of the concept of or sense of humor similarly becomes more complex. In recent times, comedy has proven itself to be an extremely popular film genre whose appeal and acceptance spans across nationalities, races and generations throughout the world. Traditionally, comedy involving beautiful blonde white women has sourced its humor from people’s perceived naivety and superficiality of beautiful blonde women.
This paper will examine whether, in creating humor, we tend to stereotype beautiful blonde women and hence foment inaccurate portrayals of these women based on their physical appearance. For comic texts, this paper going to use scenes featuring two sisters, Brittany and Tiffany in the film White Chicks and the main character, Elle Woods, from the movie Legally Blonde. In addition to this, the paper will also look into short written jokes at the expense of the blonde white woman. …show more content…
The FBI agent dress up and put on make up so as to resemble the two sisters that they are supposed to protect. Throughout the film the stereotype of the naive and superficial blonde woman is used to elicit humor from the audience. In one of the first scenes of the film, the two FBI agents are sent to pick the two blonde sisters from the airport. On seeing one of the FBI agent, one of the two blonde sisters remarks that they have already given a donation to the United Negro
Throughout the history of mankind, human beings have expressed humor in the form of laughter; a sense of humor as we perceive it today is a relatively recent construct of modern day social scientists and psychologists (Holland, 1982).However, our sense of humor, as well as our conception of the same is not static but changes with the changing consciousness of the society.
As societies become more complex, our understanding of the concept of or sense of humor similarly becomes more complex. In recent times, comedy has proven itself to be an extremely popular film genre whose appeal and acceptance spans across nationalities, races and generations throughout the world. Traditionally, comedy involving beautiful blonde white women has sourced its humor from people’s perceived naivety and superficiality of beautiful blonde women.
This paper will examine whether, in creating humor, we tend to stereotype beautiful blonde women and hence foment inaccurate portrayals of these women based on their physical appearance. For comic texts, this paper going to use scenes featuring two sisters, Brittany and Tiffany in the film White Chicks and the main character, Elle Woods, from the movie Legally Blonde. In addition to this, the paper will also look into short written jokes at the expense of the blonde white woman. …show more content…
The FBI agent dress up and put on make up so as to resemble the two sisters that they are supposed to protect. Throughout the film the stereotype of the naive and superficial blonde woman is used to elicit humor from the audience. In one of the first scenes of the film, the two FBI agents are sent to pick the two blonde sisters from the airport. On seeing one of the FBI agent, one of the two blonde sisters remarks that they have already given a donation to the United Negro