Laughing Matters: Micro-Resistance to Gendered Rationality

• Author / Creator

  Douglas, Emily R.

• Since the 1980s, many feminist philosophers have pointed out the association of
  masculinity and maleness with reason and rationality, and femininity and femaleness with
  unreason and irrationality. Struck by how these associations influence even ordinary activities
  and discourse, I sought a more nuanced approach. Examining the dichotomous responses to
  gendered reason, I argue that resistance to gendered norms of rationality cannot be
  accomplished through practical reason alone. Allowing unconventional forms of resistance to
  “count” as political, by reconceptualising resistance on a Foucauldian framework, provides
  theorists with many new resources. The laughter norms which we are disciplined to follow
  constitute a subject’s gender and her rationality. We can disrupt these norms in at least three
  ways: by laughing when it is unexpected, by changing our comportment during laughter, and
  by refusing to laugh when it is expected. Ultimately, I propose that feminist subjects can
  politically transform our selves, and others, through micro-practices of laughing differently.

• Subjects / Keywords

  • Foucault
  • Feminist philosophy
  • Laughter
  • Gender

• Graduation date

  Fall 2014

• Type of Item

  Thesis

• Degree

  Master of Arts

• DOI

  https://doi.org/10.7939/R3V40K705

• License

  This thesis is made available by the University of Alberta Libraries with permission of the copyright owner solely for non-commercial purposes. This thesis, or any portion thereof, may not otherwise be copied or reproduced without the written consent of the copyright owner, except to the extent permitted by Canadian copyright law.