That’s absurd! Humor and feminist tactics in social media

Humor is possibly not the first tactic to be associated with feminist activism, online or off, given the persistent figure of the “feminist killjoy”—the one who disrupts other people’s sense of happiness and refuses to laugh when expected to do so—within the cultural imaginary. Scholarly investigations into online feminist resistance and activism have largely focused on the affective dynamics of anger, rage, and frustration, as exemplified by the high visibility of the #MeToo movement. And there is, of course, little to laugh about in the ubiquity of online hate, sexism, and misogyny.

Meanwhile, humor plays a key role in how and where attention clusters on social media as it provides platforms for activist mobilization and critique. Zooming in on feminist social media tactics, this talk makes an argument for absurd humor as a means of not merely turning things around, or inside out, but for disrupting and eschewing the logic on offer. By turning things preposterous, ludicrous, and inappropriate, absurd laughter ends up somewhere different. Hence it makes for a good place to start.