Week # 12 - March 31, 2010

“Sex and the City.”Gender, sexuality and sexual inequality in humor. Aggression and power.

Diversity focus: Social superiority of men -- myth or reality? Women, know your limits! Gays, know your place!
• Male and female responses to sexual, aggressive, and neutral humor: culture vs brain?
• Aggressive sexual and gender humor – its topics, popularity, and strategies.
• “Fighting back” with humor – e.g., “Sex and the city.”
Assignment #4 (take home; to be turned in on April 14, 2010)

Readings for Week #12:
Apte, Mahadev L.: Sexual Inequality in Humor. In Humor and Laughter. An Anthropological Approach. Cornell University Press. 1985. Pp. 67-81.
Azim E., D. Mobbs, B. Jo, V. Menon, and A.L. Reiss: Sex Differences in Brain Activation Elicited by Humor. In Proceedings of the National Academy of Science of United States 102 (2005): 16496-16501.
Gruner, Charles, R.: Sexual, Sexist, and Scatological Humor. In The Game of Humor. Transaction Publishers. 1997. Pp. 107-130.
Lefcourt, Herbert M.: Sex and Humor: Interactive Predictors of Health? In Humor. The Psychology of Living Buoyantly. Kluwer Academic/Plenum Publishers. 2001. Pp. 151-163.
Martin, G.N. and C.D. Gray: The Effects of Audience Laughing on Men’s and Women’s Responses to Humor. In Journal of Social Psychology 136 (1996): 221-231.