Abstract
This paper attempts to shed light on sexism in Egyptian Internet It examines how language, as an institution largely controlled by men, is manipulated and used to disparage women in this discursive mode of humor. Through running a qualitative and quantitative analysis of 284 sexist internet jokes, the study addressed three points; namely, the most frequently targeted category of women in sexist jokes; the most salient physical and personal attributes and finally the way sexist jokes is used to promote violence against women. The analysis has shown that the 'wife' is the category most ridiculed. The data also revealed that in spite of the freedom in anonymity that the internet provides, personal attributes far outnumber the physical features. The jokes conformed to the conservative nature of the society as derision of physical features was done through the use of general terms. The analysis has shown that 'hatefulness' was the most highly criticised personal attribute, with 'stupidity' coming second. It was also shown that under the guise of benign amusement, the effect of these jokes go beyond tolerating gender inequality to actually promoting physical violence against women. We conclude that in a patriarchal social system like that of Egypt, which already disparages women as the 'marked' and the 'different', such jokes should not be dismissed lightly as 'just jokes.
Highlights
On the 19th Febuary 2014, Youssry Fouda, a well-known programme presenter in ONTV channel, commented, in his political talk show ‘aker Kalam’, on the serious debate on what the people want from the president, which had been going for 59 minutes between him and three female guests by smilingly saying « It is I who brought this to myself by engulfing myself in a ‘vortex’ of women.” He laughed, taking a break
The data was examined and classified under the two major taxonomies: General Sexist Jokes (GSJs) and Specific Sexist Jokes (SSJs) in an attempt to find whether women and girls are being the target of the jokes in general or is there a specific category of women which is being the subject of ridicule? And in the latter case which category? GSJs category includes jokes that refer to women in a general sense while SSJs refer to those jokes that specify a category of women as subject of the jokes
As far as the category of women which is most frequently targeted in the jokes at issue (Question 1), the data revealed that half of the jokes came under the GSJ category while the other half fell under the SSJ category
Summary
On the 19th Febuary 2014, Youssry Fouda, a well-known programme presenter in ONTV channel, commented, in his political talk show ‘aker Kalam’ (or, final words), on the serious debate on what the people want from the president, which had been going for 59 minutes between him and three female guests by smilingly saying « It is I who brought this to myself by engulfing myself in a ‘vortex’ of women.” He laughed, taking a break. On the 19th Febuary 2014, Youssry Fouda, a well-known programme presenter in ONTV channel, commented, in his political talk show ‘aker Kalam’ (or, final words), on the serious debate on what the people want from the president, which had been going for 59 minutes between him and three female guests by smilingly saying « It is I who brought this to myself by engulfing myself in a ‘vortex’ of women.”. Fouda’s sexist joke has foregrounded gender when it had no place in the discussion
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