Abstract
This study provides a feminist critique of gender related Facebook humor in Pakistan. Feminist Critical Discourse Analysis has been used to provide the theoretical framework to the research because it aims at critiquing discourses which sustain patriarchal social order and privilege men over women by associating them with powerful social position and making women powerless. The popularity of the jokes is set as the criterion for the selection of jokes. Content analysis is used to develop thematic categories of the selected Facebook jokes on the basis of targeted characters, traits, and hobbies associated with them. The popularity of the jokes was determined on the basis of likes, shares and smileys. The sample was collected from the timelines of 4812 Facebook friends in a period of 6 months. As many as 200 jokes were shortlisted containing gendered humor and were included in the discussion. However, there were trivial, absence and / or rephrased jokes too that were discarded. Further, the collection was in three languages, English, Urdu and Punjabi. The researchers thematically transcribed them in English and the screenshots / original versions were appended as figures in the end. The study reveals that women are mocked at more than men. A large number of stereotypical traits are associated with women and they are ridiculed because of them. Men are also depicted and presented stereotypically but much less in frequency than women. The study recommends awareness of gender bias and discrimination in popular Facebook jokes and sets it a target of the study.
Keyword(s)
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