Women seldom tire of listening to jokes, that aim to make fun of their vulnerabilities, and that they must accept with grace on the premise that the nonsense is pure and light humour. Some of these graces, gracefully bestowed on women are, women cry at little things, they are not able to face adversities like men, they love the thought of being depressed and moaning and wining comes naturally to them. Well you know what, whoever you may be, man or woman (Oh yes! Women too love to poke fun at a woman’s frailty under the normalised pretext of humour), you are partially, partially, RIGHT!
Now, you will ask me, “Woman why should I read the remaining 718 words of this 847 words article?” Well, I do realise your time is extremely precious and therefore I beseech you to read on as you will get valuable tools to boost your humorous performances among your peers. Therefore, read on and allow me to begin with some facts.
What Makes You Pick Up a Book? – Sahitye Jeevanam
Now, you will ask me, “Woman why should I read the remaining 718 words of this 847 words article?” Well, I do realise your time is extremely precious and therefore I beseech you to read on as you will get valuable tools to boost your humorous performances among your peers. Therefore, read on and allow me to begin with some facts.
Researchers, yes we must take recourse to scientific evidence, have found that “nine out of ten of those [women] who became depressed reported serious adversity” (Tacchi). Hence, women just do not happen to decide one fine morning “Oh! It is a wonderful day and since I have nothing better to do today let me spend some time brooding, then becoming sad and then capping off the whole experience by getting depressed”.
You see life adversity affects women differently than men. You ask what life adversity? Oh, its germane events like lack of employment, lack of an intimate and supportive partner, bereavement and yes children! Indeed, the symbol of compassion, kindness, tolerance, motherhood, the woman also gets depressed because of war mongering teenagers madly dancing about her. There you go, now you have a startling revelation that can seriously boost your repertoire of women centred jokes.
Furthermore, research has established that “life events that could be categorized as ‘humiliation’ or ‘entrapment’ experiences were particularly associated with the onset of a depressive episode” in women (Tacchi). To make matters more explicit let us look at an example where a woman has lost her job and is forced to stay at home without a paid income. Research shows that this might lead to a woman feeling entrapped. Ridiculous right? I mean, she has simply lost her income! She is after all just comfortably dependant on someone else for her needs! There is absolutely no explanation for why she could be feeling entrapped! Moreover, it is absolutely preposterous for her to feel humiliated. How could any woman feel humiliated by being reliant on social service, on the generosity of friends and caring and supportive family members?
Ah women! So you see, I now give you further content for your jokes. You could now crack jokes on how a woman works herself up and how her mind goes buzzzzzzzzzzzz just like a bee, at minor incidents. Don’t be afraid, your humiliating jokes will definitely not exacerbate her humiliation and thereby her feeling of depression.
However, I sense you are getting slightly concerned. Let me assuage your fears by sprinkling in a bit of analysis on Cognitive behaviour into this article. A man called Aaron Beck came up with a model for Cognitive Behaviour Therapy (CBT) (Tacchi).
Therefore, if a person has an experience of a relationship failure in their life, they may form a belief that they are no good at sustaining relationships. Few days, weeks, months, or years down the line, when they once again sense that a relationship is at risk, there is a possibility that the belief ‘I am no good at relationships’, will be activated. This will trigger a series of negative thoughts, one or more symptoms of depression like lack of energy, motivation, concentration, loss of appetite, difficulty in sleeping or stress may manifest themselves, further feeding the negative automatic thoughts.
But this does happen in men and women alike! Why then do women have to be so worked up about everything? Let us just throw all the discussion about adversity and its effect on making women feel vulnerable out of the window. Let us cling on as hard as we can to the idea that all humans irrespective of their gender must react to situations in the same way. If they do not, they are worthy of featuring as characters ridiculed in humorous sketches.
Do keep these points in mind and don’t forget to call out any woman who is trying to get over a set back in one area of her life, say her marriage, by beginning a new path in another area of her life, say her career. Don’t forget to make a caricature of the poor husband who is left behind and sacrificed at the altar of a woman’s progress. And most importantly, do not forget to include those men in your sketches, who display the vulnerability and frailty famously attributed to women, and berate them for being like women.
In concerned exasperation,
Until next time,
Trishna
Works Cited
-Tacchi, Mary Jane and Jan Scott. Depression: A Very Short Introduction. Oxford University Press, 2017.
-Photo by Viktor Talashukon Unsplash
-Pixel photos
Sahitye Jeevanam 