Thursday, May 21, 1998

Liberation shouldn't sacrifice humor

By Bonnie Erbe

Some white males are very upset over their treatment at the hands of women these days. Conservative columnist John Leo devoted a whole page to the subject in a recent edition of U.S. News and World Report. Among the transgressions white females had committed against his ilk, he listed:

-- A nationally-known newswoman who told a (rather humorless) joke about women's brains selling for much less than men's brains because women's brains "are used." The joke was delivered during a speech to a large audience.

-- A line of American Greeting cards that sport women poking fun at men. To wit, the front cover of one card shows a woman saying, "Men are always whining about how we're suffocating them." The punch line was this: "Personally, I think if you can hear them whining, you're not pressing hard enough on the pillow."

Aside from the fact that both the newswoman and American Greeting cards need new gag writers who can actually produce jokes that are funny, I find myself thinking exactly what white men used to think about feminists: Hey, guys, lighten up. If you think men are taking a beating in the arena of popular culture, try walking in our pumps for a moment. You'll soon learn to handle unskilled attempts to make an audience laugh the way many of us do -- by sitting back, giggling it off and by getting a life.

Leo says if women received similar treatment at the hands of men, they'd be (figuratively speaking, of course) leveling hand grenades at the nearest corporate executive or worse. But the fact is that we endure daily put-downs by the patriarchs of pop culture and we just grin and muddle through. Disk jockey Howard Stern portrays women as nothing more than female organs -- this on a daily basis and broadcast to every major market across the country. Jokes about mothers-in-law and wives ("Take my wife, please," e.g.) permeate the culture.

Liberation movements are key to a free society. We've benefited enormously from the efforts of women who led the fight for women's equality, black leaders who fought racism, Hispanic activists who battled prejudice of every kind. But we should not liberate ourselves at the expense of one factor that knits us all together: humor.

A Washington disc jockey was getting a rise on his morning radio program this week about a group of Hispanics who protested the burning of a Puerto Rican flag on the finale episode of "Seinfeld." As one who disdains prime time sitcoms, I did not view the scene myself. But since "Seinfeld" was a comedy show, I'm sure it was supposed to be funny. To them, I say the same thing I'm saying to John Leo: Get a life.

Sure, there is humor that goes over the line. And genuine insults against white males should be no more tolerated than prejudices of any other kind. But John Leo's point that white men and white men alone are under some kind of particularized assault that our society leisurely tolerates is pure hooey. And perhaps if he had even a smidgen of a sense of humor, he'd understand that.

Bonnie Erbe is host of the PBS program "To the Contrary." Her E-mail address is 102404,3317@CompuServe.com.

Scripps Howard News Service