Dissertations / Theses on the topic 'Women – Humor'

Graphic Intimacies: Identity, Humor, and Trauma in Autobiographical Comics by Women of Color examines works of comics art about the lived experience of the comics’ creator. These graphic narratives address racialized difference and the construction of identity while also using humor to negotiate their narrations of traumatic events. I argue that these creators employ the structure of comics to replicate the fragmentary nature of memory. Comics allow for the representation of trauma as being intimately linked to corporeality. The comics medium allows creators to make visible and present fractured versions of the self, a product of traumatic fragmentation. Drawing traumatic memories becomes a symbolic enactment of transformation. Comics become a way of coping with the fragmentary nature of traumatic memory, permitting a consolidation of memory even when a totality is impossible. Graphic Intimacies examines representative texts by four autobiographical cartoonists: Lynda Barry, Belle Yang, MariNaomi, and Whit Taylor. Each of these cartoonists engages in critiques of social issues through the negotiation of a multilayered identity. For instance, Barry’s One Hundred Demons (2002) explores her identity as a white-passing Filipino American growing up in a low-income neighborhood. In Forget Sorrow: An Ancestral Tale (2011), Yang a Taiwanese born Chinese American artist, tells the story of her father’s family in order to heal from the trauma of intimate partner abuse. Biracial Japanese American artist MariNaomi explores her disconnection from her Japanese heritage while chronicling her experiences working in Japanese-style hostess bars in Turning Japanese (2016).

Illustrations not reproduced. The entire thesis text is included in the research.pdf file; the official abstract appears in the short.pdf file; a non-technical public abstract appears in the public.pdf file. Title from PDF of title page (University of Missouri--Columbia, viewed on January 25, 2010). Thesis advisor: Dr. Kristin Schwain. Includes bibliographical references.

This thesis argues that textual and historical analysis of The Carol Burnett Show reveals that the program utilized slapstick, women's comedy and feminist humor to create comedic parodies of television commercials, melodramas and women's films, and soap operas. Their television commercial parodies reflect Second Wave feminist critiques of media advertising contemporary with the program. Comparison of the work of early feminist film theorists and media critics to the program's parodies of film and soap opera reveal an interest in texts that address a female audience and that The Carol Burnett Show was making similar critiques to feminist media scholars in the years before it became a field of inquiry.

This thesis argues that textual and historical analysis of The Carol Burnett Show reveals that the program utilized slapstick, women's comedy and feminist humor to create comedic parodies of television commercials, melodramas and women's films, and soap operas. Their television commercial parodies reflect Second Wave feminist critiques of media advertising contemporary with the program. Comparison of the work of early feminist film theorists and media critics to the program's parodies of film and soap opera reveal an interest in texts that address a female audience and that The Carol Burnett Show was making similar critiques to feminist media scholars in the years before it became a field of inquiry.

Humour has for a long time been regarded as something unproblematic that in general shouldn’t be taken seriously, and humour research has mainly focused its positive functions and effects. However, humour is indeed a social and discursive practise that, just like others, have social implications. The aim of this essay is, informed by an intersectional perspective, to problematize and critically examine stand-up comedy as discursive practise and to make visible how humour build upon dominating discourses in society. The aim is also to examine the self-contradictory dimension of the jokes. In a critical discourse analysis of Özz Nûjen’s show Dålig stämning (2013), using PC (political correctness) as an overall analytical framework, the analytical categories ‘women’ as well as ‘ethnicity and culture’ are focused. My conclusion is that in all cases of Nûjen’s prerogative of interpretation, ‘stupidity’, as the lowest common denominator, sticks to symbols, bodies and phenomenon that are associated with something deviant or negative. By what is not expressed, a white, normative Swedish PC-identity is constructed as the abstract, preferable subject. Nûjen’s stand-up comedy, i.a. in expressions of self-contradiction, proves to mainly reinforce social norms. Consequently, negative preconceptions and biased representations of reality are cemented. Though Nûjen does contribute to sociocultural change to some extent, the elaborations of the jokes in most cases prove to sustain the social order. A renegotiation of identities is therefore made strictly limited. However, in one case, Nûjen does challenge the notion of identities as fixed and essential, when renegotiating the master status and construction of “The ethnical Other woman”.

Based on analyses of recorded real-life social interactions among English men and women friends living in England, this study shows how crucial it is to use a range of communication behaviours to express humour and maintain rapport. Men and women are keen to learn how to improve and preserve their social relationships (Mulac, Bradac and Gibbons, 2001). However, the immense literature on human communication ignores the multifaceted and positive force of humour in the social interactions of friends (Lynch, 2002). In addition, there is an absence of firm theoretical principles on which to develop counselling sessions and teach individuals to develop humour skills. Therefore, this study examines how participants incorporate humour in their ongoing conversation to achieve rapport in face-to-face social interaction in mixed-gender groups. This investigation is situated within the fields of human communication and humour and gender research. The necessarily communicative approach involved qualitative data collection and description, namely conversation analysis (CA) and ethnography, complemented by quantitative analysis. Communication context, that is, interactants’ attitudes and personality, their history, background knowledge, and how they relate to each other, are shown to play an important role in preserving friendships and maintaining rapport. Light is thrown on specific behaviours that could help men and women nurture their friendships and it is explained why there is a need for individuals to view humour as a positive force in their communication with one another. It is argued that misunderstandings may arise if men and women do not understand the way each gender uses humour. Thus, men and women could empower themselves by objectively examining how they interact, challenge the perceptions each may have about their own communication, and gain a more thorough understanding of verbal and non-verbal strategies for facilitating humour. By harmonising their verbal and non-verbal behaviours, men and women can use humour not only to express affiliation and commonality but also as a strategy for testing the boundaries of gender in a non-threatening way, to minimise differences, and to discover more about the opposite gender. In time and with further academic inquiry, humour could be acknowledged as a critical communication tool for establishing and sustaining relationships. The hope is that this study could be a catalyst for future research on promoting humour as a key element of daily social interaction.

O impacto da flutuação dos hormônios esteróides sobre o curso do Transtorno Afetivo Bipolar durante a vida reprodutiva das mulheres é pouco estudado. Encontramos ainda muitas lacunas no conhecimento quanto a sua apresentação clínica e as suas implicações na evolução do Transtorno Afetivo Bipolar, especialmente sua associação com a ciclagem rápida e o seu valor preditivo para recorrência. Métodos: Mulheres com Transtorno Afetivo Bipolar (tipos I, II ou sem outra especificação) participantes do Systematic Treatment Enhancement Program for Bipolar Disorder, com idade entre 16 e 40 anos, foram divididas em dois grupos: com e sem relato de exacerbação pré-menstrual do Transtorno Afetivo Bipolar na avaliação inicial do estudo. Estes grupos foram comparados em relação às características clínicas do Transtorno Afetivo Bipolar, de vida reprodutiva e tratamento na entrada do estudo. Longitudinalmente, foi comparado o tempo de recorrência entre as pacientes que iniciaram o estudo eutímicas utilizando análise de sobrevivência Kaplan Meier e a regressão de Cox. O número de episódios entre as pacientes que foram seguidas por um período de um ano também foi comparado. Resultados: Das 706 mulheres que completaram o questionário, 490 (69,4%) relataram exacerbação pré-menstrual. Na entrada do estudo, quando comparadas ao grupo sem exacerbação pré-menstrual, as mulheres com exacerbação pré-menstrual encontravam-se mais deprimidas, apresentavam mais comorbidades psiquiátricas, sintomas do humor com uso de contraceptivos hormonais, ciclos menstruais irregulares, e estavam recebendo menos tratamento farmacológico. Mulheres com exacerbação pré-menstrual também relataram mais episódios de humor durante o ano anterior e eram mais susceptíveis de apresentar ciclagem rápida neste mesmo período. Na avaliação prospectiva, entre as mulheres que iniciaram o estudo eutímicas (exacerbação pré-menstrual n = 66, sem exacerbação pré-menstrual n = 63), o grupo com exacerbação pré-menstrual teve um tempo de recaída mais rápido ao se incluir estados subsindrômicos associados a recaídas em mania, depressão ou estado misto. O tempo médio de recidiva de 50% da amostra foi de 4,5 meses para as mulheres com a exacerbação pré-menstrual, em comparação com 8,5 meses para as do grupo sem exacerbação pré-menstrual (p = 0,02). A exacerbação prémenstrual também foi um fator significativamente associado a maior gravidade dos sintomas depressivos e de elevação do humor entre as mulheres com um ano de seguimento. Conclusões: As mulheres com Transtorno Afetivo Bipolar que relataram exacerbação pré-menstrual apresentaram uma maior comorbidade psiquiátrica, maior número de episódios do humor no ano anterior e ciclagem rápida. A avaliação prospectiva mostrou uma taxa de recorrência maior, mais estados subsindrômicos e maior número de episódios, mas não ciclagem rápida, nas mulheres do grupo exacerbação pré-menstrual. Nossos resultados sugerem que a exacerbação pré-menstrual pode ser considerada um marcador clínico preditor de um fenótipo clínico mais complexo e associado a uma pior evolução da doença em mulheres em idade reprodutiva com Transtorno Afetivo Bipolar.
The impact of hormonal fluctuation during the menstrual cycle on the course of bipolar disorder in women is poorly studied. We also found many gaps in knowledge about its clinical presentation and its implications for the evolution of Bipolar Disorder, especially the association with rapid cycling and its predictive value for recurrence. Methods: Women with Bipolar Disorder (types I, II or Not Otherwise Specificated ) participants Systematic Treatment Enhancement Program for Bipolar Disorder, aged between 16 and 40, were divided into two groups: with and without reports of Premenstrual Exacerbation of Bipolar Disorder in the baseline assessment. These groups were compared to clinical features of BD, reproductive life and treatment at study entry. The time difference of recurrence between groups who were euthymic at the baseline assessment were done with survival analysis Kaplan Meier\'s survival curve and Cox regression models. The number of episodes between the patients who were followed for a period of one year was also compared. Results: Of 706 women who completed the questionnaire, 490 (69.4%) reported premenstrual exacerbation. At study entry, compared to those without premenstrual exacerbation, women with premenstrual exacerbation were more depressed, had more psychiatric comorbidities, mood symptoms with the use of hormonal contraceptives, irregular menstrual cycles, and were receiving less drug treatment. Women with premenstrual exacerbation also reported more mood episodes during the previous year and were more likely to state rapid cycling in the same period. In a prospective evaluation among women who started the study in euthymic mood state (premenstrual exacerbation n = 66, without premenstrual exacerbation n = 63), the premenstrual exacerbation group had a smaller time to relapse when associated subsyndromal mood states to relapse in mania, depression or mixed state. The median time to relapse of 50% of the sample was 4.5 months for women with premenstrual exacerbation, compared with 8.5 months for the group without premenstrual exacerbation (p = 0,02). The premenstrual exacerbation was also a significantly positive factor for a greater severity of depressive symptoms and elevation of mood among women with one year of follow-up. Conclusions: Women with Bipolar Disorder who reported premenstrual exacerbation had a higher psychiatric comorbidity, greater number of episodes of mood in the previous year and rapid cycling. Prospective evaluation showed a higher rate of recurrence, more states and more subsyndromal episodes, but not rapid cycling among women in the premenstrual exacerbation. Our results suggest that premenstrual exacerbation can be considered a clinical marker predictor of a worse clinical phenotype and associated with a worst disease progression in women of reproductive with bipolar affective disorder

The sense of humour is a uniquely human skill and understanding humour is an important and rewarding part of social interaction. This thesis begins by discussing the definition of humour, followed by a review of the evidence we have that humour is an evolved and adaptive behaviour. Humour may play an important role in helping individuals to bond and signal cooperation, which may be further communicated by the humour style which is used to communicate. Research has also demonstrated that humour is an attractive quality in a mate, though the precise reasons for this are currently debated (Chapter 1). Empirical work in the first section of the thesis is consistent with evidence demonstrating that humour is attractive and sexually selected for. Chapter 2 tests the influence of modality and relationship context in an effort to further our understanding of why humour is attractive and provides evidence that more attractive people are rated as being funnier than less attractive people. Humour was also found to be more attractive for short-term relationships than long-term relationships, possibly due to the similarity between funniness and flirtatiousness. In Chapter 3, attractiveness ratings of vignettes in the style of personal advertisements, which contained either aggressive or affiliative humour, demonstrated the importance of humour style. An affiliative humour style was more attractive for long-term relationships whereas an aggressive humour style was more attractive for short-term relationships. Further testing provided evidence that humour styles were associated with personality traits which are highly relevant in a mating context, helping to explain the functions of different humour styles. The second section of the thesis examines the relationship between humour, cooperation, and dominance as an alternative explanation for the evolution of humour. Chapter 4 contains an extended introduction to the physical, verbal, and nonverbal cues to dominance and the sex differences that exist in expressive behaviours. Chapter 5 continues this theme and elaborates further on the function of humour in group situations, before providing empirical evidence of how humour is used in the context of a competitive ‘desert-island’ style conversation between same-sex dyads. Chapter 6 further expands on this line of research as empirical evidence presented in this chapter demonstrates that males may be using humour as a way of communicating the desire to cooperate with other males who are of a similar level of dominance. The communication of dominance is further examined in Chapter 7, where ethological evidence showed that males who were more physically dominant tended to knock doors with greater frequency than males who were less physically dominant. In the final chapter of the thesis (Chapter 8), the evolution of humour is discussed in light of the evidence presented in Chapters 2-7. The thesis presents evidence to suggest that humour production is an important skill for males for two reasons. Firstly, a good sense of humour is a highly attractive quality to females and may be a cue to genetic quality or good partner qualities, depending on the humour style used. Secondly, it may be important for males to use humour to signal cooperation to other males in order to form alliances. In females, the evidence presented in the thesis suggests that humour production may be a way for females to demonstrate romantic interest or flirtatiousness but the function of humour use between females remains largely inconclusive.

Objetivo: verificar os efeitos de um programa de exercício físico de 3 meses (3 sessões semanais), em mulheres idosas. Amostra: 44 idosas (x idades ≈ 70 anos): Grupo Experimental 1 ([20-59]%sessões; n=13); Grupo Experimental 2 (≥60%sessões; n=15); Grupo de Controlo (0%sessões; n=16). Métodos de Avaliação: DEXA, Balança TANITA BC-545 e Antropómetro de Martin (Composição Corporal); Análises Clínicas (Perfil Lipídico); Tensiómetro-MTP-Medisana (Pressão Arterial); Bateria de Testes “Functional Fitness Test” (Aptidão Física); Questionário POMS-SF (Estados de Humor). Resultados: Encontraram-se diferenças significativas entre grupos nas variáveis: força superior (p=.001: GE2>GC) e inferior (p=.009: GE2>GCeGE1), flexibilidade inferior (p=.020: GE2>GC), resistência aeróbia (p=.000: GE2>GCGE1), fadiga (p=.023: GE2GC) e confusão (p=.027: GE2GC) and lower strength (p=.009: GE2>GCeGE1), lower flexibility (p=.020: GE2>GC), aerobic endurance (p=.000: GE2>GCGE1), fatigue (p=.023: GE2GC) and confusion (p=.027: GE2