University Press of New England
They Used to Call Me Snow White . . . But I Drifted
Women’s Strategic Use of Humor
9781611684469
Distributed for University Press of New England
They Used to Call Me Snow White . . . But I Drifted
Women’s Strategic Use of Humor
Published by Viking in 1991 and issued as a paperback through Penguin Books in 1992, Snow White became an instant classic for both academic and general audiences interested in how women use humor and what others (men) think about funny women. Barreca, who draws on the work of scholars, writers, and comedians to illuminate a sharp critique of the gender-specific aspects of humor, provides laughs and provokes arguments as she shows how humor helps women break rules and occupy center stage. Barreca’s new introduction provides a funny and fierce, up-to-the-minute account of the fate of women’s humor over the past twenty years, mapping what has changed in our culture—and questioning what hasn’t.
Table of Contents
Acknowledgments • Snow White Grows Up • Getting It • Do Good Girls Laugh with Their Mouth Open? • Putting a Punch in Your Punch Line • The Laughter in the Kitchen • Laughing All the Way to the Bank • “It’s Hard to Be Funny When You Have to Be Clean” • How Many Feminists Does It Take to Change a Light Bulb? • She Who Laughs, Lasts • Notes • Bibliography