She Reads..: Humor.

Stover, Kaite Mediatore (author).

Titters

We’ve tried, guys. Honestly, we have. But we just don’t get it. We don’t understand why you’re so amused with the sound effects and emissions produced by every orifice of your bodies. Women have enough body issues, thank-you-very-much, and there’s not too much to laugh at. Besides, the dramas of our anatomical obsessions are no match for the comedies that pass for our daily lives. Which explains why women have adopted what I call a zany Zen sense of humor. To wit:

For me, it all started with Judy Blume, who asked, Are You There, God? It’s Me, Margaret. Sure, Margaret was fixated on menstruation and breasts. But those concerns paled in comparison to the absurdity of socializing at boy-girl parties, looking for religion, and buying a bra, by itself the most ridiculous activity in which a woman, budding or otherwise, can engage.

“Fix up” is a phrase that brings on gales of female laughter, implying that a blind date is somehow a cure-all for our woes. Our favorite matchmaker is the title character in Jane Austen’s Emma. She’s so lovably clueless and stubborn in her would-be altruistic efforts that we can’t help but smile when she wears egg on her face after all her love schemes implode. Other women’s foibles are much more entertaining than our own, even if they are our own. Witness that other charming Emma in Sophie Kinsella’s Can You Keep a Secret? Terrified the plane she’s on is about to crash, Emma spills her guts to the charming stranger in the seat beside her. The next day he pops into her office, as, what else, her new boss. We can relate. We’ve all said the wrong thing at the wrong time.

Lauren Weedman made a practice of it and got booted off The Daily Show. Just because she accused Jon Stewart of downloading some porn to her computer and claimed he was her new boyfriend. Lauren records all her most cringe- and chortle-worthy moments in A Woman Trapped in a Woman’s Body, and we readers know that it’s Stewart’s loss.

We like some good snark now and again, too. No one makes us feel as intellectually smug as Florence King. In Reflections in a Jaundiced Eye, she slices and dices most of the institutions and ideals women hold dear: marriage, career, motherhood, friendship. We gleefully go along with Florence’s outrageous views, thinking maybe we’re better off unmarried, childless, and in full possession of a rapier wit capable of plunging straight to the funny bone.

Payback is not a bitch; it’s hilarious. No one knows this better than Terry McMillan, who takes the revenge fantasy to new heights on page 89 of Waiting to Exhale. By the time Bernadine finishes packing her lying-no-good-cheating husband’s luxurious personal goods into his BMW, we know what kind of cherry will finish off this divorce-flavored sundae. With panache and lighter fluid to spare, Bernie lights a match to signal her freedom and ignites the birth of the “you go, girl” movement.

So, what are we laughing at, you ask? Why, we’re laughing at ourselves, warts and all. Ladies, do your boobs keep sagging? Tattoo a picture of yourself on the left one. When you’re 80, you’ll finally be tall and thin. See, guys, we like physical comedy, too.

Titles Discussed

Are You There, God? It’s Me, Margaret. By Judy Blume. 1970. Random, $6.50 (0-440-90419-6).

Can You Keep a Secret? By Sophie Kinsella. 2004. Dell, $12 (9780385338080).

Emma. By Jane Austen. 1816. Penguin, $4.95 (9780451530820).

Reflections in a Jaundiced Eye. By Florence King. 1989. St. Martin’s, $10.95 (9780312039783).

Waiting to Exhale. By Terry McMillan. 1992. Penguin, $14 (9780451217455).

A Woman Trapped in a Woman’s Body. By Lauren Weedman. 2007. Sasquatch, $16.95 (9781570615016).

Kaite Mediatore Stover is Head of Central Library Readers’ and Circulation Services, Kansas City (MO) Public Library. For a man’s point of view, see what David Wright thinks.