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Shane Gillis’ uninspired, unfunny SNL monologue proves sexist humour is still shaping our social norms.
Forgive me for thinking that as a society we’d passed the point of giving men a platform to call women ‘whores’. Turns out we haven’t. Not only did Shane Gillis have free reign to do just that this weekend, he did so on live television, delivering an uninspired SNL monologue in which he mocked women for wearing shorts to the gym.
The comments drew controversy from almost every media outlet, as well as from individuals including actor Dan Levy who said he was ‘speechless’ that a joke of that nature would be broadcast in the first place.
Levy went on to highlight the misogyny of the monologue and called on other men to speak out.
‘More men need to be standing up in opposition to [this],’ Levy said in an Instagram video. ‘It’s complacency which has created the environment [in] which women are sexually assaulted.’
Cue the free-speech warriors flooding social media in defence of ‘comedy’. The same argument has been used to give bad jokes a free pass for years, allowing offensive and, at times, harmful language to slip through the ether under the guise of a joke.
But as Levy and others point out, these comments have real-world consequences. Sexist humour doesn’t exist in a vacuum, especially in a society where women face daily threats to their safety and, in the UK alone, 3% of women aged 16 or over have reportedly experienced sexual assault.
I’m not suggesting Gillis’ monologue directly causes sexual violence, not that everyone who laughs at it is a misogynist. But it’s this culture of complacency that helps establish what our society considers acceptable. When Gillis swore later in the episode he quickly apologised. So, the ‘F word’ isn’t warranted on national TV, but calling women whores? A-okay.
Sexist humour both reflects and shapes social norms, making it harder to dismiss as harmless entertainment.
Gillis’s joke rests on the familiar premise that women’s bodies are public property available for male scrutiny, and that women who dress in ways men find provocative deserve to be ridiculed. We live in a culture that encourages women to work out, build strength and feel confident in their bodies, only to chastise them when they do so in a way that makes men uncomfortable.
The gym is hardly exempt from the expectation that women should look good, but not too good. And apparently, now even our workout clothes are up for public debate.
