An association of journalists took it upon themselves to listen to one of France's most popular radio shows for a month. With a devastating observation: 100% of the shows include sexist remarks, not to mention other forms of discrimination.
So like that, we can't say anything more? Yet what do we hear! Under cover of humor, the most filthy clichés are broadcast on the air of certain stations or television channels. While a dubious "joke" can happen from time to time, one particular radio show holds the top: 100% of its shows contain at least one sexist / racist / homophobic joke, or some other form of discrimination.
This is what the Association des Journalistes LGBTI + (AJL) notes in its new study, which emerged from a month-long listening to Les Grosses Têtes on RTL. An average of one misogynistic (i.e. hateful towards women) talk every 11 minutes, 100% shows with sexist jokes (which are based on female gender stereotypes): do we need of that for fun?
Freedom of expression VS dangerous clichés
Already in 2017, the High Council for Equality noted that 71% of columns and radio broadcasts used sexism to try to be fun. The report ended with this observation: "Ridiculing people who protest by reproaching them for their lack of humor makes it possible to take responsibility away from them and not to question the sexist foundations on which this humor is based, nor to think about the consequences of a sexist joke or of the fact of it. to laugh". The new AJL study goes even beyond these latest figures and concerns one of the most popular shows in France.
In this work published on October 8, 2020, the association details the "jokes" that pose a problem and fall under the
sexism, ageism, grossophobia, racism, homophobia and transphobia. Women are described as "ugly", "silly", "bitches" ; pedocriminality and rape of minors are trivialized there, as well as common insults such as "motherfuckers"(which stigmatizes homosexuals, a population which is said to have degrading practices). However, on social networks, the debate remains lively between the supporters of this study and the listeners who believe that we must laugh, and that all this is only humor. Moreover, the show presents a diversity in the profiles of columnists that we see little elsewhere, notes the AJL. This presence of people targeted legitimate does she have these heavy, even downright degrading jokes?
Does a gay man making gay jokes have more legitimacy to do so? Perhaps. Does he have the responsibility that his words reinforce hostile clichés in many of his listeners? Absolutely. This also applies to all minorities. Nelly Quéméner, interviewed in the study, quotes the lesbian humorist Hannah Gadsby and sums up this paradox very well: "Those who think that nothing more can be said are those who do not question the responsibility for what they say!" Nelly Quéméner also analyzes the justification for this type of humor: "Bold humor, with all that it can include sexist, racist or homophobic remarks, has been at the heart of the show since its inception. (…) Racist, anti-Semitic or homophobic humor s 'self-legitimizes often by arguing: “It's just a joke.” This type of justification implies a certain conception of the public: if the public does not laugh, it is because it has no humor, that it is not in the right place ". An answer that we can no longer hear in 2020.
From the "https://www.aufeminin.com/" humor "whose impact is not slight
Of course, laughter implies detachment, this famous second degree. And if it can have a unifying social function, it is when we laugh with and not against the people it targets. Conversely, some jokes reinforce a discriminating atmosphere, under the guise of paying a good slice. Valérie Rey-Robert, writer and feminist activist, observes: “What I've observed with all the studies I've looked at on rape culture, and obviously it's the same with LGBTphobias and racism, is that a sexist joke won't have to. impact if, for example, you are a feminist and you are already aware of the subject. On the other hand, it is very clear that on people who are sexist, and in particular men, these jokes have an impact and will worsen their sexism. "
Finally, this is what the AJL notes: that the jokes of the columnists do indeed influence the words of listeners who call: "The discriminating remarks go beyond the simple framework of the show. To be convinced of this, it suffices to listen to the calls of certain listeners who, without being in the studio, resume them and they too the codes of the show to make fun of the columnists. "
The association concluded by responding to all those who think that we can no longer say anything and that the activists really lack a second degree: "Les Grosses Têtes is a monument of the PAF. We were struck by the number and diversity of the subjects addressed and the depth of certain debates. The AJL also laughed heartily in certain passages. . And it did not escape us either that Laurent Ruquier was capable of making amends. (…) So, stingy, Laurent? And if you host a program of the Big Heads without discriminating words? Prove that he doesn 't you don't need those crutches from another age to make people laugh ". The call is launched.