HAVE WOMEN A SENSE OF HUMOUR?

Otago Daily Times, Issue 19584, 14 September 1925, Page 8

HAVE WOMEN A SENSE OF HUMOUR?

Individually, yes; collectively, no. I know one on two women with a delightful sense of humour —and the fact that they stand out by their wittiness goes to prove that they are exceptions among their sex. Humour, of course, is a debatable subject, but there is no doubt that what tfib average woman may believe to be a sense of humour is really nothing more than a sense of the ridiculous. . A man to whom I put the question said: “They can’t have a sense of humour, otherwise they -would never adopt the present fashions.” We may dismiss him as being old-fashioned, but —well, there is something rather penetrating in what he said considering how many women adopt a new style, not because it suits them, but because it is “the right thing to wear.” “Of course, women have a, sense ot humour,” a woman told me. “If they had not they would never bo able to get through the troubles which beset them.” Women are quick to see jokes, but slow to make them. Their humour, in other words, is not constructive. Whore are the women caricaturists and humorist writers? Women's contributions to the humour of the world is small apart from the stage. The reason, probably, is that, women take life more seriously than men. They have to. Household matters are serious things, monotonous things, and long association with them has given them a habit of looking at, details very gravely. “Why bother about such trifles?” is a familiar gibe from paterfamilias, who, knowing little of the intricacy of running a home smpothly, is impatient when » woman breaks under the last straw of difficulty at the end of a day filled with difficult , straws. A sense of humour is at all times a delicate thing, and needs coaxing in face of monotony—and no one can deny that many a. housewife’s life is monotonous. Imagination plays a big part in humour. If you look in your dictionary you will find humuor defined as “jocose imagination.” Is it not the comedienne’s power to “imagine jocosely” that makes her a successful humorist? Her lines may be the wittiest ever written, bftt unless she has a waggish imagination she will render them as mere “dead sounds.” Buffoonery does not come naturally to women ; they do not see humour in exposing a fellow-being’s weak points to ridicule as men occasionally do. When men accuse women of lacking a sense of humour they often mean to _im.plv that it is a pity feminine patience is not more elastic with masculine idiosyncrasies. ■Wit and wisdom, says the old proverb, are like the seven stars, seldom seen together. Well, wisdom is a great possession, and women are wonderfully wise. Isn’t it bettor to have wisdom than the habit ot seeing life from the funny side?—The Daily Mail.