Romanian college students' reactions to sexist humor: description and predictors

Abstract

Sexist humor is pervasive in Romanian culture, as it is in many others. Adopting a social constructionist perspective, we examined the reactions of Romanian college students to three sexist jokes, as well as predictors of those reactions. Women, respondents with a feminist identity and those who identified with the targets of the jokes were least likely to react favorably to the jokes. A considerable proportion of the participants believed that sexist jokes carry misogynist messages and negatively influence women's social status. We conclude that even among this population of students who have not been significantly exposed to feminist discourse, sexist humor is sometimes resisted, rather than being viewed as harmless and inconsequential.

Keywords:

• sexist humor
• Romania
• constructionism
• predictors
• gender
• feminist identity