Please note that this event is hybrid and will be in-person and on Zoom. To receive the series link, subscribe to our events mailing list.
This presentation explores how stand-up comedy interrupts gendered orders in Zimbabwe, combining theoretical discussions of Homi K. Bhabha and Judith Butler, with empirical material from Zimbabwe, focusing particularly on sex-jokes. Building on extensive fieldwork material from Zimbabwe in 2018 and 2019 I argue that stand-up comedy can interrupt gender norms that limit women’s role in the political life of the nation. In Zimbabwe women are often displaced from power through references to their sexuality. Looking at sex-talk in Zimbabwean stand-up illustrates how comedians display these narratives in ambivalent ways; (re)iterating an identity that is both male and female, asserting that they are ‘ladies’ even when they do things that ‘whores’ are understood to do, and failing to generate the laughter that is expected of them. Exploring how Zimbabwean stand-up comedians address sex, a topic that is generally silenced in public thus draws attention to how the subject can act through norms, narratives and discourses.