THANGO NTWASA | Social media satire reinforces gender imbalance by stealth

In the past few years we have shared laughs and likes with some of the funniest content creators on the internet.

Whether it was the intentional antics of Jonas Lekganyane’s Noko Mashaba on YouTube or the unintentional humour as seen with the late Olpha Selepe, best known as Gee Six Five.

Sporting hundreds of trends and subcultures, social media funnies have become a staple you just cannot escape. One of those subsects are the many men who dress up as women for a viral hit.

From Lasizwe to ­­­­Primo, we have all had a good chuckle over content creators with a sense of humour and a good set of wigs.

But at a time when gender equality is making very small steps to a change, are these videos just innocent fun or playing a pivotal role in holding women back?

Stereotypes are not all bad at all. In fact in psychology it’s understood as a means of simplifying the way we think about something. 

But whether you are on the receiving end or the person holding preconceived ideas of people, stereotypes can cause a lot of harm.

It perpetuates prejudice, hate and can gas others up towards much more dangerous misdemeanours.

The female characters they take on are often portrayed with harmful ideas of how women behave.

One of my favourites was from a TikToker who was relaying how he gossips by playing a housekeeper running a long way to tell another with the sound of a news report bulletin as his score.

There’s also Ikhwezi FM’s Simthande Myeza, who has been leaving fans of his Maka Tha character in stitches. Their light-hearted nature is effective albeit adding to an already problematic domain.

This is a trend that lacks the perspective of actual women – so where are they?

You are more likely to find men going viral for being feminine and funny then you are a woman, but those who do have been quite dominant.

Take Khanyisa Madubula, who has drummed up a number of characters who are relatable.

This also doesn’t mean that the characters she plays are all highly moral bores but can be flawed members we encounter on a regular basis.

Lesego Tlhabi has become something of a standard when it comes to satire. The star takes on her wigs to bring the hysterical character Coconut Kelz to life. Built to show the hypocrisies of racism in relation to current affairs, Tlhabi has made Kelz a household snob.

Without depending on stereotyping men, Tlhabi’s jokes are still effective through her own scripting and humour.

This also persists in Hollywood with the likes of Shenneh played by Martin Lawrence in his eponymous sitcom who he portrays in a similar fashion of today’s TikTokers.

Eddie Murphy’s Resputa from Norbit is an abusive partner who plays into the damaging trope of dark-skinned women.

Additionally, in the comedy setting, her abusive behaviour isn’t a lesson but it is treated as a personality trait that cannot be reformed or redeemed.

There is also the issue of Tyler Perry centring the source of his main characters’ problems on one of the female characters in his movies as seen in Temptation and Family Reunion. Madea never gets this treatment and is unfortunately played exclusively by Perry himself.

The same can be said for Leon Schuster’s Mama Jack, a black face character few questioned but many praised.

To top it all off, much like Big Mama, the deplorable character he plays earns the trust of his love interest.

Not because he walked a mile in a woman’s shoes and understands their plight but because he was able to don a skirt and still use brute force to save herself from her preceding toxic relationship.

Much like the massive after-effects of black face and how it has left indelible ideas on generations of people who are not black, stories that are written, produced and played by men have had a lasting effect on how other people view women.

We take on subconscious biases of people when we watch fictional works that make a mockery of these flawed points of view.

So before you press play and hit the like button, think about the possible repercussions of what you watch and how it might shape your thinking. Isn’t it high time we let women tell funny jokes about how it feels to be women?