How often have you opened up a text message from a friend or acquaintance to find a slew of laughing emoticons prompting that what's to follow is funny - only to find a sexist slur being passed off as a joke? #NotAJoke is a campaign in collaboration with Avis Viswanathan and Vaani Anand to call out what is very clearly sexism, verbal gender-based violence and discrimination. As part of this campaign, we endeavour to offer up a tool that can be used to determine whether a piece is a joke or a case of sexism, and this is followed up by a database of sexist slurs that are doing the rounds in the name of jokes.
Tool to evaluate a piece to see if it is a joke or sexism
The table below offers up a breakdown of the kind of questions you need to ask yourself to determine if something falls under a joke or a case of sexism. If you find yourself answering "Yes" to a majority of questions under the Discriminatory, Stereotypical and Objectification categories, and "No" to a majority of questions under the Bechdel and Mako Mori Tests, you have on your hands a classic case of sexism.
*Developed by Kirthi Jayakumar
Tool to evaluate a piece to see if it is a joke or sexism
The table below offers up a breakdown of the kind of questions you need to ask yourself to determine if something falls under a joke or a case of sexism. If you find yourself answering "Yes" to a majority of questions under the Discriminatory, Stereotypical and Objectification categories, and "No" to a majority of questions under the Bechdel and Mako Mori Tests, you have on your hands a classic case of sexism.
The Database
We've put together a database of "jokes" that are doing the rounds online and offline, but are truly cases of blatant sexism. If you would like to contribute to the database, fill out this form.
Click here to view the database.