"My friend helped me open this page in 2019," the owner of Girls Banter told Bored Panda in a DM. "I just wanted to make people laugh with memes and other funny stuff. My friend has since passed away and I miss her dearly," the creator shares. "I carried my page all through lockdown, which helped cheer [up] myself, my family and friends, and lots of followers."
The owner of the page says that Girls Banter experienced a boom in followers this July. Before, the follower count for the page was 108k, and about six weeks ago it suddenly went up. "Over an eight day period I gained 93k followers, so my followers stand at over 201k," the creator gushes.
"They are all amazing, we have such a good laugh. I have so much respect for all my followers and I appreciate them so much because if I can make one person smile and laugh, my work is done. But I'm managing to do that for over 201k of them. It's also down to the memes; I make some and others I share. I enjoy making people laugh," the creator concludes.
What does it even mean to be a woman? Having or lacking certain body parts? Having specific personality traits? There were 7.95 billion people in the world in 2022 and 3.95 billion of them were women. Each is vastly different from the last, especially in their sense of humor.
In 2019, Teen Vogue asked 17 women what being a woman means to them. Every lady had something different to say. To one, being a woman meant "being gentle while still being firm." Another said: "Being a woman means I can be anything and everything I want to be."
A lady from New York shared: "I believe being a woman means knowing you are not alone; that all around the world, women are, have, and will rise above any definition, using knowledge, strength, confidence, and passion."
When it comes to things people find funny, is there a difference between men and women? Is there anything that makes women's humor unique? Apparently, men and women generally can find different things funny. A 1991 study found that men are more into slapstick, active humor and hostile jokes. Women, on the other hand, preferred self-deprecating humor and sharing funny jokes.
A study in 2023 also sought to understand whether men and women have different humor preferences. The researchers didn't find any major differences, but the men did like situational and visual jokes over the rest. Women, however, preferred jokes about domestic situations and political commentary.
A 2005 study also found that gender affects how a person perceives humor. Psychiatrist Allan Reiss from Stanford University led the research and found that women's brains responded to funny stimuli more than men's. They showed a set of cartoons to each participant, and when women got the joke's punchline, they were more pleased about it than men.
Yet the roles reversed when they were in each other's company. When women are in the presence of men, they tend to tone down the self-deprecation and joke by teasing them. Men, on the other hand, tease and try to one-up each other more when they're by themselves. When they're in the company of women, they turn the jokes and teasing on themselves.
When women are looking for a partner, they don't particularly like dirty jokes. One study compared how women perceive men's dating profiles with crude jokes and without them. Those who wanted a long-term relationship rated higher those men who didn't use dirty jokes in their profile. Those who had more relaxed attitudes toward casual sex, however, preferred the crude jokesters.
Interestingly, humor plays an important role in attraction and flirting. Numerous studies have found that women prefer a partner with a good sense of humor or who can make them laugh. Evolutionary psychologists say that's because humor means intellect and strong genes. And women, who are more selective because of the burdens of pregnancy, view being funny as a genetic benefit.
