The humorous stylization of "new" women and men and conservative others

Abstract

In this article I will discuss how a circle of middle-aged academics recreates its moral order of new gender standards by a consonant staging of the "others" and the "self" – "them" vs. "us". The progressive self as well as the conservative other with whom the self is confronted are exaggeratedly stylized in a similarly disjunctive way over the course of various stories. Hyper-stylization sharpens a juxtaposition of social types which is humorously overdrawn. The comical performance becomes a factor of amusement for the group.