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    Pleasure, Play, and Politics
    A History of Humor in U.S. Feminism

    Kirsten Leng (Author)

    9781496239532

    Hardback, published 1 January 2026

    284 pages, 4 photographs, 15 illustrations, index
    22.9 x 15.2 x 1.5 cm, 0.666 kg

    "This is not your mother's humor—or maybe it is, and you just didn't know it? Revealing the hidden history of second- and third-wave comedic pranksters like Flo Kennedy, the Lesbian Avengers, and the punk trio the Yeastie Girlz, among so many others, Kirsten Leng brings into sharp relief a rich history of humor and the unconventional feminism that continues to transform the body and body politic. Leng's study of feminist humor shows us not only where we have been but where we need to be and how to get there."—Julie Willett, coauthor of Uproarious: How Feminists and Other Subversive Comics Speak Truth

    “This critical rewriting of feminist historiography puts humor front and center. Kirsten Leng writes with the witty aplomb of the activists at the heart of her path-breaking study, modeling their sense of urgency and bringing feminist humor alive on the page.”—J. Finley, author of Sass: Black Women’s Humor and Humanity
    “Pleasure, Play, and Politics makes a significant contribution to feminist history, cultural studies, humor studies, pop culture studies, and gender studies. It is a joy to read a book of rigorous scholarship that is also lively and enjoyable. This is a brilliant and much-needed book.”—Linda Mizejewski, author of Pretty/Funny: Women Comedians and Body Politics
    “Kirsten Leng rewrites the history of U.S. feminism and what a blast it is! While the misogynist and the patriarch rant and rail against the feminist who can’t take a joke, the joke is on them. Feminists’ dirty little secrets, their weapons of choice, the fuel of their politics, the fumes of their anger, are lit by laughter. . . . This is a groundbreaking work of scholarship and a contagious history of fun. At the end of reading this book, one could only hope for more chapters from a future of feminism to come.”—Cynthia Willett, coauthor of Uproarious: How Feminists and Other Subversive Comics Speak Truth
    “When the state of politics appears as glum as ever, Kirsten Leng’s book serves as an important reminder of the long history of feminist fun. Laughter may be fleeting, but this book aggregates its ephemera as evidence of activist pasts to be gleefully built upon.”—Jed Samer, author of Lesbian Potentiality and Feminist Media in the 1970s

    Pleasure, Play, and Politics is the first book to examine the roles humor played in U.S. feminism during the late twentieth century. Based on extensive archival research, it brings to light the stunning, moving, and frankly hilarious ways feminists have used satire, irony, and spectacle as they worked to build a better world. The story it tells includes activism and music, political mobilization and cartooning, stand-up comedy and demands for change.

    Kirsten Leng explores the ways culture and politics feed one another and shows how humor contributed to movement-building by changing hearts and minds, creating and maintaining a sense of community beyond a single issue, and sustaining activists over the long haul. The fascinating individuals, groups, and objects examined here—including the sex workers’ rights group COYOTE, the Guerrilla Girls, Florynce Kennedy, and the Lesbian Avengers—don’t just provide entertaining anecdotes or unsettle lazy assumptions that feminists are perennially dour and censorious: they offer a lesson or two for contemporary feminists and social justice activists. Taken together, they remind us that laughter can move us, that humor and anger can coexist, and that play and pleasure have a place in struggle.

    List of Illustrations
    Acknowledgments
    Introduction: Recovering the History of Humor in U.S. Feminism
    Part 1. Humor and Feminist Activism
    1. “Laugh a Lot and Sing a Lot”: Kicking Ass with Flo Kennedy
    2. Turning Tricks and Throwing Balls: COYOTE and Carnivalesque Politics
    3. Sardonic Feminism: The Guerrilla Girls’ Insurgent Irony
    4. Humor, Rage, and Spectacle: The Lesbian Avengers’ Fearless Fumerism
    Part 2. Humor and Feminist Culture
    5. Feminist Spaces for Feminist Stand-Up: Women’s Music and Comedy Festivals
    6. Identity, Politics, and Community: Queer-Feminist Cartoonists
    7. Parody, Pleasure, and Desire: The Yeastie Girlz Play with Punk Culture
    Conclusion: Humor in Troubled Times
    Notes
    Bibliography
    Index

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