The Ethics of Schadenfreude
You might have seen a video clip making the rounds on the intertubes these days; two Dutch television hosts, Dennis Storm and Valerio Zeno, underwent muscular electrostimulation intended to simulate labor pains.
Sarah Gates explains, for The Huffington Post:
Upon seeing the abbreviated clip, naturally the first thing I did was send it to a female friend, who responded that she laughed herself silly. After all, the question of labor pain regularly arises in the American "war of the sexes", and I'm quite certain ours is not the only culture to hear the point whenever someone asserts that women are inherently weak.
And, of course, my friend expressed the usual caveat, that it is not appropriate to laugh at other people's suffering.
Under most circumstances, I agree, but in this case, the only thing I could come up with was: Well, they did this to themselves, willingly and freely, and they're comedy hosts, after all, so I think it's okay to laugh at their agony on this occasion.
But there is also a part of me that says, "There is no way they could have known what they were getting themselves into."
The HuffPo clip via AOL is only a minute and a half long. There is a longer version (9.43) available via YouTube:
And, hey, they're trying to laugh their way through it, too.
In the States, at least, there is a tremendous degree of schadenfreude that comes with watching the video; these guys are clearly experiencing severe discomfort, exponentially beyond their expectation. Their production crew is laughing; Zeno and Storm are trying to laugh.
But they're clearly in pain.
Ordinarily, I would agree with my friend that we should not laugh at other people's suffering, but the video, which is categorized as "Nonprofits & Activism", is ostensibly intended to make certain points.
Thus, I would suggest that laughter and a limited degree of schadenfreude—after all, they did not get the full monty—is more than simply acceptable, but actually warranted.
In 2009, Dr. Andrew Rochford underwent a more intensive version of the simulation; the best summary I've found yet comes via Mommyish:
And it is strange. To the one, comedy is cruelty, as playwright Neil Simon once put it. To the other, this can be problematic. We become accustomed to laughing at other people's misfortunes. It's morbid. It's cruel. And sometimes we laugh in the face of absurdity instead of at the death of another, but not always. Sometimes certain things are just funny, despite the cruelty of laughing. And that, I think, is what my friend refers to, and I acknowledge.
But these guys got themselves into it, and seem to have figured out the moral to the story. I think it's okay to laugh, especially as sometimes the cruelty of humor is often a potent communicative tool, just as many of us laughed at the comeuppance of a conservative American radio host who allowed himself to be waterboarded in order to make the point that it's not torture. He lasted only a few seconds without experiencing the full effect. And, yes, as this man was recovering from the experience, clearly shaken, we all laughed. And cruelly. But, I suppose, the schadenfreude also served a useful purpose, as one advocate of waterboarding came to understand what he had really been pushing.
Just as Storm and Zeno's suffering, or that of Dr. Rochford, transformed a person's outlook.
But the broader question remains: Does that justify our mirth? Does it justify our self-satisfaction and gratification?
Is it proper to laugh at other people's suffering? Obviously, I would say yes, but I have yet to figure out what the boundaries actually are.
____________________
Notes:
Gates, Sarah. "Men Undergo Simulated Labor Contractions To Experience Pains Of Childbirth For Dutch TV Show". The Huffington Post. January 17, 2013. HuffingtonPost.com. January 20, 2013. http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/...ions-guinea-pigs-dutch-tv-show_n_2498088.html
Vawter, Eve. "Dr. Andrew Rochford Undergoes Labor Experiment, Learns Childbirth Hurts". Mommyish. September 26, 2012. Mommyish.com. January 20, 2013. http://www.mommyish.com/2012/09/26/dr-andrew-rochford-663/
You might have seen a video clip making the rounds on the intertubes these days; two Dutch television hosts, Dennis Storm and Valerio Zeno, underwent muscular electrostimulation intended to simulate labor pains.
Sarah Gates explains, for The Huffington Post:
In a video clip from the show, Storm and Zeno reveal why they took on this particular challenge, explaining that giving birth is the worst pain there is. However, since men can't feel labor pains, the two men used electro-stimulations to simulate contractions so they could experience the distress for themselves.
"Do you think the pain will make us scream," Zeno asks before the shocks begin.
One of the nurses responds bluntly: "Yes, it definitely will."
She wasn't lying.
Propped on a bed with electrodes attached to their abdomens, Storm and Zeno last through two hours of the simulated contractions. Though they try to laugh through the strain, the men appear to be in complete misery as they double over and clutch pillows tightly.
While the time span of the simulation was much shorter than many instances of real-life labor, Storm and Zeno appeared to get the full experience. In the end, Zeno sums up the challenge as torture and wonders if he wants his wife to go through the same pain.
"Do you think the pain will make us scream," Zeno asks before the shocks begin.
One of the nurses responds bluntly: "Yes, it definitely will."
She wasn't lying.
Propped on a bed with electrodes attached to their abdomens, Storm and Zeno last through two hours of the simulated contractions. Though they try to laugh through the strain, the men appear to be in complete misery as they double over and clutch pillows tightly.
While the time span of the simulation was much shorter than many instances of real-life labor, Storm and Zeno appeared to get the full experience. In the end, Zeno sums up the challenge as torture and wonders if he wants his wife to go through the same pain.
Upon seeing the abbreviated clip, naturally the first thing I did was send it to a female friend, who responded that she laughed herself silly. After all, the question of labor pain regularly arises in the American "war of the sexes", and I'm quite certain ours is not the only culture to hear the point whenever someone asserts that women are inherently weak.
And, of course, my friend expressed the usual caveat, that it is not appropriate to laugh at other people's suffering.
Under most circumstances, I agree, but in this case, the only thing I could come up with was: Well, they did this to themselves, willingly and freely, and they're comedy hosts, after all, so I think it's okay to laugh at their agony on this occasion.
But there is also a part of me that says, "There is no way they could have known what they were getting themselves into."
The HuffPo clip via AOL is only a minute and a half long. There is a longer version (9.43) available via YouTube:
[video=youtube;7ZRIoZt-KP4]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7ZRIoZt-KP4[/video]
And, hey, they're trying to laugh their way through it, too.
In the States, at least, there is a tremendous degree of schadenfreude that comes with watching the video; these guys are clearly experiencing severe discomfort, exponentially beyond their expectation. Their production crew is laughing; Zeno and Storm are trying to laugh.
But they're clearly in pain.
Ordinarily, I would agree with my friend that we should not laugh at other people's suffering, but the video, which is categorized as "Nonprofits & Activism", is ostensibly intended to make certain points.
Thus, I would suggest that laughter and a limited degree of schadenfreude—after all, they did not get the full monty—is more than simply acceptable, but actually warranted.
In 2009, Dr. Andrew Rochford underwent a more intensive version of the simulation; the best summary I've found yet comes via Mommyish:
From Bust:
Dr. Rochford has three children of his own and he wanted to undergo the experiment to see what his wife went through giving birth and to see if men or women have a higher pain threshold.
He exclaims in the video that he “hates contractions” and that the experiment is “almost too much to bear.”
After calling it quits just past the three-and-a-half-hour mark, Rochford apologized to all the women out there, including his wife, for thinking he understood what it was like to go through labor.
And the best quote of all:
(Vawter)
Guided by an obstetrician, Dr. Rochford decided to personally undergo simulated labor pains through low-voltage electrodes attached to his abdomen. The voltage was carefully timed by a physiotherapist to mimic the contraction patterns of a woman giving birth for the first time.
Only two hours into “labor”, Dr. Rochford ranked his pain level as “an eight out of ten” and immediately accepted nitrous oxide to relieve the pain. At three and a half hours, he was wrung out–and his smiling (female!) guides informed him that most women would have to continue laboring for another nine and a half hours.
Only two hours into “labor”, Dr. Rochford ranked his pain level as “an eight out of ten” and immediately accepted nitrous oxide to relieve the pain. At three and a half hours, he was wrung out–and his smiling (female!) guides informed him that most women would have to continue laboring for another nine and a half hours.
Dr. Rochford has three children of his own and he wanted to undergo the experiment to see what his wife went through giving birth and to see if men or women have a higher pain threshold.
He exclaims in the video that he “hates contractions” and that the experiment is “almost too much to bear.”
After calling it quits just past the three-and-a-half-hour mark, Rochford apologized to all the women out there, including his wife, for thinking he understood what it was like to go through labor.
And the best quote of all:
“Men of the world, you have no idea. Leave it to the women. Forget the whole pain threshold debate. We have nothing. Women win. Men don’t. The end.”
(Vawter)
And it is strange. To the one, comedy is cruelty, as playwright Neil Simon once put it. To the other, this can be problematic. We become accustomed to laughing at other people's misfortunes. It's morbid. It's cruel. And sometimes we laugh in the face of absurdity instead of at the death of another, but not always. Sometimes certain things are just funny, despite the cruelty of laughing. And that, I think, is what my friend refers to, and I acknowledge.
But these guys got themselves into it, and seem to have figured out the moral to the story. I think it's okay to laugh, especially as sometimes the cruelty of humor is often a potent communicative tool, just as many of us laughed at the comeuppance of a conservative American radio host who allowed himself to be waterboarded in order to make the point that it's not torture. He lasted only a few seconds without experiencing the full effect. And, yes, as this man was recovering from the experience, clearly shaken, we all laughed. And cruelly. But, I suppose, the schadenfreude also served a useful purpose, as one advocate of waterboarding came to understand what he had really been pushing.
Just as Storm and Zeno's suffering, or that of Dr. Rochford, transformed a person's outlook.
But the broader question remains: Does that justify our mirth? Does it justify our self-satisfaction and gratification?
Is it proper to laugh at other people's suffering? Obviously, I would say yes, but I have yet to figure out what the boundaries actually are.
____________________
Notes:
Gates, Sarah. "Men Undergo Simulated Labor Contractions To Experience Pains Of Childbirth For Dutch TV Show". The Huffington Post. January 17, 2013. HuffingtonPost.com. January 20, 2013. http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/...ions-guinea-pigs-dutch-tv-show_n_2498088.html
Vawter, Eve. "Dr. Andrew Rochford Undergoes Labor Experiment, Learns Childbirth Hurts". Mommyish. September 26, 2012. Mommyish.com. January 20, 2013. http://www.mommyish.com/2012/09/26/dr-andrew-rochford-663/
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