Using humor to mask and normalize hatred and bigotry has a long, ugly history.

An introduction to the history and theory of racist humor and the social role it plays in Western societies.

There were, in fact, women in the audiences of Shakespeare’s plays. Some came to watch; others to sell their wares; others to get on stage themselves.

If thieves’ cant—a language known only to criminals—was the Devil’s cabinet, bourgeois society couldn’t help but peep inside.