US presidential election: Does Kamala Harris laugh too much?

Laughter has its own politics. Several American Presidents were known for their bubbling laughter. Abraham Lincoln had a distinctive laugh. Theodore Roosevelt made a bellowing sound. Andrew Jackson’s biographer wrote his laughter could be heard across rooms. Ronald Reagan laughed too, when he wanted to. But Donald Trump feels Kamala Harris’s laughter is “weird” and too much. At the root of it, he is questioning her fitness to be President. And it hasn’t remained a laughing matter.

There are several questions. Does the way one laughs makes one unfit for high office? Is there a wider gender bias in how laughing out aloud in public places is perceived?

When we laugh, the world laughs with us, it is said. Laughter is contagious. It conveys joy. It also takes courage to laugh with abandon, as there’s always the risk of being judged. Laughter, the Kamala way, can only happen to a person who expresses freely without fear, deception or repression.

Harris and her campaign consisted of coconut tree memes and the music was filled with laughter. Her running mate, Tim Walz, knows that Harris and his campaign are bringing joy to the nation.

But she is being scrutinised at every step. Her pant-suits to her race to her laughter, all are fair game. The question — Does Kamala Harris laugh too much for a President?

WHAT DONALD TRUMP THINKS OF LAUGHTER? NIECE LETS SECRET OUT

Kamala Harris, the Vice President and Democratic candidate, is facing Donald Trump, a former president and Republican bulldozer.

Trump’s niece and critic Mary Trump spoke about her uncle’s view on laughter.

For uncle Trump, “laughing is to make yourself vulnerable, it’s to let down your guard in some way, it’s to lose a little bit of control,” Mary Trump told Slate. “And that can’t happen [for Trump]. That is not allowed to happen,” she added.

It is no surprise he is a critic of Kamala Harris’s laughter. This is a campaign between Trump, who has a smirk about others, and Harris, who laughs like no one is watching.

But Harris is aware people are watching, and she knows what she is doing.

Harris was careful not to put it on the political stage before it was time. During the early days of her vice-presidency, she knew of the conservative coverage she might face.

She even asked her advisors if she should laugh in public at all or even show any sense of humour, says a New York Times report.

They advised her that laughing, a part of her authentic self, would help her connect with American people.

Despite a thumbs up from the advisors, Kamala Harris treaded cautiously on her laughter. Her entire campaign saw her laughing but the laughter was spaced out. Added with issues like abortion rights and foreign policy, the laughter became a part of a carefully honed personality.

KAMALA HARRIS, LAUGHTER AND WOMEN

Donald Trump, ready to beat her on the battlefield of opinions and electoral politics, was still quick to notice it.

“I call her Laughing Kamala. You ever watched her laugh? She’s crazy. You know, you can tell a lot by a laugh. No, she’s crazy. She’s nuts.”

“Crazy”, “nuts” and “Laughing Kamala.” This is an attack on whether she is fit to be the President of the US.

The far-right in the US has also asked similar questions.

“The woman continually laughs this ridiculous laugh,” far-right commentator Teena McQueen said on Sky News Australia in 2023. “I don’t know what drugs she’s on, or what makes her so happy all the time, but she’s an absolute disgrace, and she hasn’t done women any favours.”

There is a reason for this political disgust with Harris’s laugh.

Actress and comedy show judge, famous for her own boisterous laughter, Archana Puran Singh spoke to IndiaToday.in about women and the issue with their loud laughs across the world.

“Isn’t it highly sexist to only frown upon a woman with a loud laugh? There are men with booming laughs and that has never been cause for concern. So, if people are worried about a woman laughing loudly, it’s really their own problem. Let them shut their ears,” Archana Puran Singh said when asked why women with loud laughter are frowned upon.

When women laugh on screen and in public spaces, they assert their right to an “emotional response” so far not assigned to them. This is a space to express “anger, resistance, solidarity and joy, says Kathleen Rowe Karlyn in her book ‘The Unruly Woman: Gender and the Genres of Laughter.’

This issue with Harris’s laughter should also be seen in light of laughter as a transgressive act. In some of the most authoritarian regimes, such as Taliban-ruled Afghanistan, women are prohibited from laughing.

KAMALA HARRIS KEEPS LAUGHING, AS CRITICS CRY HOARSE

Laughter is a form of self-expression too.

“Meanwhile, the woman is laughing because she’s having a jolly good time, which is wonderful; those people who are frowning at her should learn to enjoy life like she evidently is, and have a good laugh themselves instead of bothering about her and her loud laugh,” Archana Puran Singh to IndiaToday.in on Kamala Harris’s laughter.

In the biggest speech of her life, at her presidential nomination acceptance at the Democratic National Convention (DNC), Harris entered laughing.

If there was a laughmeter to measure Harris’s laughter frequency, it would have shown that there was no dip in its readings. She’s laughing her heart out, even as critics are crying hoarse.

Democrats have made her laughter all about joy and fun.

“The thing we like about hard work is we have fun doing hard work,” she said in her Michigan campaign. “Because we know what we stand for. When you know what you stand for, you know what you fight for.”

Her running mate Tim Walz is also aware of the beauty of joy.

“The one thing I will not forgive them for is they try to steal the joy from this country,” said Walz. “You know what? Our next president brings joy. She emanates joy.”

This larger-than-life joy of the Harris-Walz campaign is reaching the American people. Trump and his allies are scared.

Tony Fabrizio, a former Trump pollster, told reporters gathered in Florida that the joy of the Harris campaign of “a kind of out-of-body experience where we have suspended reality for a couple of weeks.”

LAUGHTER AND WOMEN IN POLITICS IN INDIA

Women’s laughter has been scrutinised worldwide. This is also true for India.

“Renuka Chowdhury, who was then a Rajya Sabha MP, was first admonished by Venkaiah Naidu and then lampooned by Prime Minister Narendra Modi in the House in 2018. Modi had used a Ramayana serial reference to ask Naidu not to stop Chowdhury,” author-journalist Nidhi Sharma tells India Today.in. Sharma is the author of ‘She, the Leader: Women in Indian Politics’.

Women politicians face far more scrutiny for how they conduct themselves than men do.

“It is a reflection of the larger gender biases that are prevalent in society. Like it was alright for Naidu to have publicly asked Chowdhury to lose weight. Though women MPs protested, these remain acceptable as part of the larger discourse,” Sharma added.

This scrutiny is widespread even inside Parliament in India.

“While researching for my book ‘She, The Leader’, women politicians across party lines say they face this at their workplace inside Parliament, which is the highest decision-making body in India,” said Nidhi Sharma.

A WOMAN WHO LAUGHS TOO MUCH, UNPRESIDENTIAL?

“I think there is a long list of what could be considered “unpresidential”, but for the first time, a loud laugh is being added to that list, just because a woman is standing for President of the United States. A laugh is just a person’s expression of joy and delight. And what is an “unpresidential” laugh I wonder,” said Archana Puran Singh when asked if Kamala Harris’s laughter made her “unpresidential” like critics suggest.

Joy is infectious and so is laughter. It aims and reaches straight to the heart.

US media outlets, too, are having fun, and some laughs. To Trump’s attack, “Have you seen her laugh?”, there are headlines like “Have you seen Trump laugh?”

Harris is offering an open field.

The judgement of her laughter could be done away with. The spotlight should come on policy, which isn’t a laughing matter.

“We would be better off considering those qualifications in her that would impact her ability to make such decisions as “presidential” or “unpresidential” rather than putting her “loud laugh” under the spotlight,” Archana Puran Singh told IndiaToday.in.

The question if Kamala Harris laughs too much is settled. The question could be — will she have the last laugh?

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