THE OCCUPATIONAL HUMOR of WHITE AMERICAN PRISON WORKERS and SOCIAL WORKERS a Dissertati

“IF YOU DON’T LAUGH YOU’LL CRY”: THE OCCUPATIONAL HUMOR OF WHITE AMERICAN PRISON WORKERS AND SOCIAL WORKERS A Dissertation presented to the Faculty of the Graduate School University of Missouri In Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree Doctor of Philosophy by CLAIRE SCHMIDT Dr. Elaine Lawless and Dr. Anand Prahlad, Dissertation Supervisors May 2013 © Copyright by Claire Schmidt All Rights Reserved The undersigned, appointed by the dean of the Graduate School, have examined the dissertation entitled "IF YOU DON'T LAUGH YOU'LL CRY": THE OCCUPATIONAL HUMOR OF WHITE AMERICAN PRISON WORKERS AND SOCIAL WORKERS presented by Claire Schmidt, a candidate for the degree of doctor of philosophy, and hereby certify that, in their opinion, it is worthy of acceptance. Professor Elaine Lawless Professor Anand Prahlad Professor Johanna Kramer Professor Richard Callahan For my family and friends who work so hard for so little thanks. ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS I have to thank so many people for their help and encouragement: my wonderful co-chairs Elaine Lawless and Anand Prahlad for sharing their time, kindness, insight, and expertise; John Foley, whose enthusiasm for my work as a medievalist, oral traditionalist, and folklorist and unexpected parenting advice are, and will continue to be, deeply missed; Dr. Johanna Kramer and Dr. Chip Callahan for graciously and good naturedly joining me on this weird dissertation ride; my generous, thoughtful and insightful collaborators, whom I dearly wish I could name and thank individually but it would violate anonymity and IRB approval; Lisa Higgins for her wisdom; Darcy Holtgrave, Constance Bailey, Jenni Spitulnik and most particularly Sarah Heston for the writing moral support; Laurel Schmidt for her tremendous and incalculable gift of time and energy and insight; Shelley Ingram for being the best EGSA mentor long after her obligations should rightfully have concluded, along with Willow Mullins and Todd Richardson, whose willingness to help and encourage a junior colleague is downright humanitarian; Rebecca Mouser, who has been there since the very first day; Anne Barker, for her expert and enthusiastic assistance in libraries and archives; Dr. George Justice, whose stint as DGS made all of this possible; Dr. James P. Leary and Dr. John D. Niles, who sent me down this road in the very first place; my wonderful colleagues in the Student Folklore Society and the English Graduate Student Association and the faculty of the University of Missouri Department of English, for all of the encouragement, kindness and support (both financial and moral!). I have also to thank my husband, Tom Heitmann, my daughter Olive Heitmann, my parents, Mark and Ann Schmidt, my sister Laurel Schmidt, my grandfather Richard Meyer, my grandfather Richard Schmidt, my sister-in-law-and-heart Laura Heitmann, my uncle Paul Meyer, my grandmother Joan Schmidt, my grandmother Judy Meyer, and my dear friend Christina Mattson, for their time, energy, and above all, their patience with me. ii TABLE OF CONTENTS ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS…………………………………………………………………ii ABSTRACT………………………………………………………………………………...vi Chapter INTRODUCTION…………………………………………………………………….1 PRELUDE: PRESERVATION: BECAUSE I CAN…………………………………10 1. SURVEY OF THE FIELD…………………………………………………………..35 Occupational Lore Ethical Ethnography Humor Studies 2. THE OCCUPATIONAL HUMOR OF WHITE WISCONSIN PRISON WORKERS…………………………………………………………………………..62 Being a Good CO Job Challenges Perception of Outsiders Prisons, Performance Arena, and Occupational Humor 3. “IF WE LIKE YOU WE’LL MESS WITH YOU!”: PRACTICAL JOKE NARRATIVES AMONG PRISON WORKERS…………………………97 Joking on the Boss Initiation Pranks Joking Between Friends Practical Jokes Outside of the Workplace Jokes Played on Inmates by Officers iii Jokes Played on Officers by Inmates Why Practical Jokes? 4. HUMOROUS VERBAL COMMUNICATION AMONG PRISON WORKERS....145 Humorous Retirement Rituals 5. UNLAUGHTER, CLASS, AND BOUNDARY MAINTENANCE……………….179 6. “EVEN SANTA’S GETTING SHOOK DOWN!” CORRECTIONAL OFFICERS, RELIGION AND THE HOLIDAYS……….………………………….………191 Christmas in Prison CO Christmas Letters What if you want to work on Thanksgiving? 7. THE OCCUPATIONAL HUMOR OF WHITE MIDWESTERN SOCIAL WORKERS………………………………….…………………………………219 Fieldwork with Social Workers Being a Good Social Worker Challenges of the Job Perceptions of Outsiders 8. PRACTICAL JOKE NARRATIVES AMONG SOCIAL WORKERS……………242 Practical Joking and Patients Practical Jokes on Bosses Joking Between Friends Initiatory Practical Jokes 9. SOCIAL WORKERS AND SICK HUMOR……………………………………….268 Humor Through Mimicking Clients Humor and Gender in Social Work iv 10. HUMOR, “TELLING PEOPLE,” AND LONG-TERM SUCCESS IN SOCIAL WORK……………………………………………………….…………………...302 CONCLUSION……………………………………………………………………………..322 WORKS CITED……………………………………………………………………………327 APPENDIX A: A SOCIAL WORKER FINALLY SNAPS……………………………………337 VITA………………………………………………………………………………………342 v “IF YOU DON’T LAUGH YOU’LL CRY”: THE OCCUPATIONAL HUMOR OF WHITE AMERICAN PRISON WORKERS AND SOCIAL WORKERS Claire Schmidt Dr. Elaine Lawless and Dr. Anand Prahlad, Dissertation Supervisors ABSTRACT Through original fieldwork, this dissertation compares narrative occupational humor of white American social workers to that of white American prison workers, concluding that both occupational groups use humor, both performed and oral, to negotiate conflict between work and home, to initiate new employees, to reinforce and police boundaries and occupational identity, to mediate aggressive impulses, and to express individual and group aesthetics that exist alongside institutional control. Humor is ubiquitous yet frequently dismissed as trivial, and easily misunderstood by outsiders. A more nuanced understanding of occupational humor of prison workers and social workers illuminates the role of aesthetics, taboo, communication and narrative in 21st century American labor. Using reciprocal and insider ethnographic methodology, this project argues that mainstream, middle class occupations have as much folklore worthy of study as the exotic, disenfranchized “others” historically romanticized by folklorists, anthropologists and other ethnographers. This project recontextualizes the role of art in labor by focusing on stigmatized middle-class professions, and denies “easy” understandings of prison workers and social workers. By making whiteness a visible and acknowledged ethnic category the study contributes to critical scholarship on race, humor, and work, while remaining firmly grounded in original insider ethnography. vi Introduction This dissertation is a comparative exploration of the occupational humor of prison workers1 and social workers. As Chapter 2 demonstrates, little scholarly attention has been paid to the ways these two professions use humor to negotiate their jobs. In fact, neither Folklore nor any other scholarly discipline outside the fields of Criminal Justice and Social Work have considered the occupational folklore of these groups. In this dissertation, I argue that the lack of critical scholarly attention to these fields stems from the historical preoccupation with people and occupations outside of the “mainstream” dominant culture. Thus, while physical jobs like lumberjacking and commercial fishing have received a great deal of attention from scholars (as have high-risk occupations, like firefighting and police work, and racially segregated workers like Pullman Porters), white collar, middle class professional jobs have been overlooked by scholars concerned with occupational folklore. As I will argue throughout this project, the failure to look critically at the folklore of the educated, professional “mainstream” reinforces the historically racist and classist ideology that folklore is something that “other people” have, not something that “normal” people have. 1 I use the term “prison workers” in concert with the term “correctional officers” because while many of the people I interviewed for this project were correctional officers, others were not. I have interviewed doctors, nurses, secretaries, social workers and administrators in addition to correctional officers, and since many of these individuals used the term “prison” to describe to me, an outsider, where they worked, I have come to the conclusion that this is one of the ways that people who work in prisons describe their work to those who do not work in prisons. 1 As a folklorist, I engage with the folklore of the occupational groups that surrounded me in my childhood and continue to shape my worldview today. As the preface explores in much greater depth, I chose to work with these occupational groups because I come from a family and community made up of unusually high proportions of social workers and prison workers. Both my grandfathers worked in prisons: one was a white collar social worker, the other was a blue collar correctional officer, or “guard.” My mother’s best friend is a correctional officer; my godfather is a correctional officer; my uncle is a parole agent and former “guard;” my sister is a social worker, as is my sister in law. My parents have an extended network of friends around whom I grew up, and that network contains even more prison workers and social workers, all of whom contributed to the development of my own personal sense of humor. I have chosen to interview individuals to whom I have social ties. Thus, I interview family members and friends, and the friends and family of my friends and family. I have endeavored to maintain a limit of one degree of separation between

Load more