While the American campaign is in full swing since Joe Biden’s withdrawal, the new Democratic candidate Kamala Harris is subjected to recurring mockery from her opponents concerning her laughter, which they consider unrestrained and too expressive. At a rally on August 20, Donald Trump harangued the crowd by saying about the current vice president: “Have you ever watched her laugh? You can tell a lot from a laugh. She’s crazy.”. Such petty attacks are familiar to the Republican candidate, who often uses mockery to belittle his opponents.
For academic Mathieu Letourneuxso it’s no wonder that D. Trump is focusing on Kamala Harris’ laughter in this way: “I think that in politics, attacking someone through laughter is wanting to delegitimize them. Laughter is not serious, so it is not a political virtue, at least in our imaginations. The second point is that there is perhaps a slightly misogynistic dimension to attacking a woman for her laughter. (…) What is disturbing about a woman’s laughter is that she must be elegant, she must control herself, a woman who laughs is always suspected of being hysterical. And when Donald Trump calls her crazy, we feel that he is not far from calling her hysterical.”
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But as Mr. Letourneux explains, if Kamala Harris’ laughter is today the subject of mockery on the part of Republicans, these attacks against her could quickly become an asset. Because laughter can be perceived as a positive element when it is associated with a person in the midst of success: “Let us remember, for example, Kennedy’s toothy smile, which was one of those elements of strength, of youth, of triumphant youth. I am not sure that Kamala Harris’ laugh is really a flaw. It makes her likeable in a dynamic of conquest.”
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