Ego , almost an alien force invading her psychology : ‘ the peals of laughter reverberated in Nnu Ego ’ s brain , as something out of place , outof-the-ordinary ’ ( Emecheta , The Joys of Motherhood , 2008 , p . 73 ). The phrase ‘ out of place ’ if used alone could refer to the fact that one feels incapable of optimism and joy when grieving , a natural and universal feeling . However , coupled with the phrase ‘ out-of-the-ordinary ’ the power of laughter is presented as a subversive force . Michael Billig writes that Freud believed ‘ rebelling against the demands of social order ’ ( Billig , ‘ Freud and the Language of Humour ’, 2002 , p . 452 ) to be one of the rudimentary functions of humour :
"[ T ] here is a fundamental conflict between the demands of social life and our instinctual urges [...] Jokes , like dreams and slips of the tongue , bear the traces of repressed desires [...] As Freud wrote in a later essay , ‘ humour is not resigned , it is rebellious ." ( Billig , p . 452 )
Humour is out of place in Nnu Ego ’ s psychology because it indicates a joy that does not originate from successful motherhood . Just for a moment , it inspires in Nnu Ego the unearthing of a sense of self that does not conform to the label of mother and hints at repressed desires for more than just procreation . In this way , Emecheta presents the joy found in shared laughter as subversive , almost devious , a way of resisting the violence of societal expectations .
Such rebellion is emphasised when Ato encourages Nnu Ego to gossip about their husbands . After declaring that Nnu Ego ’ s husband , Nnaife calls her a ‘ mad woman ’ ( Emecheta , p . 75 ) Ato responds by calling Nnaife a ‘ fat fufu dough of a man ’ ( Emecheta , p . 75 ). Such a humorous insult is a gesture of comradeship . Secretly humiliating Nnaife temporarily reduces the power of the patriarchal domination the husband embodies in the domestic lives of both women . Nnaife ’ s misogyny becomes the source material for both humour and female bonding . This is the moment that Ato ’ s joy finally breaks through to Nnu Ego and she cannot ‘ help laughing almost as loudly as her friend ’ ( Emecheta , p . 75 ). Audre Lorde reflects on the significance of female joy as resistance to patriarchal domination in ‘ Uses of the Erotic .’ She defines the erotic as more than just sexual . It refers more generally to female pleasure , ‘ a resource within each of us [...] firmly rooted in the power of our unexpressed , unrecognised feeling ’ ( Lorde , ‘ Uses of the Erotic : the Erotic as Power ’, 2017 , p . 22 ). Lorde theorises that such feeling is often repressed within women who live in patriarchal societies , but if discovered can be ‘ a considered source of power and information within our lives ’ ( Lorde , p . 22 ). When friends invite Nnu Ego to share their joy , she is given a glimpse of her independent intuition , which whilst never fully ignited teems with possibility . Joy offers a momentary escapism from violence , but if pursued could offer the agency she needs to permanently escape . Emecheta herself declared that “[ A woman ] must explore her individuality . […] It is immoral for a woman to subjugate herself ” ( Zulfiqar , p . 67 ).
The joy found in female bonding between Ibo women undercuts the manner in which secondwave Western feminism professed to uphold a universal “ sisterhood ". Writing the novel in the mid-1970s , Emecheta was sceptical of such a claim which did not acknowledge the diversities of context that exist for each woman . According to Zulfiqar , " sexism , Emecheta ’ s novels suggest , must be combated and condemned globally , however the strategies to fight sexism need to be anchored in local needs " ( Zulfiqar , p . 48 ). The pleasure Nnu Ego gets from her interaction with Ato is based on a specificity which is unique to their shared experience as Ibo wives and
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