1. Battling Mothers and Daughters
1.1. Gloria and Anita, both used the night of the rape as a vehicle for airing their conflicts
1.1.1. both of them wielded humor as a kind of weapon - to either highlight or mask details of the event
1.2. Anita became pregnant due to the raping, so she says
1.2.1. Glorida had to use all her money to help Anita abort the baby
1.2.2. Actually was pregnant by her boyfriend before the rape.
1.2.2.1. Gloria didn't find out for months after the Rape
1.3. Anita was more afraid of her mother, than she was of the rapists.
1.3.1. Gloria threatened to kick each girl out of the house if they got lost their virginity; let alone got pregnant
1.4. Gloria wanted her daughters to demand more economic support from their male partners
2. Legal Universe and Rape
2.1. Forms of violence as rape are met by women with a kind of absurd humor, a show of laughter through tears
2.2. Because of the distrust and fear in the police force, its unlikely for rapes to be reported.
2.3. Lower class didn't place much importance on virginity as did the elite culture
2.3.1. Lower class women had to hide their true values and beliefs about sexuality from their middle-class neighbors and bosses who wouldnt approve of their actions
2.4. 1991 Supreme Court struck down a "defense of honor" as a justification for wife killings
2.4.1. Courts have been reluctant to prosecute and convict men who attack their wives, especially if there is evidence of infidelity.
3. Laughter out of Place
3.1. Provides a new window into how impoverished women in the shantytowns understand and experience their lives
3.2. Stories became "funny" only when the full context of the story was described
3.3. Such context allows us to "get" the joke, even as the humor both masks and reveals the very structures and hierarchies on which the humor depends
3.4. The humor of these stories, appeared to be "laughter out of place" but actually where "in place"
3.4.1. Sometimes its difficult to join in the laughter when listening to these particularly dark stories.