Family, Self

3 Reasons Amy Schumer Is The Feminist Hero Both Men & Women NEED

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amy schumer

Here it is: I'm a guy and I love Amy Schumer.

I haven’t had time to give her show, Inside Amy Schumer, the attention it fully deserves, but the clips I first saw were the beginning of a (platonic) love affair I have had with her for several years now. Forcing issues like sexual assault in the military and Hollywood’s unrealistic female standards into the limelight, she’s managed to gain a giant following of millennial fans and get the world talking about the one-and-only Amy Schumer.

If you aren’t already laughing your ass off and obsessively celeb-crushing on Amy, take a look at 3 reasons why you might want to reconsider and place her at the top of your all-American hero list.

1. She makes us laugh while pointing out major flaws in society.

I’ve followed Amy’s career closely and can say without reservation that her first big stand-up special was one of the best — and most important  — ever recorded, period. In fact, she is quite possibly the funniest, freshest comedian alive right now. (Notice that I didn’t say “comedienne.” That whole “she’s pretty funny for a woman” back-handed insult which has plagued female stand-ups should be buried in the ground, effective immediately.)

As her star has risen, Amy has emerged as a refreshingly-candid-and-hilarious corrective to what is still a male-dominated profession (stand-up comedy). More than that, she uses her deceptively sweet “fun-loving ex-sorority president” persona to disarm the audience for acid-laced observations about the dumbfounding inequality that still exists between the sexes.

2. She doesn’t keep the industry’s secrets.

In her most recent stand-up special, Live At The Apollo, Amy tells the story of how she was told to prep for her first starring film role, in the surprise smash summer comedy, Trainwreck:

  1. Be yourself
  2. Have fun
  3. Stop eating food.

After 10+ years working in Hollywood, I wouldn’t be surprised if that was read verbatim from court stenographer’s notes. Hollywood, just like the rest of the culture we live in, continues to further appalling messages about the way women should view themselves and their bodies.

In one of her most hilarious moments in Live at the Apollo, Amy unabashedly skewers this double standard by pointing out how the human weeble-wobble known as Kevin James has not one, but two, supermodel-level gorgeous women pining after him in his most recent big-box comedy. Ever try to think of it the other way around? Shows starring “plain” (or as Hollywood likes to say –– “plus-sized”) women with GQ models following them around? I bet you wouldn’t be able to count those shows on one hand.

3. She doesn’t give a f*ck what she “should” be talking about.

Another part of what makes Amy’s comedy so special is her commitment to obliterating the ridiculous divide in the way women and men are “allowed” to talk about sex. For her this means talking about it in a way that is frank, non-judgmental and so creatively filthy that I can’t quote 99 percent of her best lines here.

Between Amy Schumer and fresh female voices like GirlsLena Dunham, old ideas about what is a “proper” way for women to view their sex lives are being exposed for the inequitable horse manure they always were. In Amy’s case, these razor-sharp points are often cloaked among a litany of sex-and-body-anxiety humor that is just familiar enough to stand-up comedy fans as to not put-off the growing army of adoring young women who make up a majority of her audience.

But for her millennial female fans, she is more than just a brilliantly-funny woman unafraid to discuss sex in a clear-eyed, uproariously-vulgar way. She is an unabashed mouthpiece for her fans’ inner attitudes –– ones that society has largely-succeeded in shaming into silence until now.

Let’s hope that Amy Schumer’s huge success won’t make her comedy become more safe and lazy (as countless comedians of both genders have fallen to), but until then, she should be celebrated for the rare jewel that she is: a fiercely-independent modern woman who isn’t afraid to face down a culture which still treats her gender as second-class citizens, better seen than heard.

Blue Sullivan is the (very-fortunate) boyfriend of a wonderful woman, and author of the recently released self-help book, Your Ex-Boyfriend Will Hate This, available via Amazon.

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