Why Amy Schumer Feminism Is the Best Feminism

So feminism. We know all about it. We’ve read all about protective rights for the collective vagina. We’ve heard about the wage gap, double standards, cat-calling, productive rights, and Lena Dunham.

Various models of feminism have surfaced over the years, allowing us females to pick the class we want to belong to. But now, there’s Amy Schumer. Personally, Schumer, along with her show Inside Amy Schumer, has become my feminism bible. Let’s just say that if there is in any way a messiah, I think it has come in the form of Amy Schumer.

In the last year, she has become an icon and not all of it has to do with her comedic brilliance. A lot of it is her girl power streak. She’s has been so unapologetic in shinning the light on women’s issues and in the very best way, with laughs.

The Last Fuckable Day

The third season of Inside Amy Schumer really takes a crack, not only at feminism, but the way women are treated in Hollywood (which is really not all that different than the way regular women are treated in the workplace, on the street, at Denny’s).

In the first episode of the season, Amy ends with the titular sketch “The Last Fuckable Day.” Julia Louis-Dryfus (a comedy powerhouse in Seinfeld and Veep) has reached the age where she is no longer “fuckable” according to Hollywood standards. In this bit, Schumer makes it very blatant—with the help of Louis-Dreyfus, Tina Fey and Patricia Arquette—what kind of double standard there is in Hollywood between aging women and their male counterparts.

And what happens when a woman reaches that fateful day? Well then she’s ceremoniously sent off into the pool of Hollywood women who are too old to play anything but the mothers of Hollywood actors that are older than they are.

12 Angry Men Inside Amy Schumer

The double standard issue continues in an episode taken up almost entirely by a single sketch titled “12 Angry Men Inside Amy Schumer,” parodying the famous 12 Angry Men. In the sketch, the 12-man jury must decide if Schumer is hot enough to be on TV?

The burning question really comes down to, is Schumer hot enough to give “reasonable chub,” and if she is, then she can proceed to be on TV. Reminiscent of a sketch from season two, “Would You Bang Her?” where a focus group of men are pulled to answer that question, once again determining if Schumer can be on TV. This sketch is hilarious, peppered with dildos and a cast of great male actors—including the beloved Jeff Goldblum. Despite how funny the writing and acting actually is, the real meat of it lies in Schumer’s brilliant ability to comment on double-standards and female issues (in Hollywood and otherwise) in such a poignant way.

One of the high points being when the jurors just can’t wrap their heads around the fact that a “chubby girl” is going to be starring a movie.

Cliffley Lately

One of my personal favorite sketches from the third season is when Schumer, playing Amy Lake Blively (Not saying that it’s on play on Blake Lively, but it totally is), is on a talk show modeled after one of the array of late-night shows with Bill Hader as the host.

This sketch is just so, well, true! Schumer evolves into the epitome of what is expected of Hollywood females: appeal to the men. Be hot, be cute always, seem playful and casual, be a little ditzy, admit something nerdy like reading comic books or loving Star Wars.

But, how can I be all these things, and also know how to sit in this chair/couch thing?

3 Buttholes

Okay so this next bit probably isn’t the funniest of the season or really all that feministic on the surface. It’s not overt commentary or bright neon jokes of women’s rights, double standards, sexism. To me, though, it’s a little deeper than it might seem. It’s the “3 Buttholes” sketch. Yes, yes, I know. But bear with me for a minute here. It’s a commentary on body image. People telling a woman how she should look, whether she thinks so or not.

In the short but ridiculous sketch Schumer is at a bar with the guy she’s seeing and her friends. Schumer reveals that she has three buttholes, thinking that’s perfectly normal. She has no problem with it at all until her friends, including Orange Is the New Black’s Natasha Lyonne, start questioning her. Then Schumer begins to get a little defensive, unsure if she’s actually normal or not.

Leave it to Schumer to come up with a sketch like that. But in the end in true girl power body-positive fashion, Schumer still tries to spin it into a seduction tool for her man. That’s sexual brilliance if you as me…

Of course the season was filled with tons of great feminist sketches ranging everywhere from the workplace to Hollywood. But these were special to me, and cracked me up which is always a good sign that I’ve not only been entertained, but goddammit I’ve learned something!