Amy Doesn't Try To Be A Feminist, She Just Is

Amy Schumer's comedy career is on fire. There is really no getting around it. When the New York Times said she's "on the verge of replacing Louis C.K. as the pacesetter in stand-up," the paper reiterated the views of her millions of fans who attend her comedy tours, tune into the sketches on her show, Inside Amy Schumer, and listen to the words in her powerful speeches. Her success is especially significant in that her work is often tied to feminist themes in a very male-dominated field. In a new interview with Glamour, Amy Schumer opened up about her role and responsibility as a feminist icon. She said,

I don’t try to be feminist. I just am. It’s innately inside me. I have no interest in trying to be the perfect feminist, but I do believe feminists are in good hands with me.

Though it should come as a surprise to no one that she is a feminist, it is significant that she says it is innate. Since she is not interested in being the "perfect" feminist, that actually makes her movements come off as even more genuine and organic.

Schumer's sketches are some of the best examples of her feminist comedy. Think of her sketch tackling the topic on body image in Hollywood. Not a lot of women would be brave enough to be the subject of a hypothetical debate that literally focused on whether she was hot enough to be on television. But that's exactly what Amy Schumer did during "12 Angry Men Inside Amy Schumer," where a group of famous men debated whether she looked good enough to be on TV. Or what about her fearless takedown of rape culture in her sketch parodying Friday Night Lights? Or what about her sex-positive and body-positive speech at Glamour Awards where she boldly declared her weight to the audience.

For Schumer to say that her feminism, and thus, these feminist ideas, come naturally to her makes her even more of a voice to be reckoned with. Obviously, she is not slowing down with her feminist comedy any time soon. And that's a good thing, not only for women in comedy, but women in general. After all, many women probably feel the same way about feminism, and about believing in equal rights regardless of gender, as part of their very being, so perhaps her feminist comedy is so relatable because it tells a woman's honest experience coming from an innate place.

And Schumer's follow-up comment about what she wants to do with her feminist influence in Glamour certainly doesn't hurt her case either. She said, “I want to make women laugh. I want to make them feel beautiful in their own skin. I want to empower them to use their voice and not apologize. And I want a jet.” Well put!

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