{"id":3112,"date":"2015-06-03T13:43:08","date_gmt":"2015-06-03T17:43:08","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/healwritenow.com\/?p=3112"},"modified":"2015-06-06T06:45:22","modified_gmt":"2015-06-06T10:45:22","slug":"the-audacity-of-amy-schumer","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/healwritenow.com\/the-audacity-of-amy-schumer\/","title":{"rendered":"Why Survivors Love Amy Schumer"},"content":{"rendered":"

“I’m not funny. What I am is brave.”\u00a0 Lucille Ball<\/span><\/h4>\n

Audacious and adorable.<\/p>\n

Sweet and skewering.<\/p>\n

Amy Schumer makes bedfellows of words that don\u2019t usually even\u00a0sit together.<\/p>\n

Feminist and funny aren\u2019t exactly synonyms either but Schumer make them besties.<\/p>\n

She uses the \u201cF\u201d word in an edgy show-don\u2019t-tell way activists envy and admire.<\/span><\/h3>\n

She\u2019s brutally honest and \u201cgoes there\u201d \u2013 there being any complacent space left musty with mothballs and\u00a0sexism and unquestioned by society.<\/p>\n

She\u2019s radical but doesn\u2019t come across as angry.<\/p>\n

She jokes about abortion, fat shaming and sexual assault. She talks almost non-stop about subjects rarely discussed in stand-up returns, speeches, roasts, tributes and on Inside Amy Schumer.<\/p>\n

She pulls her tent right up to the edge and pitches it there and then explores new terrains.<\/p>\n

She even made the word \u2018pussy\u2019 o.k. to say sans bleeping on Comedy Central.<\/p>\n

Schumer dares us to look at society, each other and\u00a0ourselves.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s not just fat-shaming or objectifying women she talks about (though she does). It\u2019s not just how women apologize for success and diminish and accomplishments (though she does).<\/p>\n

It\u2019s the way she challenges the crappy response women get when we come forward to say we\u2019ve been sexually assaulted that most astounds me.<\/span><\/h4>\n

In Court of Public Opinion: The Trial of Bill Cosby<\/a><\/u>, Schumer plays a defense attorney who says:<\/p>\n

Ladies and gentlemen at this point Bill Cosby probably can\u2019t get in any legal trouble. That\u2019s not what this is about. <\/em><\/p>\n

This is about us not punishing ourselves for loving great comedy. This is a court of public opinion right?<\/em><\/p>\n

Let\u2019s remind ourselves what\u2019s at stake here. If convicted the next time you put on a rerun of the Cosby show you may wince a little, you may feel a pang. <\/em><\/p>\n

And NONE OF US DESERVES THAT. We don\u2019t deserve that feel. <\/em><\/p>\n

We deserve to dance like no one\u2019s watching and watch like no one\u2019s raping. <\/em><\/p>\n

The defense rests.<\/em><\/p>\n

Potent, powerful and a totally on target ouch!<\/p>\n

She does what so few will – acknowledge a reality fairly common for women \u2013 not being believed.<\/span><\/h4>\n

Then, she one ups herself with commentary about the way that reality is perceived and depicted.<\/p>\n

Try not to hit repeat watch her bits of stand-up truth-telling brilliance.<\/p>\n

She makes silenced topics and the denial of women\u2019s experiences the subject of skit after skit.<\/em><\/p>\n

From a woman\u2019s point of view.<\/em><\/p>\n

While making us laugh.<\/em><\/p>\n

What?<\/em><\/p>\n

Seriously, who else can take on sexual assault and a superstar comic like Bill Cosby in a mock court satire scene on Inside Amy Schumer that is political and<\/em> entertaining?<\/p>\n

She speaks up and out about the way survivors are belittled, bullied or disbelieved when reporting sexual assault in our families, police stations and courts of law and public opinion.<\/p>\n

She makes arguments with humor, parody and satire. It\u2019s more effective than rants, op-eds and research papers.<\/p>\n

If she had an e-course on how to get communicate for feminists I\u2019d be signing up. She gets people to watch, laugh and listen.<\/em><\/span><\/h4>\n

It\u2019s a superpower.<\/p>\n

Watching her \u201cdefend\u201d Cosby raised my consciousness and made me ache at the same time.<\/p>\n

The public responses to the allegations against Bill Cosby are unspectacular (awful \u2013 but common). Survivors of sexual assault are often questioned, shamed and blamed with words like:<\/p>\n