Amy Poehler On Celebrity Feminism Conversation: It's An 'Attempt To Get Us To Talk Sh*t About Each Other'

Celebrity Feminism Conversation Is An 'Attempt To Get Us To Talk Sh*t About Each Other'

Amy Poehler's memoir is titled Yes Please, but saying "No, thanks" to celebrity feminist infighting is one of the most important lessons the funny lady has offered.

On Oct. 28, Poehler stopped by the AOL offices in New York City as part of the interview speaker series BUILD to discuss Yes Please on the day of its release.

In conversation with Marianne Schnall, founder of Feminist.com, Poehler recalled her past statements on the subject of celebrities rejecting the "feminist" label publicly: "That’s like someone being like, 'I don’t really believe in cars, but I drive one every day and I love that it gets me places and makes life so much easier and faster and I don’t know what I would do without it,"" she said.

Although she stands by those statements, Poehler told Schnall that women's discussions about feminism shouldn't be put up for public scrutiny.

“This discussion -- the media discussion of who is and isn’t a feminist -- is yet another example of the media attempting to divide us, to take us and split us apart, and our view among each other," said Poehler. "So it’s like, 'She said she was, she said she wasn’t, now she is, now she’s not, she made her one.' It’s just bullshit. It’s yet another attempt to get us to talk shit about each other, for people to bait you into [responding to] 'What do you think about so and so?'"

Women's ability to speak openly about differences of opinion is precisely the point of feminism, Poehler said:

First of all, it’s none of my business what they they want to say or do -- that’s what feminism is. And also, what you believe or say at 20 is different at 40, is different at 60. I think as women, we need to continue to constantly celebrate what we have in common and share, and stop letting this society focus on how we’re different. It’s really frustrating. Yet again, the topic of feminism is another example of people cooping it, taking it out of our hands, and we have to kind of take it back.

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