Comedian Amy Schumer posed almost nude in the 2016 Pirelli calendar. Her act is one not only of beauty or self-proclamation, but also of defiance against a history of the predominance of a masculine view of women. In one word, she stands or sits in hope for a better future for how women might be recognized as equals. Her act is a demand not a request for this recognition. For far too long women just had to silently integrate. Remember, integration (vs recognition) is a bad thing. But something in the Western psyche is no longer wanting to be repressed, hence why movies like Suffragette are making waves. Just like with the black community, America's treatment of women has been both regrettable and sad. When someone or something erupts on the scene to remind us of that, it's time to rethink our positions on that issue.
In one sense, Schumer embodies the very zeitgeist of today. The notion that gender equality is possible and must be demanded. That the female (and male) body image has been reified for too long. An image is something that creates, defines and even limits our expectations of an idea. In this case, the topic that has been limited is beauty and what that means for women and how that objectification has been detrimental to both men and women.
For so long the pathology that Western society adopted as abnormal was anything outside the sphere of skinny; to the direct point that other pathologies were created within what was perceived as normality (i.e., anorexia, bulimia and etc.). The greatest of all perverse tragedies is when a woman is defined by the very culture as a set of categories, (i.e., a woman is thin, or a woman is smart when she is silent, or a woman is best as a wife or mother, a woman is beautiful when she is showing her breasts and etc.) which is a direct disposal of her power as a human being and is then turned into an object of pleasure and nothing more. In this context, women don't exist, they are only pawns for patriarchy and the culture it inhabits.
In history, women had no right to be something outside the gaze of the man; if they were, some transgression had occurred. Their bodies were the very site of this obscene marginalization. As if women weren't supposed to have a say about their weight. As if they were property or invisible. For so long, in a society where patriarchy reigned supreme, women did not exist beyond the parameters define by their husbands, male friends, bosses, or male-centered society. Women like Amy Schumer are changing that. By defiantly not fitting into a certain image, but championing women's equality. She's not the only one, there are a lot of others, like: Lena Dunham, Reese Witherspoon, Vanzetta McPherson, and Dolores Huerta to name a few.
It's important to note that the body is not only a text of culture. It is a prisoner of the media. For many, the media is the center of the universe. We turn on our televisions to find what is happening in the world, as if the world doesn't exist until we turn it on. But, then something else happens, the media strategically forces us to think we have to choose a side on quite important long-standing issues, but so do commercials. When one breezes across our screen showing a photoshopped woman using a name-brand piece of makeup, we are told this is the way the world is and that if women don't wear make up that they aren't beautiful. That beauty is only externally valued.
Lying at the very epicenter of this battle for gender equality is something that constantly erupts into the forefront of everyday existence. From sidewalk cat calls to parents who encourage gender-based sport stereotypes (i.e. boys who play football or girls who do cheerleading), from the male boss who witholds a raise to lewd comments from older men on the street; which is to say, that the struggle for equality lies in fighting all of the intrinsic close-minded historical presumptions about women. Amy Schumer does just that.
When our culture can embrace women as they are, what they can bring to the conversation, what acts they've already and are contributing to human progress, society will be that much better. Also we need to learn to embrace that women, in the words of the novelist Roman Payne: "...(Are) free in her wildness, she is a wanderess, a drop of free water. She knows nothing of borders and cares nothing for rules or customs. 'Time' for her isn't something to fight against. Her life flows clean, with passion, like fresh water." Thank you Amy for reminding us of this!
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Amy is working on an upcoming project with fellow actress, Jennifer Lawrence. Find out more here.
Follow her on Twitter: Amy Schumer