Vulgar. Overweight. Over the line. Disgusting. Dirty. These are just some of the ways that Amy Schumer is described as in the media. Surprisingly, she embraces these words that are used against her. She doesn't let the media put her down because she embraces every part of herself. She best expresses this in her Glamour Awards acceptance speech when she states, "No, I'm not going to apologize for who I am and I’m going to love the skin that I’m in and not be like striving for some other version of myself." This just shows how she knows who she is and is completely comfortable in every side of her. She is inspirational with her attitude that she is unwilling to change herself so that she will be accepted by society.
The word that the media should be using to describe her is real. She is one of the few real people in the celebrity world. She is completely honest no matter what and is willing to go past the boundaries to talk about the real issues and experiences that people go through and do not discuss enough. Amy is vocal about experiences that occurred throughout her life. A huge bulk of the material that she discusses in her stand-up and skits is based on her experiences and the situations that she found herself in. The media tends to attack many of her experiences and her personality when she discusses and makes jokes at her sex life and other experiences that people would look down on. She has no shame in speaking the honest truth about her life and what she believes in. This is incredibly brave when constantly being attacked by hurtful negative comments made by many people.
Her movie that she co-wrote with Judd Apatow, "Trainwreck," is a hilarious romantic comedy that is mostly an autobiography of her life. She discovers in the film that her lifestyle and behaviors are hurting herself, as well as the people around her and she meets someone who helps her to see that she can benefit in many ways when living a better lifestyle. Obviously, many parts of "Trainwreck" are exaggerated which raises the comedic effect of the film. Amy was also able to turn tragedy into humor throughout the film, especially when it came to her father. Just as expressed in the film, Amy's father in real life is diagnosed with MS. It obviously is incredibly hard to have a parent and a loved one go through this illness. In order to deal with this and support her family around her, she did what she does best, she turned to humor. "I’m always finding humor in the most tragic stuff. All the time. Humor just makes it all bearable to me." Through the heavy material of her father in the film, she was able to find the positive and lighter sides of the situation. This positive outlet shows how strong of a person she really is.
In her skit-show, "Inside Amy Schumer," she uses her skits and jokes to discuss real issues that not many people talk about or even mention. In her skit, "Girl, You Don't Need Makeup," a boy band, who looks very similar to One Direction, sings to Amy that she doesn't need makeup because of her natural beauty. When she finally removes all of her makeup, the boys stop singing and encourage her to put the makeup back on and change their lyrics to telling her that she needs to wear makeup because her natural face looks like "the ghost from 'The Ring.'" Amy is subtly hinting throughout this comedy skit that society tells you to embrace your natural and inner beauty but is quick to shut you down if your natural look isn't pretty enough. Amy is subtly telling the viewers to not listen to what others view as beauty and to wear and look however you want.
Amy not only teaches us to be comfortable with who we are and not let other people's views silence you, she also shows us a real view on what it means to be a feminist. She was able to completely change my view on feminism. I always viewed feminism as a bunch of angry women, but Amy was able to show me that you don't have to try to be one or act like one, it's all about equality for women and being proud to be a woman.
She went past the considered "boundaries" for women and talked about things that she wanted to talk about and encourages women to use their voice even when others try to shut them down. For her speech at the Gloria Awards, she stated, "I am a woman with thoughts and questions and shit to say. I say if I'm beautiful. I say if I'm strong. You will not determine my story—I will." Amy is an inspiration for her courageous risk taking skits and jokes in order to bring the message out to be who you are and don't let others to bring you down or silence you.