It is hard being a woman. It is even harder to be a woman in the entertainment industry, especially in the realm of comedy. The entertainment industry has been considered a “man's world” for some time now, and it takes a very unique type of woman to break into this world and claim her territory. Female comedians have always found it hard to fit in because male comedians are notoriously known for making racist, homophobic and extremely misogynistic jokes. Ilana Glazer’s character Ilana Wexler on "Broad City," a show she co-created with Abbi Jacobson, embodies ideals that relate closely to the third-wave of feminism. Her overall love for being a woman, her acceptance of her body and her shameless embracing of her sexuality are just some reasons why women of all ages should look up to her.
Abbi and Ilana met while they were taking classes at New York’s Upright Citizens Brigade Theatre, the comedy training school co-founded by Amy Poehler. In 2009 the duo created "Broad City," a web series about the trials and tribulations of being a 20-something-year-old woman trying to make it in New York. Their show started out on YouTube with the initial episodes being about two minutes long and then in 2014 Comedy Central picked it up with Amy Poehler as the executive producer.
In an interview with Bust Magazine, the girls were asked if they consider themselves feminists. “We are two women, and we based [the show] on ourselves, and we, without a doubt, are feminists, so the show is seen in that way”, says Abbi. “I think the thing that we talk about the most is like, well; what would we really do? It’s just real. And maybe that’s part of feminism—showing real women versus what we had seen on TV for so long.”
And it's true. Abbi and Ilana don't try to hide their views and that shines through in their show. A lot of female comics portray the experience of being a woman in today’s society as a negative one because they are constantly being put down by the “male gaze” and even by other women. Ilana's character portrays a woman that is in love with the experiences of being a female, in a world where being a woman isn't necessarily praised.
She is a rare breed of female that also openly loves her body. From her sexually revealing outfits to her joyfully dirty brand of sexual empowerment, Ilana is equally curious and in love with loving herself. She also enjoys being topless for at least 50 percent of the show.
Along with self-love, Ilana also exudes sexuality. She is very fluidly bisexual on the show and is all for experimenting with her sexual curiosities and desires. The show in general breaks boundaries with extremely sexual material. In Alessandra Stanley’s New York Times article, she explains the opening scene of "Broad City’s" Season 1, Episode 1. "Even with today’s permissive standards, no network show would open with two friends video chatting quite this way: Abbi is staring curiously at an enormous vibrator, labeled with a note that says “Tuesday 7 a.m.,” while Ilana is astride a man (Hannibal Buress). Technically, they are having sex, but distractedly at best. What Ilana is really into is coaxing Abbi to go with her to a pop-up Lil Wayne concert.”
"Broad City" finds a lot of its humor in sexual moments, like when Abbi finds out that Ilana stores her weed in her vagina (or rather vah-yine-yah) or when Ilana gets so excited to talk Abbi through how to use a dildo on a guy that she twerks on a wall. Although Ilana’s character on "Broad City" is an extremely exaggerated feminist who is in love with smoking pot and can barely hold a job, she does have a lot of redeeming qualities that make her relevant to the third wave of feminism.
"Broad City" is not afraid to have female characters that are not perfect all of the time but are so unapologetically who they are that it doesn't even matter. They are just being real with us and, like Abbi said, maybe feminism is all about being real and showing the world what a real women is like.
