Stop Calling Amy Schumer’s I Feel Pretty Offensive

I had to write about Amy Schumer again. This is about body issues. Again.

People are already calling Amy Schumer’s new movie offensive. From the trailer. Because it is about a woman who only considers herself gorgeous only after she hits her head. Oh, come on.

Of course, it is not about that. Her character in I Feel Pretty isn’t allowed to have body issues because she is white, able-bodied, and of average weight. And?

No, seriously. I mean it. And?

I’m not an Amy Schumer fan. I’m not a hater, either. But this is my second piece to defend something she did.

There seems to be a set of rules that make you eligible to have problems with your body. And apparently, her character doesn’t qualify.

But who made these rules?

Look, in an ideal world, no one would have body issues. Body issues give you anxiety, self-doubt, self-loathing, lack of confidence...It’s not good for anyone’s psychology, or romantic and professional life.

But I’ve not met a woman – or man, for that matter – who didn’t have some sort of issue with their body. Regardless of race, body shape, gender and sexual orientation, pretty much everyone has a body issue or ten to a certain degree.

On a good day, we don’t care. We feel good. We feel gorgeous. We rock it.

On a bad day, we doubt everything. We feel guilty for caring about something shallow, but at the same time, we can’t help it.

I have more issues about my body now that I gained more weight. If I had this weight in high school, I’d have probably gone crazy. But guess what? I thought I had pounds to lose those days when I was 40 pounds lighter. Oh, the audacity.

If I’m being honest, though, I had every right to those issues. It was high school. It was all about friends, bullies, school, first romances and the fear for our future. Whether we looked pretty or not, whether we felt pretty or not, was a big deal to us.

I fail to see what is offensive about any woman, thin or not, having issues with herself. Did you know Michelle Pfeifer hated her lips? Did you know losing weight for Trainwreck was not Schumer’s idea?

Sure, you have the right the call it offensive- but not if you are also white, able-bodied, and of average weight. (Your points, not mine.) Remind yourself that the next time you look in the mirror and think something is not right. That you’d rather be thinner or fatter. That you had something different to work with.

In that case, you might not deserve to have body issues...by your standards.

Amy Schumer Is Entitled to Fat Jokes about Herself (And So Am I)

Me in 2017, August. Freelancing and a weak immune system took a toll on my weight.

I’m over 30, and I’m getting fatter. I’m not happy about it. I can joke about it whenever I damn please because it is my body and my weight.

I am, however, not the least bit glad when my friends point out that I have gained a lot of weight. No shit, Sherlock! It is not like my body got fat behind my back. I jumped two sizes. I have a mirror. I know.

Moral of the story? It’s my body, and I reserve the right to love it, mock it, hate it or just accept it.

Amy Schumer. Image via Amazon.

This brings us to Amy Schumer. First, let's get it over with Formation. 

She got a lot of hate with her Formation video. OK, so I’m white, and I’m not American. I also have never watched the actual Formation video or Amy Schumer’s parody of it. So this is not a post on whether Amy Schumer is racist, or whether her parody video was in poor taste.

This is a post on body issues, and Amy’s supposedly contrasting behavior when it comes to body positivity.

Now, I’m not Amy Schumer’s biggest fan.

For a long while, I never understood why Amy Schumer was a big deal. Some of her jokes are totally not my style. But then again, every comedian whose work I enjoyed has told several jokes that I find inappropriate, offensive or not funny at all.

I’m agnostic, so any joke Ricky Gervais makes about religion is welcome. And he is so good at it!  But some of his other jokes make me cringe. Not enough to make me quit on the guy, but enough to stop laughing and think “What the hell?”

The list goes on. But I don’t think any wildly popular comedian has been able to be hilarious AND politically, socially and morally correct all the time.

Same goes for Amy Schumer. She can be anything from mildly entertaining to hilarious, from totally acceptable to cringeworthy.

Amy Schumer has found a persona that sells, and she is milking it. Being offensive is a part of it. Just like Jim Carrey acts like he is from another planet whenever he is a guest on a TV show.

However, before everyone was outraged by Schumer’s Formation tribute, many were upset about her contradictions. Is she embracing body positivity, or not?

OK, facts:

Amy Schumer isn’t fat. She is not skinny, but she is anything but plus-sized. Now, she makes fun of how fat she is. She can. For one thing, she is a woman. Most of us have all had insecurity issues regarding our weight. She also joked (though I believe it was more stating a fact) that she was average in New York and fat in Los Angeles. Fair enough.

Then she reacted when Glamour mentioned she was plus-sized, and plus-sized women took issue.

Here’s the thing: Being plus-sized is not an insult. It’s not a compliment. It’s a fact regarding your weight. If you take it to extreme levels and call all curvy models plus-sized, you are part of what’s wrong with society. But calling Amy Schumer plus-sized on a popular magazine is just wrong.

Sometimes, I feel fat. And next to certain sizes, I look fat.

I’m about 10 kilos overweight, and that number is reached after considering my height, my weight, and my BMI. That’s how much weight my doctor told me to lose to get my insulin resistance under control.

I can sometimes call myself fat. I might occasionally feel fat. I’d be pissed if you got me on the cover of a magazine and labeled me fat. Or plus-sized.

This attitude might not be fair to people who are fat, and I apologize in advance.

If people are fat, and they feel happy about it, I respect them. Body positivity should be encouraged as long as there is not a severe health risk directly related to being overweight.

Doctors should not be quick to dismiss fat people’s problems and just send them home because they are fat, ignoring underlying issues or other diseases.

Being at a certain weight doesn’t mean you are healthy or not.

That said, Amy Schumer is entitled to her fat jokes about herself. We can’t censor everything. Then we wouldn’t have comedy.

Are her jokes racist? Yes, some of them are. Should she be telling them in a racially charged United States? Probably not. Is she hateful? I don’t think so. Maybe she is just improper.

Amy Schumer’s comedy is controversial and her attitude might be problematic. But of all the things that might you feel you can’t empathize with, this shouldn’t be one of them.

That said, what do I know? Of some of the things that I’m 100% confident about, my body is definitely not on of those.