The Skank Thing
So the skank thing pisses me off. Case in point, this interview with Amy Schumer by an Australian radio team (oh man I wish the douchebag wasn’t Australian)
If you didn’t watch the entire video I’ll break it down into quick bites. Jane asks Amy intelligent questions about her movie and how it portrays young women. Amy says in many ways the movie is autobiographical. Matt implies the character in the movie is a skank.
WTF?
The character drinks a lot and sleeps with men whenever she feels like it. If the character were a man he’d get called… a man. That same behavior in a woman? Skanky
Definition of SKANK
slang : a person and especially a woman of low or sleazy character
So it’s low or sleazy of a woman to imbibe and/or sleep with men. Which is the part women shouldn’t be doing—drinking or enjoying sex? I’d like to know what to teach my daughters about what is and isn’t allowable (hey that WOMEN CAN DO ANYTHING slogan is just to sell bumper stickers, right?). And what about the men who sleep with these so called skanks? Why is there no derogatory word for them? Are they not also skanky?
Oh wait. The definition specified especially a woman. My bad.
Still on that same movie, a review I read recently (written by a man—is that incidental or not?) described it as ‘pornographic’. Now, I don’t know if that guy has seen any porn or in fact watched Trainwreck at all, but it was not pornography. There is humor, much of it sex related but you never see any breasts. There is only one simula
ted orgasm and it’s done for comic effect, not for the purpose of titillation, which is the purpose of pornography. Neither of the movie’s stars is objectified physically, which frankly was one of the great charms of the film. Neither Amy Schumer or Bill Hader are ‘heartthrobs’ so they weren’t required to take their gear off and strut around for the cameras. They were both just funny, and very human and real, especially Amy who portrayed a young woman acting out due to inner pain and loneliness so well. Not that I’m saying any woman who is promiscuous (another word I hate but I won’t get into it now) is acting out of pain. They may simply enjoy sex and not want to commit to one person (who didn’t love Samantha Jones from SITC?). But many promiscuous girls and woman are in pain and use sex and alcohol to get through it. Those girls need empathy, love and acceptance, just like anyone else.
The last thing they need is to be called skanks, to be denigrated for behaving in ways that men are congratulated for. Because that is a prime example of a double standard.
Sami
