5 Times Amy Schumer Took a Stand on Body Image

Amy Schumer graces the cover of Vogue this July in confident, relaxed repose. She should. With her Emmy Award–winning show Inside Amy Schumer in its fourth season, an HBO special and a blockbuster summer film under her belt, and a memoir on the way, it seems that the world can’t get enough of her hilariously refreshing perspective—one that challenges stereotypes of dating, aging, and, particularly worth note, her cutting take on body image. Schumer’s Instagram is rife with tongue-in-cheek jokes about thigh gaps and Met Gala preparation, for which she ditched the green juice detox and ate what appeared to be a scone on the street.

In another laugh-out-loud post, a baby picture in which she wears only a diaper is accompanied by a caption that reads: “15 ways to washboard abs that will make him say wow.” With each passing television appearance, awards ceremony, and social media post, Schumer has made a personal mission out of illustrating the absurdity in seeking perfection, along the way reminding women everywhere to love the skin they’re in. Between calling for new role models to learning to change the way we think about and define our own shapes, here are five times Amy Schumer has taken a stand on body image.

On Changing Your Internal Dialogue
During a recent Today Show appearance, Schumer sat down with Maria Shriver to describe that body image has been “a struggle for me my whole life . . . Going to put jeans on or things that I see girls in magazines or on TV wearing wasn’t agreeing with my body type. You feel bad and wrong. It creates so much anxiety.” Having a platform of fame beneath her has given her the ability to engage in a new conversation. “It’s really exciting for me to be in a position to say, what about loving yourself how you are. What about saying this is how I look and I’m beautiful and I’m strong . . . You’re not going to be what everybody loves. But you have to love yourself. Making the decision to do that is something you can actually do.”

On Shutting Out the Body Shaming Noise
For the 2014 Gloria Awards, Schumer gave an especially uplifting speech, admitting, “I can be reduced . . . so quickly sometimes, I want to quit. Not performing, but being a woman altogether. I want to throw my hands in the air, after reading a mean Twitter comment, and say, ‘All right! You got it. You figured me out . . . All my self-worth is based on what you can see.’ But then I think, Fuck that.”

On Being Open About Your Weight
When accepting an award at a ceremony in 2015, Schumer opened with “I’m probably like 160 pounds right now,” prompting her audience to applaud and cheer loudly. The moment was remarkable not because of the number, but because the comedian so openly and unapologetically shared it, refusing to be defined by or reduced to a number on the scale.
 
On Redefining Normal
Schumer took to Instagram to remind her followers about the dangers of mislabeling women after she had unknowingly been included in a “Chic at Any Size” issue of a major magazine. “Plus size is considered size 16 in America,” she wrote, adding that while plus size women are “beautiful” and “healthy,” it’s the label itself that needs rethinking. “I go between a size 6 and an 8 . . . Young girls seeing my body type thinking that is plus size? What are your thoughts? Mine are not cool . . . not glamourous.”

On Ignoring Labels
Ditching her clothes for a nearly-nude portrait in the 2016 Pirelli calendar, Schumer anticipated her followers’ comments, captioning, “Beautiful, gross, strong, thin, fat, pretty, ugly, sexy, disgusting, flawless, woman.” The underlying message? The only opinion that really matters is the one that belongs to the woman in the picture. As for Schumer, she later said, “I felt I looked more beautiful than I’ve ever felt in my life, and I felt like it looked like me.”

 

Watch Amy Schumer and Anna Wintour swap lives:

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