Entertainment

'Inside Amy Schumer' Guy-Gles Sketch Is On Point

by Caitlin Flynn

It's no secret that Amy Schumer never misses an opportunity to promote feminism in the most hilarious way possible — and the Inside Amy Schumer Guy-gles sketch is an on-point statement about the expectations placed upon women to be a guy's perfect "type." When the sketch begins, Amy simply cannot get a male colleague to look over a proposal she sent over last week. Then, a female co-worker wearing ridiculously large goggles (uh, Guy-gles), scoots over and gushes to him about his amazing Instagram posts that she stalked over the weekend. ("Someone saw three sunsets!") She explains that she has a "really dumb proposal" she'd love his eyes on and he eagerly responds, "anything for you!"

Amy wants to know why none of the guys in the office will ever look at her work — and her female comrade is eager to help. The aforementioned Guy-gles show you the exact kind of woman the guy in front of you needs you to be. She then rapidly rattles off the options: "Flirty victim, spunky kid sister, nurturing mother, but flirty, step-MILF, sexy sex kitten, flirty sex kitten, flirty friend of mom, manic pixie, or Amy Adams.” When Amy Schumer tries them on, she comments that the heavy glasses hurt a lot — the perfect metaphor for what women are often expected to endure in order to "please" men.

Nevertheless, she keeps the glasses on and strides through the office, proposals in hand. The Guy-gles provide her with intel on all the men in the office — from the insecure guy who "has zero interest in you but needs to know you'd f*ck him" to the jerk who tweets insults at female celebrities and "needs you to laugh at his jokes like it's your job." The ridiculous-looking goggles work like a charm — Amy behaves the exact way they tell her and immediately the men are all-too-willing to read her proposals.

When a black female colleague tries on the Guy-gles, she's immediately inundated with far more expectations than Amy and her female co-worker — a few examples include a guy who automatically assumes she knows every single rapper, one who sided with Jerry Heller in Straight Outta Compton, and another who "wants to make America great again." (Raise your hand if that phrase makes you physically shudder.) The overload of information causes the glasses to explode as the sketch concludes, and this jarring moment is an important reminder of why intersectional feminism is so important.

The fact that this sketch takes place in an office setting is key. Although plenty of women are unwilling to alter their behavior just to get a date, dealing with these expectations in the workplace presents a whole separate set of issues. Amy's character is established as hard-working and qualified, but it's made clear that she won't get ahead in the male-dominated environment unless she alters her behavior and tells men exactly what they want to hear. She's not especially eager to do this (who would be?), but a third of working women report experiencing some sort of gender discrimination at work, according to The Guardian.

No matter how qualified Amy is, her proposals will never even be read or acknowledged unless she adjusts her behavior and compromises her personality. The quality of her work is nowhere near as important as her ability to stroke the egos of the men in the office. And, as the sketch's final moment shows, the expectations for a black woman literally cause the room to blow up.

Images: Comedy Central; Giphy