Kristen Schaal’s Feminism is the Qualified Kind
It’s hard to have principles and a paycheck.
It’s hard to have principles and a paycheck.
Being a feminist in Hollywood is tough. The film industry is built on the exploitation of the bodies of young women and the desires of men. The power in film rests predominately with men, from producers to directors.
But there are some women in Hollywood who maintain they have feminist values, and who work to promote those values. One of the more well known is Kristen Schaal. But is she really a feminist? Or is she just one until it becomes too difficult, career-wise?
Schaal is currently enjoying success costarring with SNL alum Will Forte on Fox’s The Last Man on Earth. In the show, set after an undefined apocalypse, Forte and Schaal’s characters find each other and more or less fall in love. Schaal’s playing of “Carol” is enjoyable to watch, especially on a network television show- she’s tough, smart, and quirky, with no apologies.
Schaal’s work on The Daily Show was enjoyable for the same reason. Using wit, deprecatory humor, and showing utter disregard for the sensitive feelings of misogynists everywhere, Schaal memorably took on issues surrounding unequal pay, reproductive rights, and more.
These performances tie into Schaal’s public persona of a hard hitting hilarious champion of women’s rights. Almost because of that persona, it’s hard to imagine Schaal playing a weak female character. And because of that persona, it makes her silence on one particular issue of women’s rights today deafening.
Schaal’s costar on The Last Man on Earth, Will Forte, is also one of the stars of Adam Sandler’s new film, The Ridiculous Six. Ostensibly a parody of Westerns, R6 is instead yet another vehicle for the themes of Sandler’s oeuvre: racism, right wing politics, and employment for Rob Schneider. In particular, the film uses the worse kind of racist stereotypes to degrade and insult Native Americans.
According to the Native American extras who walked out on their roles in the film, Sandler’s brand of “comedy” (word used generously) uses the most outdated and offensive stereotypes imaginable. A Native woman is named “Beaver’s Breath” (like a vagina, get it you guys?). Native people speak in pidgin English. A character, played by Mr. Forte, asks a Native woman if he can put his “peepee in your teepee.”
As you can see, it’s not just Native Americans in general that are denigrated in Sandler’s “comedy,” but Native women in particular that bear the brunt of the poison. The use of the sacred from Native culture (the teepee) to describe a sexual act is incredibly insulting, and frankly racist as hell. The use of pidgin English to name a Native character “Beaver’s Breath” is gross, misogynist, and racist. Adam Sandler is gross, misogynist, and racist.
So what does this have to do with Schaal? Well, as noted above, her costar in Last Man is also one of the stars of R6. And Mr. Forte has one of the more grossly misogynistic and racist lines in a disgusting film. First, his dialogue uses a term for the penis that degrades and infantilizes the woman who one assumes is about to have sex with him. Second, it uses a sacred part of Native culture, the teepee, as a stand in for the vagina. In a film by Adam Sandler, you know this is not a compliment to the teepee nor to the vagina.
Given her public devotion to feminism and fighting the oppression of women, you might imagine that Ms. Schaal would have taken some sort of position about her television costar not only appearing in such an execrable film. After all, many Native American activists already have taken strong stances against the film. But your imagination would be wrong. Ms. Schaal has not said a word about her costar’s involvement in the film.
It may be a lot to ask that Ms. Schaal live up to the more difficult aspects of feminism. It is hard to fight for everyone. But Ms.Schaal’s career is built, at least in part, on her fight for gender equality and against patriarchy. To ask that she live up to her principles and take a stand for Native women should not be a bridge too far, even if that stand is in opposition to her costar on her popular television show.