Amy Schumer is the self-declared queen of feminists, so it, of course, came as a surprise when she found herself on the receiving end of a wave of feminist critique for her white-privileged parody of Beyonce’s epic song “Formation.”
According to Twitter, Schumer’s parody, which features co-stars Goldie Hawn, John Cusack and Wanda Sykes (all from a film the group is shooting in Hawaii), was not just cultural appropriation, but downright racist—and even a little sexist.
Clearly confused by the response, Schumer stayed silent for more than a day—after all, Schumer is usually the one calling out the rest of the Internet for its blatant misogyny. And while she’s been on the receiving end of criticism before, it’s usually from the kind of people Schumer loves to criticize.
When Schumer’s anti-Trump joke triggered an audience walkout last week, for example, she responded with a “blistering,” sarcastic open letter to the plebians who were simply too unsophisticated to grasp her humor.
Late Monday night, all Schumer could do to maintain her toehold with social justice warriors was post a topless photo claiming that her Beyonce remake was a “tribute.”
A photo posted by @amyschumer on Oct 24, 2016 at 1:10pm PDT
For Schumer, the “response” served a dual purpose, of course: as crisis communications and to invite Internet trolls to criticize her body. That allowed Schumer to regain some semblance of victimhood, something she’d all but lost to Twitter. (The Instagram comments, of course, are full of defenders taking the body-shamers to task).
But as of Tuesday morning, sure that Schumer was nothing more than a closeted racist showing her true colors, her critics refuse to be silenced.
And Schumer’s regular detractors are enjoying the social justice warriors eating their own.