Sanger was not without her controversies but neither were any of the men who currently grace our currency. Corporations were, essentially, given more rights than women. In 2014, the Supreme Court ruled, for example, that owners of privately held corporations don’t have to provide employees with certain contraceptives that contradict their religious beliefs. Not only are we facing such legislative attacks on reproductive freedom, we’re also seeing a strange cultural backlash against birth control. Recent legislative attacks on reproductive freedom in states like Texas, North Carolina, North Dakota and Arkansas - attacks that have included 20-week abortion bans, mandatory ultrasounds for women seeking abortions, and unreasonable medical facility restrictions placed on abortion clinics that force them to close - are an unfortunate reminder that despite Margaret Sanger’s efforts, women are perilously close to becoming once more indentured to their bodies. Wade, many assumed that we were done fighting for reproductive freedom and unfettered access to abortion services. This organizing lead to the creation of Planned Parenthood, which continues to serve women and men, offering preventive healthcare, testing for sexually transmitted diseases, and reproductive counseling.Īfter the passage of Roe vs. When, in 1921, she founded the American Birth Control League, Sanger expanded her efforts to include middle class women so more women would be empowered to control their fertility. Every once in a while, he remarks that, oh, boy, he’s in trouble now, like a mischievous little boy who just can’t help himself.Sanger’s efforts to promote birth control were originally directed toward working class women who were disproportionately affected by a lack of access to reproductive healthcare. At times, his voice lowers to a hoarse whisper, preparing us for a grand stroke of wisdom - but it never comes. Chappelle’s rants are extraordinarily dated, the kind of comedy you might expect from a conservative boomer, agog at the idea of homosexuality. He reaches for every low-hanging piece of fruit and munches on it gratuitously. community, as he has been in recent years. Chappelle is singularly fixated on the L.G.B.T.Q.
But when an entire comedy set is designed as a series of strategic moves to say whatever you want and insulate yourself from valid criticism, I’m not sure you’re really making comedy. He’s just stating “facts.” He’s just making us think. He’s just being “brutally honest.” He’s just saying the quiet part out loud. Chappelle makes obvious but elegant rhetorical moves that frame any objections to his work as unreasonable. If there is brilliance in “The Closer,” it’s that Mr. The self-proclaimed “GOAT” (greatest of all time) of stand-up delivers five or six lucid moments of brilliance, surrounded by a joyless tirade of incoherent and seething rage, misogyny, homophobia and transphobia.
The set is a 72-minute display of the comedian’s own brittleness. Chappelle spends much of “The Closer,” his latest comedy special for Netflix, cleverly deflecting criticism. Chappelle explains that he didn’t in fact threaten the woman: “I felt that way, but that’s not what I said. Ain’t nobody around here.” The audience cheers, before Mr. “Before I kill you and put you in the trunk. “Shut up,” Dave Chappelle recalls telling a woman who had the gall to challenge his comedy, using a sexist slur and laughing at how witty he is, as if he’s the first man to ever deliver such an original, funny line.
You’re the one who’s narrow-minded or “brittle” or humorless. All criticism is forestalled with this setup, in which when you object to anything a comedian says, you’re the problem. Comedians, in particular, are going to punch up and down and side-to-side.Īlso true: Comedy is not above criticism, even if the most famous, wildly wealthy comedians will keep insulting those who question them. Sometimes good art should make us uncomfortable, and sometimes bad people can make good art. Let’s address those upfront: Art should be made without restriction.
We generally have the same debates about comedy over and over.