Trevor Noah has praised the ‘power of the pussy’ in a new Netflix comedy special.
The 33-year-old South African comedian, better know for presenting The Daily Show, wasn’t talking about the Grumpy Cat meme. He was talking about vaginas.
Society is still pretty scared of the word ‘vagina’, so there are a few choice phrases we’ve coined to ‘euphemistically’ described the female sex organ – and Trevor thinks one of them has taken on a particularly negative connotation.
In an entire segment of Afraid of the Dark, which was filmed during the 2016 New York Comedy Festival, Noah lamented the use of the word ‘pussy’ in modern parlance.
He called out people who say:
‘Don’t be a pussy’… Because it implies weakness.
Do not be like the vagina. The vagina that is weak. Don’t be a pussy.
Seconds later, to the sound of the women in the audience righteously cheering and the men in the audience roaring with wonderfully self-deprecating laughter, Trevor embarked on one of his mind-altering rants.
He explained:
And yet, in my personal experience, I have found the pussy to be one of the strongest things I have ever come across in my life. ‘Don’t be a pussy?’
Have you ever come across a pussy? You realise vaginas can start revolutions and end wars. You realise, even on a physical level, the vagina is one of the strongest things that has ever existed… Virtually indestructible.
Noah continued:
Many men in this room have tales of how they once defeated the pussy. Let me tell you now, they have not.
The owner of the pussy may have given you the impression that you defeated the pussy, but it is alive and well, my friends.
Whenever people say that, I go, ‘Do you understand how impressive the vagina is? Do you understand how strong it is?’
Delivering the last chapter of his social biology lesson, Noah concluded:
There’s a reason men have sought to oppress it for so long. The vagina is frighteningly powerful. You realise that human beings come out of a vagina.
Human beings come out and still it continues to work as intended. Do you understand how impressive that is?
A human being comes out of the vagina. And still, it continues to operate, it continues to work, after a human has just come out. You’re saying it’s weak? You just sit on a penis wrong and it breaks.
‘Don’t be a penis’… That should be the phrase. I wish I was a pussy.
Noah, yet again, has perfectly explained how societal constructs – like language and its meaning – undermine the movement for equality… As if women, and men alike, didn’t already love him enough.
Noah also tackles issues of immigration, Brexit and nationalism – sprinkled with some light-hearted anecdotes – during the comedy special.
Afraid of the Dark is now available to watch on Netflix.
A former emo kid who talks too much about 8Chan meme culture, the Kardashian Klan, and how her smartphone is probably killing her. Francesca is a Cardiff University Journalism Masters grad who has done words for BBC, ELLE, The Debrief, DAZED, an art magazine you’ve never heard of and a feminist zine which never went to print.