Samantha Bee is a “Woman on Top”

Photo Credit: Getty Images for Turner / Monica Schipper

Earlier this month I attended the TBS-sponsored panel “Women on Top,” a discussion of how comedy is emerging as a power for change and how specifically Full Frontal with Samantha Bee is channeling this power.  Samantha Bee has managed to harness a rage that many women and men feel about current events, a perspective that women traditionally have not been allowed voice publicly.  Bee said, “Women have always been told that rational thought is the most important – not emotional intelligence.  Full Frontal pierces that and feels intimate and real.”

#metoo Full Circle

Councilwoman Laurie Cumbo speaks at the bill signing of the “Stop Sexual Harassment in NYC Act” at City Hall, May 9, 2018.

Yesterday was a full circle moment — to be present at City Hall for the bill signing of the “Stop Sexual Harassment in NYC Act,”  a comprehensive package of legislation strengthening New York City’s anti-sexual harassment policies and combating sexual harassment in the workplace.  Last month the City Council  passed 11 bills that will expand worker protections and improve transparency about harassment in city government— some of the toughest harassment protections in the country.

NYC Mayor Bill de Blasio at the bill signing of the “Stop Sexual Harassment in NYC Act” at City Hall, May 9, 2018.

With the swiftness that the issue demands, the research and the passage of these bills has progressed rapid through local government in the wake of the #metoo movement to shine a light on sexual harassment and predation nationwide. The council members acknowleged that every new revelation of harassment and assault is a failure of the City to protect its most vulnerable residents.

A partial list of the imbalance of power that one woman has been subjected to during the first half of her life

Photo Illustration by Elizabeth Brockway, The Daily Beast

1. You were my political science professor in undergrad who used to join me for coffee in the Student Union Building before class.  You asked for my phone number and then called my house to ask me out on a date.  I told you that I wasn’t comfortable with the fact that you were my teacher and that I hoped it wouldn’t affect my grade. You never talked to me again.  I earned an A.

2. You were a network executive who sat in a screening and ogled the daughter of one of our main characters in the show.  She was a blond young woman wearing a tank top, and even though she had nothing to do with the story, you joked about how she should get more screen time, especially in the chest area.

3. You were a government employee where I was an intern. You said lascivious things about me to the woman who shared the office. She laughed and said, “cut it out, she’s jailbait!”  You said, “jail would be worth it.”