It’s not new for Sarah Silverman, liberal comedian and activist, to push boundaries to make sure her political point is heard. This time she’s at it with a new fundraising campaign for the National Woman’s Law Center, a non-profit group fighting for equal pay for women through legislation, education and advocacy. Her new extremely powerful and absurdly funny video brings awareness to the difference between what men and women earn, encouraging donations to the Equal Payback Project.
In the video, Sarah Silverman tries to “close the gap” by generating almost 30 trillion dollars. Realizing that this is an incredibly lofty goal, she comes up with an alternative solution to raising funds….get a sex change. I mean really, what other solution could there possibly be.
Anyway, since its debut 2 weeks ago, the video has been viewed over 1 million time on Youtube, shared more than 1.5 million times via Mashable, and also caused quite the stir in the Transgender community. If you haven’t seen the video yet check it out now and you will understand, but you must be warned – this video is not for the easily offended or those who doesn’t find humor in rubber penises being waved in the air.
Now that you’ve watched and formed your own opinion if this video is insulting or funny, I like to share the statements issued by both NWLC and Silverman herself.
NWLC – The Equal Payback Project uses Silverman’s brand of absurd humor to draw attention to this ludicrous situation—it was not our intent to make light of the serious issues transgender people face. We will share statistics about job discrimination faced by transgender people as part of the Equal Payback Project. And we commit to using some of the resources raised by this project to bring awareness to the discrimination faced by transgender women and men. We don’t want to wait another half century to close the gap. In far less time than that, we intend to achieve equal pay. For everyone.
Silverman – If I literally got a sex change I would indeed find the work force far less friendly. The video wasn’t transphobic it was transignorant–never crossed my mind. But to my *unintentional* credit, people are talking about it & so begins awareness. Please don’t punish this cause because of my video. I certainly don’t only fight for causes that concern or benefit me and I expect the same of the vital trans community.
I have to say, I completely agree with Silverman. Regardless of why people are talking about this video, they are talking abut it. And in my personal opinion – what better way to discuss and shed light on a serious issue for women than to drive the point home with seriously funny humor.
~ Tracey Jeffas, Account Supervisor, The S3 Agency
