Entertainment

Jenny Slate Is As Empowering As Her Film

by Keertana Sastry

You may not have seen Obvious Child yet, but it's likely that you've heard of it by its rather gauche title: The "abortion comedy" of 2014. But there's so much more to the film than the fact that it follows a woman who has an unplanned pregnancy and decides to get an abortion. It's also about a woman enduring real life hardships in the best way she knows how. It's about love. And it has a wonderfully feminist message that women are strong and can still live a great life after facing difficult crossroads. Obvious Child is the "abortion comedy" that we all need. Despite getting largely ignored in the major awards, Jenny Slate thankfully won a Critics' Choice Award for her performance in the film on Thursday night. And when she finally had the chance to get the recognition she so rightfully deserved, she didn't disappoint as she raised, with pure class, the most important moral of her movie: Women's rights. And more specifically, a woman's right to choose.

Slate, who's mostly known for being the adorably hilarious creator and voice of Marcel The Shell and of course the outrageous, horrible and incredibly funny twin sister of Jean Ralphio Saperstein, Mona Lisa, on NBC's Parks and Recreation. But the actress herself has always appeared goofy, sweet, smart and of course funny when just being herself. Slate took the stage and by responding to her win in one-word sentences: "Interesting. Heavy. Scary." Then she took out some notes of who to thank which normally seems lame but her reasoning behind it was sound: "My dad told me to."

The actress smartly thanked the critics for highlighting a film that depicts the realness of a woman's life. And when she finally thanked her director and writer of the film, her response brilliantly had a strong point of view of feminism while still staying strong and sweet. No one should argue with the idea that "activism and creative expression can go together."