I lost my virginity through rape, says American actress Amy Schumer
In an interview with Oprah Winfrey on her show Super Soul Sessions, Hollywood actress, and a stand-up comedian Amy Schumer opened up about being sexually assaulted as a teenager by a former boyfriend, someone she "really trusted".
Schumer revealed that she was raped by a former boyfriend, the first time she had sex.
The 36-year-old actor opened up to media mogul Oprah Winfrey and said her comic skits often reflected her life story where she would say if a woman is asleep, one cannot assume to have the consent to engage in a sexual act with her.
The actress wrote about this in her memoir, Girl With the Lower Back Tattoo, and told Winfrey she's referred to it in her standup. But this is the first time she is publicly referred to it for what it was: A rape.
"I didn't consent, for me, I lost my virginity while I was asleep. That is not OK," the actress told Winfrey. Schumer said she referred to this as "grape" or "gray-area rape" in her standup, and did so in the hope that guys in the audience would hear it and internalize it.
"When we're children and we hear about rape, we're being warned about it, it's about a guy popping out from a bush... and some villain. They don't say it's probably gonna be a guy you know really well. It could be your husband. It could be your friend. And so you think, when that happens you, you say, 'OK, this isn't someone I want to see rotting in a jail cell, but what he did to me was wrong, and I didn't consent.'
"And for me, I lost my virginity while I was asleep. And that's not OK. So, in my stand-up, I would say, 'If she's asleep, that's a no.' Just hoping that a couple guys would see that and it would be met in that moment, like, 'This is a no. I heard that somewhere'," Schumer said, according to Jezebel.
I still wanted to be with him and I was. We started having sex eventually a couple months later. The second time we did it, I tried to pretend it was the first time. I knew I was wrong. I knew I was lying to myself. I even went to my mom's room after and told her I'd lost my virginity. It was a lie, and I'd also be lying now if I said it didn't feel like my whole experience was ruined.
Winfrey asked her if she would sum up the whole incident, the actor said,
"I personally — I feel like I lost my virginity through rape. I didn't consent, we hadn't discussed it."
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First published: 28 April 2018, 13:57 IST