Podcast Summary:

New Books Network
Episode: Amber Day, "Caught in the Crosshairs: Feminist Comedians and the Culture Wars" (Indiana UP, 2025)
Date: December 16, 2025
Host: Pete Kunze
Guest: Amber Day, Professor of Media and Performance Studies, Bryant University

Overview

This episode centers on Amber Day’s new book, Caught in the Crosshairs: Feminist Comedians and the Culture Wars, examining the political terrain navigated by feminist comedians in an era marked by ever-intensifying culture wars. The discussion explores how comedy reflects, provokes, and shapes debates on gender, power, and representation, analyzing both the opportunities and vulnerabilities that come with greater visibility for women and feminist performers.

Key Discussion Points and Insights

Author’s Academic Background and Pathway to the Project

• Amber Day details her trajectory from performance studies at Northwestern into media studies, focusing on satire and its political utility.
• Her previous work, Satire and Descent, dealt with comedic political discourse across media, laying the groundwork for this new project.
  • "I was really interested in the fact that there was a ton of satire and irony and parody ... being used as a way to enter into the political conversation." (03:10–03:22)

Defining “Feminist Comedy” and Methodology

• The book emphasizes the public and critical discourse around feminist comedians rather than strict performer self-identification.
• Focuses on how female and feminist comedians are positioned in cultural debates, particularly when targeted by controversy.
  • "It’s less about how they are self-identifying and more about how they're being positioned and the conversations that are happening around them." (06:12–06:34)

Evolutions in Comedy, Gender, and Media

• There’s a notable expansion of diverse comedic voices, especially women in high-responsibility roles (showrunners, directors).
• Despite this progress, female and feminist comedians disproportionately receive intensified public backlash—often with deeply emotional and gendered tones.

Analytical Approach: From Textual to Discourse Analysis

• Day’s method blends textual analysis with attention to wider conversations: press coverage, social media (notably Twitter and YouTube comments), and popular discourse.
  • "My method really had to be more discourse analysis than anything else. So looking at the conversation around these performers..." (09:37–10:04)

The Culture Wars: Definition and Significance

• Culture wars are defined as societal clashes over morals, norms, and who/what garners legitimacy or power.
• Day asserts that pop culture controversies are not trivial; rather, they function as highly accessible spaces for negotiating real political issues.
  • "These conversations are actually really important. They are over material resources and power...and also much more accessible to your average person." (12:11–12:55)

Case Study Selection and Book Structure

• Focuses on comedians at the center of high-profile controversies in the last decade, e.g., Leslie Jones, Amy Schumer, Hannah Gadsby.
• Chapters are organized around distinct affective states (e.g., Revulsion, Disgust, Loathing), signaling the depth of emotional reaction these figures provoke.

The Political Uses and Limitations of Comedy

• Comedy’s power lies in its capacity to challenge social norms and explore boundaries—but doing so brings risks, especially for those already in marginalized groups.
• The act of being a feminist comedian is itself a cultural transgression, inevitably triggering resistance.
  • “Women aren’t funny, right? That’s the original history. ... funny women are sort of suspect and deviant. There’s something unwomanly about them.” (17:58–18:38)

Performance Studies and Cultural Studies Perspectives

• Day’s performance background fosters empathy for comics and a nuanced appreciation of the performer-audience dynamic.
  • "I'm a little bit more sympathetic than other scholars towards the position of the joke writer..." (20:29–20:35)
• Comedy is analyzed as a vehicle for joy and challenge but remains surrounded by “ambivalence,” especially for women operating within gendered expectations.
  • "We're not sure, you know, the culture is not really sure how it feels about feminist comedy." (22:29–22:47)

Deep Dive: The Leslie Jones/Ghostbusters Backlash

• The 2016 Ghostbusters remake, starring Leslie Jones, is examined as a watershed moment in online misogynistic and racist trolling, coinciding with the rise of the “manosphere” and reflecting post-Gamergate culture.
  • “It goes from, just ‘why remaking this film with women, that sucks’ ... to Milo Yiannopoulos ... and then just this fire hose of attacks come her way.” (24:13–25:10)
• Visibility brings not just opportunity but vulnerability; representation alone doesn’t resolve deeper systemic prejudices.

Case Study: Amy Schumer and “White Feminism”

• Schumer is targeted by both the “manosphere” and by the left for racial insensitivity, becoming a flashpoint for critiques of white feminism.
  • "She ends up... as this representative face of white feminism. So we can kind of see all the ways in which people react to white feminism..." (32:10–32:34)
• Day interrogates both legitimate critique and the gendered vitriol directed at Schumer.

The Current Political and Technological Moment

• Contemporary comedians operate in a fragmented media landscape and a polarized political climate (MeToo, MAGA, ascendant manosphere).
• Increased “niche-ification” allows more diverse voices to find their audience but reduces opportunities for broader, society-wide discourse.
  • "Although I think many of these moments are really ugly, I do close out the book by saying ... they're kind of important." (37:05–37:25)

Moments of Hope: Hannah Gadsby and “Nanette”

• Gadsby’s “Nanette” special is highlighted as an instance where feminist/queer discourse led the narrative, marking a cultural turning point and temporarily overwhelming backlash with critical and popular support.
  • "They should have been trolled out of this place ... and we didn’t. ... It was reportedly the most talked about special on Netflix ... it really kind of licensed this moment for, I think, the feminist press and the queer press and others to step in." (39:24–41:34)
• Such cultural touchstones, Day argues, are vital for progressing stuck conversations.

Looking Ahead: The Future of Feminist Comedy

• Anticipates that trans comedians may soon take on a leading role in social commentary about gender and power.
• Day notes a decline in high-profile “dust-ups” yet voices concern about the public sphere’s further fragmentation.
  • "Patreon bubbles exist very happily next door to the white supremacist bubbles ... the shrinking public sphere is a problem." (37:53–38:09)

Opportunities for New Research

• Encourages future work using digital humanities and content analysis to quantitatively chart discourse around comedians.
  • "If you had somebody who could do that kind of digital Humanities work ... it might be interesting for people to ... look for particular terms and how things are being discussed..." (45:54–46:32)
• Suggests exploring fictional representations of feminist comedians in media.

Notable Quotes & Memorable Moments

• On shifting focus for defining “feminist comedian”:

  “It’s less about how they are self-identifying and more about how they're being positioned and the conversations that are happening around them.” (06:12–06:34)

• On the meaning and stakes of “culture wars”:

  “They are over, like, material resources and power and all of the things that regular politics is about. But they're also much more accessible to your average person than the political sphere.” (12:17–12:55)

• On performance and the “sympathy for comics”:

  "I'm a little bit more sympathetic than other scholars towards the position of the joke writer ... in that moment you're sort of trying anything that works." (20:21–20:35)

• On the Leslie Jones backlash:

  “It was the first moment in which we really see the manosphere coming together and asserting itself within popular culture ... a test case that maybe we failed.” (23:37–26:30)

• On Gadsby and the rare “hopeful” moment:

  "They should have been trolled out of this place ... and we didn’t. ... people were really hungry to hear that critique made in a more personal way... it was reportedly the most talked about special on Netflix." (39:24–41:34)

Highlighted Segments & Timestamps

• Introduction and Day’s background – 02:19–04:51
• Defining “feminist comedy” & discursive focus – 05:31–07:20
• Culture wars and politics in comedy – 11:01–13:38
• Methodological approaches (discourse vs. textual analysis) – 08:32–11:01
• Leslie Jones and the Ghostbusters controversy – 23:10–27:42
• Amy Schumer: Race, gender, and backlash – 30:14–34:30
• Contemporary moment, fragmentation, and possibilities – 35:18–38:11
• Hope in Hannah Gadsby's "Nanette" – 38:57–41:28
• Futures in feminist and trans comedy – 42:26–44:48
• Potential directions for research in the field – 45:49–46:43
• Fictional representations of feminist comedians – 47:00–48:23

Conclusion

Amber Day offers an original, engaging analysis of feminist comedians as focal points in today’s culture wars, blending performance studies, discourse analysis, and cultural critique. She demonstrates how feminist comedy, far from being trivial, is a potent site for negotiating, resisting, and reimagining norms—while also reflecting new vulnerabilities in a fragmented and polarized public sphere. Day’s work challenges listeners to reconsider the stakes and strategies of pop culture criticism, the power of humor, and the paths ahead for feminist voices in comedy.