For Whitney Cummings, getting backlash is just proof she’s doing something “brave or interesting,” especially when it comes to changing the conversation surrounding women’s bodies and reproductive health. The comedian opened up to PopCulture about her work to get women to “just say vagina” for Vagina Appreciation Day Friday, teaming up with Yale University School of Medicine’s Dr. Mary Jane Minkin to encourage women to speak candidly and honestly when it comes to what’s going on with their bodies.
Cummings looks at comedians like Joan Rivers and Phyllis Diller as revolutionary in the way they brought commentary about birth control and abortions into mainstream culture and even broke some network rules herself with 2 Broke Girls, where vagina jokes and references made their way into primetime, and not without ruffling some feathers.
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“Backlash to me just means that people are losing power and it just means that … the old ways are crumbling,” she told PopCulture. “If I’m not getting backlash, I’m probably not doing anything brave or interesting. It’s kind of my job to explore what triggers people and to lean into discomfort and figure out why this is so uncomfortable.” The big question, Cummings explains, is from who is she getting the criticism? “When I got the backlash after Kat Denning saying ‘vagina’ on 2 Broke Girls, it was mostly like the old guard in Hollywood television that was on their way out anyway,” she recalled, “and then young girls that were 22 were like, ‘Oh my god, you changed my life!’ and I’m like, that opinion I care about.”
When it comes to negative comments, Cummings compares them to “egging people’s houses,” when it comes to the impact. “Backlash to me on Twitter, it’s like, OK that’s 40 people that are bored,” she shrugged. “By the way, if I was like 15 and I was able to send tweets to famous people, I would do that all day! You would just be like, ‘Hey Loser,’ you know, so you can’t take that stuff too seriously.”
When it comes to her own reproductive health journey, Cummings spent years on the road puzzling over time zones and pharmacy refills while taking the pill for her birth control but has recently found the perfect option for her with the Annovera ring, a self-inserted birth control method that’s good for a year. Calling it a “game-changer,” Cummings joked, “You know, you get to switch it once a year — kind of like how I do with men!”
Speaking honestly with a doctor you trust is so important for women in taking control of their reproductive health, Minkin explained, and has eliminated the “resentment” Cummings used to have towards her body when it came to the hassle of responsibly using birth control that didn’t fit with her lifestyle. For more tips on taking control of your reproductive health, visit justsayvagina.com.
