THINK
There's a moment in Hannah Gadsby's new stand-up special Nanette that will stay with you long after the hour-long show. It comes just before the 20-minute mark when Gadsby reveals she's planning to quit comedy.
The Australian comic has been in the game for more than a decade, sharing her insights on the world as a tired, quiet lesbian, who is occasionally mistaken for a man. Her observations are searing, scathing and very, very funny. They are also frequently self-deprecating, which is fine when, like the majority of comedians, you're a straight, white male.
But Gadsby isn't. And neither are the people who identify with her or her comedy.
"Do you understand what self-deprecation means when it comes from somebody who already exists on the margins? It's not humility. It's humiliation. I put myself down in order to speak, in order to seek permission to speak. And I simply will not do that anymore."
It's an epiphany that has changed Gadsby's life – and will go on to affect thousands more as they share this excellent, insightful and thoroughly thought-provoking comedy special.
Stream it immediately on Netflix.
That Quote caught me off guard and really made me think...its a heavy thing to realize about yourself, how you treat yourself and how I recognized myself in it.
"....living in the margins" I can really relate to that. How often I think about my life and how little I seem to matter to anyone, anyone outside of my partner in life. No friends, not gay or straight, no family, just my animals that give me unconditional love. I thought about the people I use to communicate with online..for years and years some of them, them knowingly my sexuality, my sarcastic humor (self deprecating at times) ..and that was perhaps my wanting to be heard..wanting to be part of "them"....Its funny now because I want no part of "them"..I've learned how they talk behind your back, how they say one thing to your face and another to everyone else when your not around, mostly because I'm different..a lesbian.fear what you don't understand...I don't fit in to their group..their religion..whatever, but finally I did not need them anymore, my sense of self was enough to sustain me living in the margins, it's quiet here.
