Margaret Cho has a simple philosophy for dealing with degrading comments about herself: If you're debating a woman and you stoop to calling her "fat" or "ugly," you've already lost the argument.
During a conversation with HuffPost Live on Tuesday about her new comedy special "Margaret Cho: psyCHO," the comedian discussed her take on some of the demeaning terms men use to diminish women.
"The reason I call the show 'psyCHO' is because 'psycho' is a feminized term for anger. It's way to dismiss women. It's like, 'Oh, she's a psycho,'" Cho said. "Even the movie 'Psycho' has this main character who is sort of impersonating his mother, so it's kind of a weird, misogynist way to talk about anger."
But for the times when she's faced with insults about her appearance, Cho has actually found a way to turn the exchange into a "palatable and pleasurable" experience, she explained:
When they're attacking your looks or threatening you or something, it's because they realize they have no answer. So you have to acknowledge anytime you're attacked that way: Oh, that's how they are defeated. That's actually their defeat. And when you look at all of this trolling kind of stuff online, you realize, oh, they just admitted their defeat. It becomes much more palatable and pleasurable. I think, as women, it's very hurtful to hear, 'you're fat, you're ugly, you're not what I want,' or whatever, but really the only reason they're saying that is that's the only weapon they have because they have no intelligence, they have no points to back it up, they have no way to argue.
"Margaret Cho: PysCHO" will premiere on Showtime on Friday, Sept. 25.
Want more HuffPost Live? Listen on the go with free downloads of our best interviews on iTunes here, and subscribe here for our morning email to guarantee you won't miss our buzziest conversations.
Also on HuffPost:
