Recently my dad took it upon himself to sign our family up for an HBO subscription so that I could watch the show Girls, directed, written, and acted by the lovely Lena Dunham! (There's also Game of Thrones end of March :D) Thank you father~ I just finished the first season of Girls while in the library today, now on to the second! In the middle of midterms, of course~



source: http://imprint.printmag.com/typography/type-casting-the-deco-inspired-typography-of-lena-dunhams-girls/

So for those of you who haven't heard of Girls, it's a TV show centered around a group of friends in New York who are all suffering through post-collegiate limbo, as they struggle to find themselves and who they are with their careers, men, family, etc. One Youtube comment said it was about the "disillusionment of youth," which I thought was quite accurate. It's self-described by Lena Dunham as a younger, more relevant Sex and the City story but much more gritty and painfully realistic at times.

I know it's probably a year late but I thought back to the criticisms I heard of the show about the lack of variety of people of color the characters interact with. I think one reporter went so far as to say that the central characters don't interact with people of color at all , which is frankly just not true, they do interact with people of color. But maybe they meant more immediate supporting characters and not people in the background, if that makes sense.

I do think minority representation in the media is seriously lackluster and contributes to the stereotypes we have about different groups but I also feel like I can forgive Lena Dunham for just creating this show at all. She explained that she was sensitive to the issues once her viewers brought it up so she remedied the situation in season 2 by introducing more roles to people of color. Also, I'm biased because I love Dunham's work. I think I came across some extremely nasty comments about how much white privilege she has/how horrible she is/elitist white woman, go to hell!-type of comments but that's really not constructive at all, not to mention scary. I just feel like Dunham is trying to say a lot of things with this show already and it's more progressive and real than some of the shows you're likely to watch on TV anyway. There's no need to get racist and hateful about it.

--

It's really light outside for 6:30 pm.

I remember you mentioning Lena Dunham, but I still can't think of any work of hers I've heard of.

And yeah, it's weird how light it's been. It seems like the sun just started setting later really suddenly.
» randomjunk on 2013-03-12 12:06:17

It just occurred to me that, no duh, it's light-- we just started Daylight Savings Time. XD
» randomjunk on 2013-03-12 11:56:18

There's this weird balance that seems to be at issue with a show like GIRLS that purports to be a realistic look at life in NYC. If that is what it is supposed to be, then the lack of dynamic characters of color does a disservice to realism because unless you never leave your apartment or live in a complete bubble, living in the most multicultural city in the world means you'll have substantial interaction with minorities.. not just black or hispanic people, but asians and middle eastern and all the other colors of the rainbow. Girls, in the first season, seemed to exist in that bubble where minorities just didn't exist and in the second season, at least with donald glover's character, they existed as aplot tool without much depth.. in my estimation he could've been replaced by a black dildo because his character showed as much depth as one would.


but yeah, I'm not too heavy in the 'lets condemn girls' camp because it's still an artistic expression of one person's vision and who am I or anyone else to say it's a "bad" show just because it's not realistic? she has a target audience and she tailors her show to fit their desires. So be it. If people wanted gritty realisim, go watch the wire.
» undisputed on 2013-03-13 01:57:17

I agree with you.
» undisputed on 2013-03-14 04:22:24

I believe Lena has white privilege; she's white. The matter of fact is white people have privilege. I can go on about this topic ugh. I discuss it a lot with my friends and professors.... but more importantly I agree nasty comments are not constructive. I've seen comments about her appearance, etc. It's childish.

I liked her film tiny furniture when it came out. It was pretty refreshing and funny. I was excited for her career.

Girls is like an indie sex in the city for me. I can't relate to it but its entertaining.

» dont-see on 2013-03-19 06:21:39

Sorry, you do not have permission to comment.

If you are a member, try logging in again or accessing this page here.