Lena Dunham, Allison Williams, Jemima Kirke and Rosia Mamet are real-life children of elite wealthy powerful parents [e.g. artist/photographer, news commentator, rock star, dramatist] who enjoy creative play in the HBO sandbox. WTF?!
I have read some criticisms of the HBO comedy series: Girls. For Example:
On the Womanist Musings blog, the author offers a detailed critique of the show’s trivialities and lack of diversity, pointing out that the first black person shown is a homeless man.
The show was similarly condemned in the Twitterverse.
“Thanks to HBO’s Girls I now don’t have to travel to NYC to know what it’s like. It’s just all white people,” tweeted one. Another lamented that the title should have been “White Girl Problems.” Another tweeted “HBO’s Girls, summarized for you to save you the trouble: White girls, money, whining. There now; that’s what all the fuss is about.”
Lena Dunham plays the lead character, Hannah, who is a college graduate without a job and living off her parents. But when they sever financial ties, she whines, is too socially awkward to get a job and balks at suggestions to work at McDonalds, even though she can’t pay her share of the rent.
The actress/creator called the lack of diversity “an accident,” and said she hopes to address the issue in a potential second season.
“Our generation is not just white girls. It’s guys. Women of color. Gay people. The idea that I could speak for everyone is so absurd,” she said. “But what is nice is if I could speak for me and it resonate for people.”
Oh Gee how nice of you to make that acknowledgement. This prime facie of “Hipster Racism” or the: “I CAN’T be a racist if I acknowledge that other ethnicities, cultures, physical abilities and sexual orientations exist: Syndrome.
Well D-U-H. I watched the first 5 episodes of Girls and in a general sense I don’t have much of an issue over the “race” thing. After all I’ve come to expect such tactics from the entertainment industry.
I mean that’s what some whites do. They act as if only they exist, as if people of other ethnicities can’t also be wealthy, or even exist except in the most tangential ways.
As a woman of color who is from New York I have been fortunate in my life, to have had access to social situations that some people of color may not have access to: Galas, Speeches, Celebrity Receptions, Premiers, etc. I can definitively assure my readers that regardless of the a girls financial status, there is always a person of color around that isn’t a homeless street dweller.
I find it humorous to read conservative blogs defending the lack of diversity on HBOs Girls, claiming that it IS the reality of rich white girls to not ever encounter people of color [With the exception of the Asian techno-nerd who was hired over Hannah]. Claiming that wanting diversity is somehow a liberal agenda of “Political Correctness.” EVERYTHING THAT ENTAILS THAT ONE BE GROUNDED IN THE REALITY OF LIFE, is NOT the result of a liberal conspiracy or liberal political agenda.
The reality is that the “whiteness” of Girls is not about people of color or even educated people [who tend to be more liberal] complaining that we aren’t represented more. It’s about the “whiteness” of the characters representing the isolation that some Caucasians feel in a global community, where people of color outnumber them.
Girls is promoting itself as a 21st Century Sex and the City and the fact is that it’s trying a bit too hard to remind us that it’s a rehash of SATC aimed at twenty somethings.
Did the viewers really need the [premier episode to make comparisons between the characters of Sex and the City and the Characters of Girls? Let the show evolve into it’s own.
I really don’t need to be beat over the head with a Ham to get the impression that certain characters are supposed to represent certain characters on SATC: The Sex Kitten, The Journalist, The Gallery Curator etc. I really lose a lot of respect for the industry when it denies talented writers and actors opportunities and then offers consumers a product manned by entitled offspring of the privileged that they feel must be “spoon fed” to us.
Yes HBO’s Girls is about whiny, privileged white girls, Yes it’s overtly heterosexual. However the most overt flaw with the new HBO series “Girls” lay in the fact is that it’s about “Girls” and not W"omen.
Sex and the City also received criticisms for its lack of diversity when it was on the air: Too White, Too Rich etc, but the difference was SATC was about WOMEN and that alone allowed the actresses to transcend the dividing line between clueless: “Mommy and Daddy please pay my way” virgin-girl and sexually repressed art gallery curator Charlotte.
The character Hannah [Lena Dunham] even dresses like a child. Really? It’s a ludicrous juxtaposition watching Hannah standing at the bedroom entrance of her boyfriend, dressed in an outfit reminiscent of a milkmaid watching him do unsavory things to himself and speaking to him like a dominatrix.
In fact the males males on Girls are nothing more than skinny boys [Well exception of Hannah’s boss].
Allison Wlliams {Daughter of NBC news anchor Brian Williams] plays Marnie and is Hannah’s roommate, she meets a guy at an exhibit. He is famous, he is puny, he is pasty. Marnie tells him that she’s not going to kiss him. He moves real close to Marnie and assures her that first time he "F&^%s her she is going to be afraid, because he is a man and he knows how to do things.”
This proclamation apparently excites Marni to the point of rushing to the Ladies room, locking the door and “Jilling-Off.”
The scene would have been hotter if the words had been spoken by someone who looked as if he could actually “Walk the Walk” and not just “Talking the Talk.”
Finally as much as I tried to like the character Hannah I couldn’t. Dunham genuinely wrote some funny stuff, although I was less impressed with the delivery.
I have read some criticisms of the HBO comedy series: Girls. For Example:
On the Womanist Musings blog, the author offers a detailed critique of the show’s trivialities and lack of diversity, pointing out that the first black person shown is a homeless man.
The show was similarly condemned in the Twitterverse.
“Thanks to HBO’s Girls I now don’t have to travel to NYC to know what it’s like. It’s just all white people,” tweeted one. Another lamented that the title should have been “White Girl Problems.” Another tweeted “HBO’s Girls, summarized for you to save you the trouble: White girls, money, whining. There now; that’s what all the fuss is about.”
Lena Dunham plays the lead character, Hannah, who is a college graduate without a job and living off her parents. But when they sever financial ties, she whines, is too socially awkward to get a job and balks at suggestions to work at McDonalds, even though she can’t pay her share of the rent.
The actress/creator called the lack of diversity “an accident,” and said she hopes to address the issue in a potential second season.
“Our generation is not just white girls. It’s guys. Women of color. Gay people. The idea that I could speak for everyone is so absurd,” she said. “But what is nice is if I could speak for me and it resonate for people.”
Oh Gee how nice of you to make that acknowledgement. This prime facie of “Hipster Racism” or the: “I CAN’T be a racist if I acknowledge that other ethnicities, cultures, physical abilities and sexual orientations exist: Syndrome.
Well D-U-H. I watched the first 5 episodes of Girls and in a general sense I don’t have much of an issue over the “race” thing. After all I’ve come to expect such tactics from the entertainment industry.
I mean that’s what some whites do. They act as if only they exist, as if people of other ethnicities can’t also be wealthy, or even exist except in the most tangential ways.
As a woman of color who is from New York I have been fortunate in my life, to have had access to social situations that some people of color may not have access to: Galas, Speeches, Celebrity Receptions, Premiers, etc. I can definitively assure my readers that regardless of the a girls financial status, there is always a person of color around that isn’t a homeless street dweller.
I find it humorous to read conservative blogs defending the lack of diversity on HBOs Girls, claiming that it IS the reality of rich white girls to not ever encounter people of color [With the exception of the Asian techno-nerd who was hired over Hannah]. Claiming that wanting diversity is somehow a liberal agenda of “Political Correctness.” EVERYTHING THAT ENTAILS THAT ONE BE GROUNDED IN THE REALITY OF LIFE, is NOT the result of a liberal conspiracy or liberal political agenda.
The reality is that the “whiteness” of Girls is not about people of color or even educated people [who tend to be more liberal] complaining that we aren’t represented more. It’s about the “whiteness” of the characters representing the isolation that some Caucasians feel in a global community, where people of color outnumber them.
Girls is promoting itself as a 21st Century Sex and the City and the fact is that it’s trying a bit too hard to remind us that it’s a rehash of SATC aimed at twenty somethings.
Did the viewers really need the [premier episode to make comparisons between the characters of Sex and the City and the Characters of Girls? Let the show evolve into it’s own.
I really don’t need to be beat over the head with a Ham to get the impression that certain characters are supposed to represent certain characters on SATC: The Sex Kitten, The Journalist, The Gallery Curator etc. I really lose a lot of respect for the industry when it denies talented writers and actors opportunities and then offers consumers a product manned by entitled offspring of the privileged that they feel must be “spoon fed” to us.
Yes HBO’s Girls is about whiny, privileged white girls, Yes it’s overtly heterosexual. However the most overt flaw with the new HBO series “Girls” lay in the fact is that it’s about “Girls” and not W"omen.
Sex and the City also received criticisms for its lack of diversity when it was on the air: Too White, Too Rich etc, but the difference was SATC was about WOMEN and that alone allowed the actresses to transcend the dividing line between clueless: “Mommy and Daddy please pay my way” virgin-girl and sexually repressed art gallery curator Charlotte.
The character Hannah [Lena Dunham] even dresses like a child. Really? It’s a ludicrous juxtaposition watching Hannah standing at the bedroom entrance of her boyfriend, dressed in an outfit reminiscent of a milkmaid watching him do unsavory things to himself and speaking to him like a dominatrix.
In fact the males males on Girls are nothing more than skinny boys [Well exception of Hannah’s boss].
Allison Wlliams {Daughter of NBC news anchor Brian Williams] plays Marnie and is Hannah’s roommate, she meets a guy at an exhibit. He is famous, he is puny, he is pasty. Marnie tells him that she’s not going to kiss him. He moves real close to Marnie and assures her that first time he "F&^%s her she is going to be afraid, because he is a man and he knows how to do things.”
This proclamation apparently excites Marni to the point of rushing to the Ladies room, locking the door and “Jilling-Off.”
The scene would have been hotter if the words had been spoken by someone who looked as if he could actually “Walk the Walk” and not just “Talking the Talk.”
Finally as much as I tried to like the character Hannah I couldn’t. Dunham genuinely wrote some funny stuff, although I was less impressed with the delivery.
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