HBO’s “Girls” Backlash
by Jesse Levine
The criticisms being directed at Girls are misguided. The much hyped new HBO show created by Lena Dunham, and co-produced by Judd Apatow, focuses on the lives of upper class, twenty-something, white girls living in New York City. That Girls was promoted as representing a generation is the fault of journalists, and HBO, but not Dunham, or the show itself. If the show was intended to speak for an entire generation, its failure to incorporate a minority character, and a minority perspective, would be a major insult. However, the show is about one segment of society. In this way, it’s not entirely different than the Jersey Shore.
Furthermore, the first episode of Girls presents one of the most critical portrayals of middle class, college educated, young, white people I have ever seen. What’s revelatory about the show, and perhaps inspired some of the hype, is that by focusing on this narrow segment of our culture, Girls shows the hypocrisy shared by many young people.
Girls exposes contradictions of being a middle class, young person, and she’s aimed her criticism squarely at herself. Her characters would identify themselves as liberal, open minded, and modern. That the characters of Girls fail to live up to their own inflated egos, is a main point of the show. That Lena Dunham did not include a black girl in her clique is a symptom of the problems she is confessing to.
To read the rest of this article, click here.
