Lena Dunham

[Carolina]

Nov 2, 2019 16:02:50 GMT -4 mrspickles said:

Nov 2, 2019 14:44:52 GMT -4 scarlet said:

I know I should feel sympathy for her, but this sentence is so un-self-aware. She's made her entire career out of 'making things weird.' I feel bad that she's dealing with chronic illness, but, Christ, she grates on my nerves.

Not only that but she is one who regularly and aggressively dresses to provoke.The cane would most likely not have made her wardrobe and more weird.

This new sentence suggests to me that her previous 'girl power/body positive/antislutshaming' message was not as authentic as she has tried to claim. There is nothing wrong with supporting any of those things, but sometimes I get a 'doth protest too much' vibe that suggests the behavior is a reaction to unaddressed trauma and not true empowerment.

I hope that acknowledging the (apparently) true source of her anger helps her.

#notashrinkbutiusedtowatchfrasier

Lena knows that she will never be Hollywood beautiful or even regular beautiful so she wears ridiculous outfits rather than just trying to show up to events looking nice because she can't compete on that level. I have some sympathy for her in that regard. It's hard to be a regular looking woman in Hollywood. Her obnoxiousness and attention-seeking behavior make it so difficult to maintain any level of sympathy and understanding though.

[Deleted]

For a while she was so overhyped and overpraised in the media, I think it's hit her pretty hard that the success she had with Girls kind of lead nowhere. She was the writer, director and lead actress of that show and looking at her imdb, she seems to be doing none of those things anymore. Which of course could be connected to her health issues but who knows.

[Ginger]

She recently said that her drug addiction caused her life, relationships, and career to go to shambles, so it's true that things are not great with her on all fronts.

As an outside observer, I would say her problems are much too complicated to chalk up just to the pill addiction.

[mrspickles]

Nov 4, 2019 13:56:17 GMT -4 Carolina said:

Nov 2, 2019 16:02:50 GMT -4 mrspickles said:

Not only that but she is one who regularly and aggressively dresses to provoke.The cane would most likely not have made her wardrobe and more weird.

This new sentence suggests to me that her previous 'girl power/body positive/antislutshaming' message was not as authentic as she has tried to claim. There is nothing wrong with supporting any of those things, but sometimes I get a 'doth protest too much' vibe that suggests the behavior is a reaction to unaddressed trauma and not true empowerment.

I hope that acknowledging the (apparently) true source of her anger helps her.

#notashrinkbutiusedtowatchfrasier

Lena knows that she will never be Hollywood beautiful or even regular beautiful so she wears ridiculous outfits rather than just trying to show up to events looking nice because she can't compete on that level. I have some sympathy for her in that regard. It's hard to be a regular looking woman in Hollywood. Her obnoxiousness and attention-seeking behavior make it so difficult to maintain any level of sympathy and understanding though.

I agree. I think what I'm trying to say and struggling to make clear is that I think true acceptance is "I don't have to be THE best at everything I do, I just have to do MY best at everything I do."

[kostgard]

I hate to discount the claims of women who claim to have a chronic condition or pain, as they have historically been ignored. She may very well have some sort of condition. I too tend to dress every day like it's laundry day, but I don't call any photographers over.

But I agree in that I just can't with how she goes about it. It does all feel very attention-seeking. Which is why I couldn't get past the first episode of Camping despite liking the actors in it (Jennifer Garner plays a woman who has had a chronic condition/pain and felt misunderstood, but...Jesus. Not even sweet Jennifer Garner could make me not hate it).

I just compare it all to how Selma Blair is dealing with her MS. She is obviously not faking anything, and has been looking as fabulous as possible while dealing with her condition. She even recently went through what was essentially chemo to treat her MS and lost her hair, and this is what she looks like when she steps in front of the camera. Not that I would expect her to always look like that (some days you feel like crap and want your sweatpants), but to me it is clear when you look at Selma and Lena that one wants to be seen as strong and fierce and as an advocate for women dealing with the same condition, and one would like you to feel sorry for her.

[deeconsistent]

Even if someone is aggressively annoying and wears weird clothes for attention, I can completely get why they wouldn't want to commit to using a cane. They signal different things, in some ways, opposing things. Even if you feel like you're eager to challenge society on one front, it can still be scary to have to deal with preconceived notions on another.

[lordofthefries]

Nov 4, 2019 17:21:55 GMT -4 kostgard said:

I just compare it all to how Selma Blair is dealing with her MS. She is obviously not faking anything, and has been looking as fabulous as possible while dealing with her condition. She even recently went through what was essentially chemo to treat her MS and lost her hair, and this is what she looks like when she steps in front of the camera. Not that I would expect her to always look like that (some days you feel like crap and want your sweatpants), but to me it is clear when you look at Selma and Lena that one wants to be seen as strong and fierce and as an advocate for women dealing with the same condition, and one would like you to feel sorry for her.

I think it's awesome that Selma is continuing to look fierce while battling MS, but I don't think anyone has an obligation to do so, particularly while they're dealing with an illness. It's just an additional undue burden and frankly just another unfortunate extension of the deeply sexist notion that (performing) attractiveness is part of the rent a woman must pay to exist in society.

Lena's done enough unfortunate things that she's an imperfect advocate, as evidenced by the reactions to her in this thread. But, goshdarnit, if someone needs to go out in a mumu and house slippers, I'm here to support them in it.

[kostgard]

Nov 4, 2019 21:42:19 GMT -4 lordofthefries said:

Nov 4, 2019 17:21:55 GMT -4 kostgard said:

I just compare it all to how Selma Blair is dealing with her MS. She is obviously not faking anything, and has been looking as fabulous as possible while dealing with her condition. She even recently went through what was essentially chemo to treat her MS and lost her hair, and this is what she looks like when she steps in front of the camera. Not that I would expect her to always look like that (some days you feel like crap and want your sweatpants), but to me it is clear when you look at Selma and Lena that one wants to be seen as strong and fierce and as an advocate for women dealing with the same condition, and one would like you to feel sorry for her.

I think it's awesome that Selma is continuing to look fierce while battling MS, but I don't think anyone has an obligation to do so, particularly while they're dealing with an illness. It's just an additional undue burden and frankly just another unfortunate extension of the deeply sexist notion that (performing) attractiveness is part of the rent a woman must pay to exist in society.

Lena's done enough unfortunate things that she's an imperfect advocate, as evidenced by the reactions to her in this thread. But, goshdarnit, if someone needs to go out in a mumu and house slippers, I'm here to support them in it.

I get that, but to me it feels like Selma is doing what makes her feel better. And there’s this notion out there that when you get a certain diagnosis, you become that diagnosis and you are to drop everything else. I feel like this is Selma’s way of fighting back against that. Lena, I feel, leans into the diagnosis and her suffering becomes a key piece of her identity.

[Deleted]

I think she's nuts, but that doesn't mean she's not sick.

[americanchai]

Good god, she's exhausting. She's exhausting to look at, to listen to, to think about. Her biggest problem is her.