Lena Dunham

[Deleted]

Jan 10, 2014 21:16:19 GMT -4 Babycakes said:

Jan 10, 2014 21:05:33 GMT -4 @madefortv said:

I don't think the nudity on Girls can be compared to that on Game of Thrones at all, though. The nudity on Girls is probably more comparable to Sex and the City or something like that, and no one complained about seeing Kim Cattrall nude all the time (at least, not people who don't have a problem with nudity on television). The issue here is not that Lena is nude, it's that people think she's too chubby and unattractive to be nude.

Maybe Lena does think she's "the shit," but the beauty of it is, that doesn't matter. However, the fact that she is comfortable enough with herself to be nude on a popular TV show even though she has an imperfect body DOES matter. It may be a small thing and she may be completely insufferable to a lot of people, but it still makes a difference. So that's something that I can't hate on.

I didn't like a lot of Samantha's storylines, or a lot of SatC storylines because they were often over the top and/or downright crude. I didn't always identify with them, but I could find humor when things were written well. Sometimes it was funny (Sam's Bozo bush after she decided to dye her pubes), moving (Charlotte's saying the girls were her soulmates), and sometimes it was too much (when Sam decided to pose nude). I just know when it's too much for me. I think people (me included) would be more apt to cheer Lena on, if she were actually funny. But she's not.

I see what you are saying. That's not why I brought up Sex and the City, though. It was simply to make a point about the people who are complaining about Lena being nude because they don't like her body. I know that a lot of people don't think Lena is funny. I watch Girls; I wouldn't say it ranks in my top ten or even my top 20 favorite shows, but there have been a couple of episodes that I've enjoyed. I definitely understand people not being entertained or amused by Lena. But that's completely besides the point. She's not nude to be sexy or to be funny, she's nude because people are naked in real life and REAL women with all different kinds of bodies are nude. And she doesn't care if people tell her repeatedly that they don't want to see her fat, gross naked body on their TV or that she's not hot enough to take her clothes off. Does this make her our generation's Gloria Steinem? No. But it's still something that makes a difference, however small, in public perception so that maybe, SLOWLY, things are changing for women.

[Babycakes]

She's not nude to be sexy or to be funny, she's nude because people are naked in real life and REAL women with all different kinds of bodies are nude. And she doesn't care if people tell her repeatedly that they don't want to see her fat, gross naked body on their TV or that she's not hot enough to take her clothes off. Does this make her our generation's Gloria Steinem? No. But it's still something that makes a difference, however small, in public perception so that maybe, SLOWLY, things are changing for women.

I get your point completely, and I agree. I too find it disgusting that people think that she shouldn't be naked at all on her own show. People have sex. They shower. They poop. People of all shapes and sizes do this. But do we need to see her doing all those things and playing topless table tennis too? I'm trying to separate out the two things, but I keep muddying it back up.

I just don't think Lena is the one to champion this cause. I think she's using it as a vehicle to push her agenda, which is pushing her unfunny projects. She's not the voice of a generation. She not even the random creak in the night of a generation.

She can be naked on her show. She should be naked if she's telling her story. But I think she's doing it for shock value to be outrageous, not to normalize people seeing women larger than a size 4 being nude/intimate.

[Deleted]

Jan 10, 2014 22:25:46 GMT -4 Babycakes said:

She's not nude to be sexy or to be funny, she's nude because people are naked in real life and REAL women with all different kinds of bodies are nude. And she doesn't care if people tell her repeatedly that they don't want to see her fat, gross naked body on their TV or that she's not hot enough to take her clothes off. Does this make her our generation's Gloria Steinem? No. But it's still something that makes a difference, however small, in public perception so that maybe, SLOWLY, things are changing for women.

I get your point completely, and I agree. I too find it disgusting that people think that she shouldn't be naked at all on her own show. People have sex. They shower. They poop. People of all shapes and sizes do this. But do we need to see her doing all those things and playing topless table tennis too? I'm trying to separate out the two things, but I keep muddying it back up.

I just don't think Lena is the one to champion this cause. I think she's using it as a vehicle to push her agenda, which is pushing her unfunny projects. She's not the voice of a generation. She not even the random creak in the night of a generation.

She can be naked on her show. She should be naked if she's telling her story. But I think she's doing it for shock value to be outrageous, not to normalize people seeing women larger than a size 4 being nude/intimate.

She might be only doing it for shock value, but the good news is it still makes an impact anyway. Maybe even the topless table tennis... ? (Yeah, I didn't get that either.) I agree that she's definitely not the "voice of a generation." But I still think that her show is a very small positive step for women when it comes to self-acceptance and body diversity.

[Wol]

I can't find the link, but the journalist quoted his whole conversation with Judd Apatow, and made a good point: if the point of Lena's nudity is that it is representative of real life, why don't the other characters get naked as often as she does? Conversely, I always thought it was ridiculous in SATC that SJP was always wearing black bras in bed. Kind of silly that the lead in a show called Sex in the City has a no nudity clause (and yes, I know the rumors why she won't take her top off). I never minded the nudity on SATC. People are usually naked when they have sex. I find Lena's nudity is a stunt, like Julianne Moore in Short Cuts. Although I liked the topless ping pong - that made sense to me.

[tortuga]

Jan 11, 2014 0:31:20 GMT -4 Wol said:

I can't find the link, but the journalist quoted his whole conversation with Judd Apatow, and made a good point: if the point of Lena's nudity is that it is representative of real life, why don't the other characters get naked as often as she does? Conversely, I always thought it was ridiculous in SATC that SJP was always wearing black bras in bed. Kind of silly that the lead in a show called Sex in the City has a no nudity clause (and yes, I know the rumors why she won't take her top off). I never minded the nudity on SATC. People are usually naked when they have sex. I find Lena's nudity is a stunt, like Julianne Moore in Short Cuts. Although I liked the topless ping pong - that made sense to me.

O/T...what rumors?

[Ginger]

Jan 11, 2014 0:50:25 GMT -4 tortuga said:

Jan 11, 2014 0:31:20 GMT -4 Wol said:

I can't find the link, but the journalist quoted his whole conversation with Judd Apatow, and made a good point: if the point of Lena's nudity is that it is representative of real life, why don't the other characters get naked as often as she does? Conversely, I always thought it was ridiculous in SATC that SJP was always wearing black bras in bed. Kind of silly that the lead in a show called Sex in the City has a no nudity clause (and yes, I know the rumors why she won't take her top off). I never minded the nudity on SATC. People are usually naked when they have sex. I find Lena's nudity is a stunt, like Julianne Moore in Short Cuts. Although I liked the topless ping pong - that made sense to me.

O/T...what rumors?

SJP supposedly has inverted nipples.

[ladyjane]

She must have worn fakes on SATC then, because a lot of SJP nip action went on there.

[Babycakes]

and yes, I know the rumors why she won't take her top off

I don't, please dish!

ETA. Nevermind, you guys posted while I was typing/adding the fabric softner.

[prisma]

I dunno. The nudity thing grates on me because there's a double standard with genders. Yeah, it's nice that someone who doesn't have a perfect body feels comfortable showing it to remind the world what a real body looks like. But it's not like there's an emphasis on getting more guys to get naked. The whole Lena Dunham nudity thing feels a lot like Miley Cyrus's "I'm a feminist because I'm comfortable getting nekkid!!!" line. Women get naked all the time, men less so. Yay Lena for being comfortable with her real body but why feed into the machine in the first place?

Full disclosure: I lost my patience with the nudity inequity within the entertainment industry after watching the last season of Game of Thrones. We saw all kinds of lady nudity--every freaking bit of it--but the only peen they showed us all season was on Hodor, the idiot manchild. Sex scene between Melisandre and Gendry: she is shown full frontal but when she straddles him he still has his pants pulled up to his pubes. Or where his pubes were before they were waxed off. He'll wax his pubes but won't show his dong on tv. WTF?

Full disclosure 2: I live alone with my 19-year-old cat. I was counting on that Gendry nudity.

[Deleted]

I wish My Mad Fat Diary was a bigger thing worldwide. Now THAT show has a lead character and actress who is unlike most leads. No nudity but that's mainly because the characters are 16-ish ;-) The show is also miles better than Girls, btw.

I need to unfollow Lena on Twitter. Every tweet reads as if she has thought it through for hours to come across as spontanously witty/provocative. I know that probably goes for almost every Tweet out there but hers are just too try-hard for me.