Girl, You Gotta Watch "Girls"

I remember when the series "Girls," was first getting buzz, right before it premiered on HBO, and Lena Dunham was being referred to as "the female slacker." I thought to myself, finally there may be a TV character I could truly relate to! I fully embraced the whole Gen-X identity in my 20's and had ambitions to be one of those quirky, slacker types that one finds in abundance here in Portland. My reasons for this were complicated and idiosyncratic, and I won't get into them here, but suffice it to say that I was born disillusioned and learned to expect catastrophic doom. I considered it a fruitless waste of time to seriously pursue professional ambitions, because life was too short and time too precious and there was so much fun to be had.

When "Girls" premiered in 2012, my home did not have cable TV. So I contented myself with reading about the series, and was amused at the variety of reactions and criticism it received. I'm not that interested in how Lena Dunham personally behaves in a public forum, her Tweets and interviews and such. There's a lot there and she's become a somewhat controversial celebrity. Her Vogue cover sent the Jezebel staff into a quasi-feminist fury, which was fun to observe in a schadenfreude sorta way. [Note: that is the first time I have ever used the word "schadenfreude" in either writing or conversation!]
I just care about Lena's work and her contribution to our culture, and it's not like she molested a kid for fuck's sake! She's in her 20's and is figuring it all out and making missteps and learning from them. Just like everyone else, but with the whole world watching. It's hard to name a comedian who hasn't offended large sections of the population at one point or another, except lame ones like Jay Leno. The trick is not to crash and burn, and I don't see this happening to Lena Dunham.

Recently one of my friends told me I should watch "Girls" because she knew I would love it. Then another friend told me that she had just started watching "Girls" and that the Lena Dunham character, Hannah, reminded her so much of me. So I decided that, since I now had cable TV and HBO, I would watch the show. I had been meaning to watch it eventually anyway, but first I had to watch "True Blood" and "Big Love." Both of which I loved and mildly obsessed over.

Okay, so I've been watching "Girls" and am just a couple episodes into the second season. And yes, I love it! I love it because it never fails to make me uncomfortable and squirmy, and because I always gut-laugh at least once per episode. I love how Lena gets naked all the time, the way she unselfconsciously tears off her shirt at the drop of a hat. I think this is good for the culture. I think it's great to see an imperfect woman OWN IT. I am sick to death of the American beauty standard, it has crippled 3 generations of women into self-loathing and self-imposed starvation. No wonder there's so many stupid bitches out there, they are HUNGRY. So many women have been like this since kids, withholding the nutrition their developing brains needed, stunting their intellectual growth and causing them to become stupid adults. This is just my own personal theory, which should be taken with a shaker of salt because I also believe that humans originally derived from extraterrestrial beings who visited Earth and had a sexy good time with some apes.

"Girls" is not without problems. I find the story lines to be often formulaic and the characters' motives to be unrealistic. Here's how it goes: one of the girls encounters a big life problem, such as losing their job. Then someone gives the girl some outrageous advice that goes against the better judgement of the girl, such as, abandon your field of choice and pursue a different career. Without any self-reflection or trust in their own perceptions, they follow the outrageous advise and make ridiculous and sometimes devastating mistakes. This is how Hannah ends up trying to seduce her elderly boss, how Marnie finds herself working as an eye-candy hostess at a men's club, and Jessa marries someone completely wrong for her. So far, Shoshonna hasn't taken any bad advice to heart, but I'm sure it's coming.

Surprisingly, and to Lena Dunham's credit, the male characters in "Girls" are nuanced and a healthy mix of lovable and asshole, just like the girls. I'm obsessed with the Adam character, he is the type of guy I would have "chased like... the fucking Beatles" when I was in my 20's. Tall, dark, and defiantly weird, anyone who knows Edy O. knows that's my type in spades. And I'm starting to really like Ray, the older loser asshole who I suspect is a diamond in the rough, who falls for the sparkly Shoshonna. When he finally cracks and shows his vulnerability, it's a loving moment set in a grimy subway station, and simply beautiful.

Lena Dunham's show is about being a 20-something woman and trying to figure it all out while making missteps and learning from them. Kinda like real life. I'm a couple of decades past my 20's but I only remember taking my own bad advice and not learning much from it. I would say this is because I am a true female slacker, while the characters that live in the world of "Girls" are anything but. Hannah may have come off as a slacker in the first episode because she had been enjoying life on her parents' dime, but when they cut her off she reluctantly made do, later refusing her mother's offer of financial help out of pride. This is not something a slacker does. Mom, if you're reading this, I need to borrow money! A lot of money!

My friends were right, Hannah reminds me of me, except I have obnoxiously huge boobs and can't just trade shirts with some random guy at a club. The scene in which Adam makes Hannah go jogging and she ends up collapsing in the middle of the street was a page ripped straight from my yearbook and I have been known to eat Cool Whip from the tub with a spoon. Luckily for me I lived through my 20's in relative obscurity because I surely would have failed to pass the judgement of the critical masses.