GIRLS
Problematic or Groundbreaking Television?
I swear I didn’t intentionally plan on having back to back posts about HBO shows this month but, ya know what, here we are.
GIRLS is a series that always seemed to cause a lot of polarity. Bring it up and it’s likely you’ll get one of two answers: “Ugh, I hate Lena Dunham.” or “OMG that show was me and my friends in our 20s.” with very few opinions in between. And I get it. I too am not a huge fan of Lena Dunham the person (or necessarily the writer) but I do have a soft spot in my heart when it comes to her creation.
For the first time since the show wrapped up in 2017, I was able to sit and binge the entire series and for those of you unfamiliar with GIRLS, it follows a set of four friends as they navigate life, love, and New York in their 20s. It was kind of like a Sex in the City for millennials.
When the series first aired from 2012 - 2017, I was perfectly nestled into the demographic GIRLS appeared to represent and target: young, white, female, and struggling in a post collegiate reality. It wasn’t difficult to see myself and my friends represented in Hannah, Marnie, Jessa, and Shoshanna because we practically were them, minus having parents that could afford to help us pay for apartments in New York City. Sure, sometimes the characters fit more of a caricature of young women in just how completely heinous they could be in their attitude or behavior but overall, the fights, the romances, the nights out, and the financial uncertainty were all familiar territory.
But as I pressed play on the first episode as a now 31 year old woman living in 2021, I wondered if the good feelings I had associated with GIRLS in my 20s was just a matter of right place right time. In the almost four years since GIRLS left the air there’s been a lot of growth not just for me personally but for society as a whole. So could this show still hold up in an entertaining and, in some respects, groundbreaking way or would it prove itself to be as problematic as its critics say?
Right off the bat, we obviously have some issues, namely that we’re in the most diverse city in the world and we are focusing on four, upper middle class, white girls and their predominantly white love interests, co-workers, and friends. This was something often brought up throughout GIRLS run so this issue isn’t anything new. But 2012 Jodi didn’t really pay as much attention to the lack of diversity on tv the way 2021 Jodi does. Probably because my own circle was predominantly white and I was used to seeing people who look like me on my screen without ever questioning it…my own privilege barely made this issue register on my first viewing while now it’s all I can see. Lena Dunham tried to remedy the situation (and curb the criticism) in season two when she brought Donald Glover in to play her character Hannah’s republican boyfriend for all of two episodes. She didn’t write the character in any way that made him feel like he mattered to the story beyond proving that Lena Dunham isn’t racist which, in my opinion, kind of makes it worse? But not being a BIPOC who am I to make that call.
What I can speak frankly about is the way GIRLS tries to set itself up as a female empowerment and feminist show. By the second episode we’ve already seen Dunham’s naked, and not typical Hollywood, body and been invited to the doctor’s office for the abortion appointment of one of the girls. These things are done freely and without much thought and I think that’s wonderful. GIRLS has always been applauded for the way it handles women as real, multi-dimensional, human beings. While I might not necessarily need to see Dunham naked at least once an episode, it is nice to see a woman who doesn’t fit the typical, societal, beauty mold unafraid and at home in her own body. She’s not fat by any means, she’s got an average woman’s body, but her ability to openly love that body and get numerous lovers with that body was refreshing in 2012 and, in some cases, still today. The only real problem I ever had with Dunham’s body was that Hannah’s always out here wearing shit that I KNOW was causing chub rub with no barrier at all….maybe she made a good body glide investment? As for sex and reproductive health, GIRLS never shied away from either. The series treated abortions as a normal, every day task that didn’t need to be talked about in hushed tones in the dark. In season four, Hannah’s on again-off again boyfriend Adam, played by my boy Adam Driver, is dating a woman named Mimi-Rose who, offhandedly, mentions the abortion she had the day before when he asks if she wants to go for a run. Adam doesn’t handle it great but Mimi-Rose is very matter of fact about the whole thing and never apologizes for the choice she made.
Other things I took away from this binge watch include how much they all use “clean” as a compliment during the first couple of seasons (more than twice, characters are described as being “clean” when listing their attributes…not neat, clean. It struck me as odd every time,) how much I still love the concept for the fake play, 38 Neighbors, about the Kitty Genovese murder, and think it should be brought to life, how much I HATE what happened with Charlie’s character and how he was written/acted in his final appearance in season 5, and that deep down…I know, in personality, I’ll always be a Ray.
I’d say that on this rewatch, I found more things I still liked about GIRLS than put me off from it, so overall I still think of it as a good show. But, in 2021, I feel better equipped to see its flaws and understand a lot of the criticism that has been lobbed at it that maybe I didn’t always understand the first time around. I think, more than anything, doing this rewatch helped me to realize it’s okay to reexamine things you once loved with a more critical eye to decide if it’s something you are still willing to support now or something you should keep in the past. While I doubt I’ll ever come leaping to Lena Dunham’s defense on a lot of things, for GIRLS, I’m willing to fight the good fight….but ask me again in another five years.
What are your thoughts on GIRLS? Were you a fan? Did you find the girls unrealistic or annoying? What’s an old show or movie you loved but on rewatch now makes you feel differently? Let me know in the comments below!