A Girl's Girl

A buzzword that has been decorated across the Twitter decks of celebrities and even Beyoncé’s block-lettered background for her performance during the MTV Video Music Awards, the word ‘feminism’ has garnered a trendiness all its own.

In a whirl of non-fiction spun around a slew of fictional social rebels, the sit-com “Girls” has been referred to as the realistic take on “Sex and the City”. With a gleaming needle of counter hegemony, Lena Dunham asserts herself as the creative seamstress responsible for threading the controversial television episodes together.

If situational comedies were founded upon the idea of recreating reality for the masses, then Dunham is the writer to remind us of just that. In an article from Elle Magazine, Virginia Vitzthum writes, “Among Dunham's gifts to womankind is her frontline example that some asshole may call you undesirable or worse, and it won't kill you. Your version matters more.” Referring to Dunham’s insistence on honesty in an era of hyperbolic airbrushing, the show “Girls” features Dunham’s character in nude scenes that rival the mainstream women whose idealistic bodies dominate television.

Photo courtesy of thetimes.co.uk.

One size does not fit all and “Girls” reminds audiences of this in the unabashed platform that HBO and three seasons worth of sexual health righteousness will allow. While the upfront stylings that take place on screen in “Girls”, such as the testing of sexually transmitted infections and overt discussions of body awareness are a pivotal ingredient for a good Friday night in with your own misfit friends, critics have something to say about the deviance of this sit-com.

On his SiruisXM radio show in 2013, Howard Stern said of the sit-com, “It's a little fat girl who kinda looks like Jonah Hill and she keeps taking her clothes off and it kind of feels like rape. She seems -- it's like -- I don't want to see that." Met with much backlash, Stern eventually issued a public apology after the public accused him of delusion over the realistic image of the American woman.

At the tip of the messy multitude of pens with chewed up caps that spew the script Dunham writes for herself and her cast mates, is the promotion of learning in media that has yet to take place. By affirming the average woman’s body and doing it in a way that weaves satire and comedy into the lot, HBO has allowed audiences the re-birth of our favorite New York City socialites. Trading Carrie Bradshaw’s closet for Hannah Horvath’s love for expletives, audiences are already exposed to a more honest viewing experience.

Mixing in the need for appreciation versus tolerance for the American woman makes Dunham more of a feminist than any of her star-studded Hollywood colleagues. Because, according to Dunham’s scrawlings, gender equity is not a topic to be covered up so easily with a glittery illusion. It is an issue worth talking about and talking about fairly.

Watch Lena Dunham in an interview with Good Morning America as she translates her sit-com hilarity into her new book, Not That Kind of Girl.