ONTD

She's done a film titled Tiny Furniture.

Her entire shtick is representing the young New York scene of twenty-somethings stuck in an impasse of their lives, postgrad and immature in all aspects of their lives, growing, making mistakes, and so forth. The main reason it gets smack is not because she does so from a very white, privileged perspective, but because of representing NYC and not providing any racial diversity is nonsensical. I'm not even talking about the main characters. All the college kids, all the parties, even walking down the streets of New York have the vast majority of extras white. Even when going to Brooklyn and near Queens, how the hell is every single person white as fuck on the streets behind you? It's ridiculous.

She mentioned in an interview before the show aired that this was her realistic portrayal of NYC and then backtracked later when the lack of diversity comments started coming out by saying she meant it was her version of NYC that she grew up with, which was anglo, WASPY, and Jewish.

Which is still insanely naive of a thing to say because 1) NYC, even the yuppie parts, is not exclusively biege. What narrow and protected life do you lead in one of the most culturally diverse cities in the world that the majority of your interactions are solely with white people who look just like you? 2) If the reason you don't like adding minorities on your show is because you don't know how to write for them (she literally said in an interview that she's writing from her life experiences and didn't want to offend anyone by writing in a diverse character -- that was her actual response as to why her show is predominantly if not entirely white) then that is a shitty as fuck excuse. You -- oh Idk, insane idea, really -- but you could have hired an actual minority in your writing staff then? Or maybe she could have realized that unless you're writing a storyline specifically dealing with a minority issue, why the hell does race even matter? Your show is about college grads fucking up with men, having bad jobs, friends fighting, unexpected troubles, and so forth. How the hell is this only a white perspective kind of deal? Any character, any plotline, could have easily been played by anyone of any background or color. The fact that she conceives her writing to be partial to white/Jewish only shows how unbelievably ignorant she is that these problems are relative to anyone in that position. It's not like she has to add "ou gurl" and "chiiiild" in every sentence and start putting in Ebonics if a character was cast as black. It's damn stupid to assume that you can't write for another minority because you don't know their voice/actions. It's not an alien race. Don't know how to represent a minority? Have a minority do that for you in the writing OR realize that minorities can speak and act the same way you do.

/tl;dr but lawd this bitch is someone I cannot stand

Edited at 2012-08-09 07:06 pm (UTC)

You're jumping to the conclusion that my comment is the equivalent of her using the n-word in every episode? Do you... not even grasp how insipid and, I think the actual lexical term is, 'dumb as fuck' that is?

No, no, you're totally right. Because the entire show takes places in a dominantly Polish/Jewish area. Except that it does not. In fact, her show takes place in a neighborhood that is, by the last Census, primarily mixed between Hispanic, Caucasian, and African-American. Also, I lived in that very neighborhood myself. That is no Polish/Jewish majority. Not to mention, you do realize that her show takes place throughout most parts of New York, from Queens to Brooklyn, not stuck in one area only of New York?

I never stated this show is one of the big offenders for lack of diversity, I merely am stating why I dislike Lena Dunham. In which I am entirely on topic. If this was a post about another show or bigotry at large, I would have bigger fish to fry, but we are in a post about Lena Dunham. Hence I'm talking about why I dislike Lena Dunham. There's the connection.

Her life story is not about me, but you clearly were impassioned enough to reply and with large assumptions and basic sentences that make no sense. I'm either left thinking you're either a clever troll or a stupid person, but ty anyways for your comment. Ya totally got me.

...

lol, yet another ignorant and racially insensitive comment from you.

This isn't a dream world, so no need to state how improbable a diverse writing staff would be, but the HBO viewers who most watch the show and make up the majority of its demographic are 50+ males, therefore by your suggestion the writing staff should be filled of middle aged men and the topics should be about their interests, as the viewers and payers of such programming. White privilege is a problem, and if the topic is annoyingly repeated all the time it's because white privilege itself is annoyingly repetitive.

It's her show, she can write about whatever she wants, but my issue with her is that she cops out of explaining the lack of minorities all the time. Either admit to the fact that you don't want to be bothered to write for minorities or do what she does, which is ambiguously correct her previous statements or state that the lack of minorities is something "she'll look into" while tiptoeing around the issue altogether.

Also, as a writer myself, that excuse is such incredible bullshit. How many male writers write for female characters all the time? How many white people write non-white characters? As a writer, you are constantly writing about experiences and people you don't know. That's the whole point of fiction. You don't have to have a medical degree to write for a medical drama. It's not hard writing for minorities. They're human. Write them the same way you write anyone else. Unless the plot material for an episode calls for you to be cross-culturally sensitive, than there's no need to worry about writing about some person you don't know. You're writing a character, not a lifestyle or documentary piece. Ethnicity and race are irrelevant to the universal feeling of being a college student, displaced in the world, with all the boy and friend troubles we all have in our twenties. The whole 'I can't write about what I don't know' and all variant excuses are as hackneyed as they are disproven. In the case of Lena, admit you don't want to include minorities or find a better excuse. Hiding behind not being able to write about what you don't know isn't valid, it just means you're bad at writing.

Edited at 2012-08-09 11:26 pm (UTC)

First off, I have seen the show, but thank you for that keen assumption. Aside from token people in a room full of hundreds (the party scene; the wedding, and so forth, and so forth) which is demographically ridiculous or the stereotypical Boricua at the sexually harassing boss' office or the Hispanic lesbian Tako at the ground party, who else is a minority with more than three words spoken on the show -- or any words spoken at that? None. You said it yourself, there should be passionate fighting for representation in the front of a show, ergo main and secondary characters. There have been none so far and an infinitesimally small representation of any kind at that. I wonder if you've seen the show then or have a different ranking system as to what 'representation' is enough and actually means.

Also, just because I'm mentioning the background representation automatically makes you assume that I in no way fight, support, or speak up about the rise of main character representation of minorities? Seriously? I even stated that my argument is going aside the usual discussion concerning the lack of diversity on the main characters of the show that I and everyone else makes, not in replacement of it. Believe it or not, I can make simultaneous critiques concerning one issue. It's really narrow-minded and a poor comprehension of my words to state that "we should pick our battles more carefully" when you don't even know how many battles I take part in, speak up in, am passionate about, and believe fully in, but thanks for the premature condescension and poor analysis.

How am I going 'batshit' over this? How the hell is this even a passionate fight, girl? Do you really think a discussion on a gossip LJ site is going to empower great change regarding diversity in entertainment? It's called making a rant online and dealing with presumptuous comebacks by people, like your own comment. Typing and having an opinion that someone's a dumbass, while backing it up, is not losing your shit. It's called being annoyed and having reasons for being annoyed, and letting it out. Ain't no sword fight or bazooka here. Save the 'batshit over everything' remark for stan wars and breast feeding wank, because everyone in this post commenting about the unintentional bigotry and racism that Lena Dunham displays -- with this picture and caption, her choice of writers that make racist jokes publicly and without shame on social media, or her backtracking with her comments on minorities in the show -- isn't the case of people going batshit crazy. It's people being reasonably annoyed and disgusted by a dumb white girl who is uneducated in POC and the realistic portrayals of people who don't fit into her narrow world.

Edited at 2012-08-10 07:53 pm (UTC)