That’s got to be one of the most narcissistic things I’ve ever heard. Even worse than her character in the show.
Dunham doesn’t seem narcissistic. Self-centered, self-hating, navel-gazing hipster, yes. Narcissist, no.
And it did seem that she was referring to psychological helpers, not sexual ones.
Yes, that’s how I understood it. So she is basically saying that if he is not attracted to her, he needs psychological help, right? That sounds to me like “egotistic admiration of one’s own physical or mental attributes, that derive from arrogant pride”, not like “self-hating”.
I think it’s more, ‘You have issues with women that need to be addressed,’ than, ‘You’re crazy if you don’t find me hot.’
The sentence starts with “if you’re not into me”, so at least she thinks his “issues with women” are highly related to this.
If you do or say something that a lot of people wonder the same thing about and you invite people to ask you questions, you’re going to get the same question over and over and over and over and over. Even if you’ve already answered the same question for someone else. Maybe they weren’t listening the first time, or maybe they don’t really grok your point and want some elaboration, or maybe they don’t feel like your previous response actually answers the question, or maybe they want to see if you express yourself differently about the issue in different outlets, or maybe they just want to hear it straight from you for whatever reason. That’s just the human condition, and these folks might as well accept it.
Humans being human, as Dunham herself might say.
I kind of got the impression from the “naked physically, naked emotionally” comment that this is at least partly a choice to physically echo/mirror/enhance the character’s emotional vulnerability. Why they can’t just say that instead of all this bs-ing around about it, I’m not sure.
Somehow I posted this on the wrong thread. Please ignore.
She’s said that before. She’s also said that she likes getting naked on screen because people that look like her aren’t naked on TV very often.
Of course, in real life, Dunham is fairly attractive and she purposely uglies herself up for the show. So I think she’s backed away from the people that look like her reasoning.
Yup, it’s not only completely non-sequitur, it’s downright rude; far more rude than the question.
Yup, a big overreaction.
That would have been a far better response, then. Instead, they responded rudely, drawing inferences that are totally unjustified by the transcript. Maybe if he’d sneered when he asked it … unfortunately we don’t have video of the interview.
Bingo.
Only if she was making misogynistic assumptions herself, IMHO. I mean, I see your point, but the response seems way too defensive (and using an offense as the best defense – in both meanings of the word “offense”). It’s easy to present nudity that’s not salacious, even if the actress is drop-dead sexy. Of course, if they were going for salacious and failed, well then maybe they’d have a point in feeling offended.
Good point! They could have said that.
Count me in. They were way outside the fold. He deserves an apology. Now sure, we all make mistakes like that. But they are just that: mistakes, not justifiable responses.
Right.
I can certainly imagine he could have asked it in a tone that was offensive, but being that Apatow told him to write it down and ask it to his girlfriend - it is clear they are claiming the question in and of itself is offensive.
I don’t see how. She seems to like to be naked. I don’t see any problem with it - whatever her reason is. Why they would attack this guy is beyond me. Sure you get asked the same questions over and over. How many truly original questions do they really think they are going to get.
It seemed obvious to me that the reporter was implying the following: (1) You [Lena Dunham] are not attractive; (2) therefore you must provide some other justification being nude in your show.
Arguably that’s all one thing, so maybe I shouldn’t made “implications” plural.
People in the entertainment industry are often contractually obligated to make appearances like this. I don’t know if that’s the case here, but it’s not that remarkable that an actor would submit to an interview but bristle at the questions anyway.
Right away I see a few reasons for the nudity.
#1 As you say, she likes to be naked. I doubt that is the reason.
#2 She wants to show that nudity is a natural thing and she wants to turn it into something mundane. As the creator of the show she would prefer if the entire cast would follow her lead but they don’t want to be naked that often. (I believe by now most if not all have shown some nudity but not nearly as much) So she does it with her character. It shouldn’t be difficult to say that, even over and over.
#3 The awkward and unsexy nudity is used to say something about the character. Since she created the character it shouldn’t be difficult to say that, even over and over.
#4 A combination of 3 and 4. Again shouldn’t be hard to talk about. It is obviously a conscious choice she made about the character. Just like if she had her character wear a duck on her head every scene.
I think this incident illustrates that Dunham’s real character is reflected to a great degree by her character’s character—an extremely self-centered child of privilege who has been given opportunities not available to the vast majority of people her age and who has mistaken that circumstance for something she has earned on merit, or, in the words of the great Anne Richards, a person who was born on third based and thinks she has hit a triple.
Then why not just say it again this time (and the next 10, 000 times she gets asked that question, because it’s going to happen) and move on? Why go the fuck off on this guy?
Because Lena Dunham is kind of a drama queen.
I just need to recognize the absolute brilliance of this post.
I have to echo you, edwards_beard.
I had heard much about this show, and caught a couple of episodes of it this weekend. That description seems pretty accurate for both the character and the person. I’d be scampering away from either if I knew them.
Because people get frustrated answering the same stupid question over and over, and sometimes lose their temper.
Humans being human, as someone said.
Polite, intelligent answers don’t get your show free publicity. Freaking out and having everyone go ape on a guy for asking a legitimate questions gets you a multi-page SDMB thread.