Girls

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Lena Dunham on Girls
Lena Dunham’s HBO series has been hailed for itssharp, insightful snapshot of 20-something young, white, straight womennavigating their New York City lives in a post-Sex and the City moment in which (Bridesmaids aside) nothing has really seemed to catch the zeitgeistfrom a women’s perspective.
Dunham, who plays Hannah, the lynchpin of thequartet of friends on whose overlapping lives and close-knit friendship circlethe series will focus, shines with a particularly smart, offbeat on-screencharisma.  She radiates intelligence in away that few women on television do, with the exception of Edie Falco in Nurse Jackie, Julianna Margulies in The Good Wife, or (sometimes) LauraLinney in The Big C.  In some ways, Hannah reminds me of JaneAdams’s character in the much-missed Hung (also from HBO).
Hannah is not a waif-like, flighty young woman,but someone with dreams, desires, and something to say.  Her body size doesn’t conform to conventionalimpossibly thin standards, which means her clothing (she remarks how expensiveit is to look “this cheap”) hangs differently around her.  Her haircut doesn’t seem outrageously expensiveand she doesn’t seem to wear make-up.
In other words, her appearance immediatelybreaks the mold of most young women seen on television and in films.  And even though she comments on her weightand her clothes, bemoaning how they don’t hold up to the ideal, it’s still apleasure to be invited into the life of a normal-looking woman.
Her friends, though, conform more closely totypical beauty and behavior standards. Marnie (Allison Williams), Hannah’s roommate, has long brown hair and asvelte figure and, in the pilot, bemoans the excessive attention of a hoveringbeau.
Allison Williams as Marnie
Shoshanna (Zosia Mamet), theirmotor-mouth, hyper but earnest friend, is also thin and attractive, if slightlymore “ethnic” (read Jewish; her last name is Shapiro).
Zosia Mamet as Shoshanna
And Jessa (Jemima Kirke), Shoshanna’s Britishcousin, is chic and sophisticated—or at least her accent makes her sound thatway.  Jessa, it soon turns out, is also pregnant,so her body looks strangely more like Hannah’s.

Jemima Kirke as Jessa
Rebecca Traister, writing admiringly of the show in Salon, notes how these fourwomen’s primary intimacy focuses on one another.  In the show’s opening image, Hannah andMarnie spoon in bed together as the alarm goes off in the morning.  Marnie, it seems, wants to escape thesmothering embrace of her boyfriend, which she had accomplished the nightbefore by hanging out in Hannah’s bed watching Mary Tyler Moore show reruns and falling asleep.
Later, the friends bathe together, Marnie shavingher legs wrapped in a towel and Hannah lounging naked beside her, eating acupcake for breakfast.  But even thoughHannah mentions that she’s never seen Marnie’s breasts, Marnie demurs,insisting that she only reveals herself to people she’s having sex with.
And thus my basic hesitation with Girls so far.  I love the focus on female friendships, whichwe so rarely get to see on television (Sexand the City aside—I was never a fan. And I long for Alicia and Kalinda to be friends again on The Good Wife).  But much of the Girls pilot works overtime to secure these women’s heterosexuality.  Marnie and Hannah have slept together, butwe’re not to mistake them for lovers. Later in the episode, another of the friends makes a crack aboutlesbians (clearly, I’ve blocked it out) that’s meant to underline, again, thatshe’s not one.  And despite Hannah’s penchant for having sexwith inappropriate male partners, same-sex choices don’t appear to cross her mind.
If these women truly are intimate with one anotheremotionally and logistically, I’m not sure why sexual relationships betweenthem have to be so quickly foreclosed. For young women who are sharp, sophisticated, and observant about socialmores and patterns, such heteronormativity bespeaks a limited imagination, acultural palette that fails to explore the full spectrum of humanrelationships.
Hannah’s tryst with Adam (Adam Driver) in thepilot has provoked some viewers with its awkward, explicit sexual nature.  Adam drives their exchange, telling Hannahhow to position herself, taking her from behind, and clearly using her for hisown enjoyment without either one of them appearing to be very concerned withhers.  Hannah talks throughout the sex,asking him if she’s doing what he wants and explaining why she’s not interestedin being penetrated anally.  He finallyasks her to be quiet, shutting down her ruminations and, it seems, her sexualagency.
Perhaps this is how Hannah prefers to havesex.  Fine with me.  But as a television representation, it sendsa certain message about how women prioritize (or not) their own desire.  Hannah, of course, knows that she’scompromising and apparently, in future episodes, is caught in the typicalmuddle of nice guy v. bad guy boyfriend dilemma.  Girlswants to represent women and their desires differently, which I admire.
Of course, I’m basing my impressions on only the first episode.  I’ll keep watching and hopingthat the show gains a confidence that will let it leave aside its implicithomophobia and think more openly and creatively about how intimacy amongfriends—and sexuality among women—can be expressed.
The Feminist Spectator
Girls on HBO, Sundays at 10:30 p.m.