I hate Lena Dunham's book. Whew that feels good to get off my chest. I hated it. I remember running out to buy it and thinking why I didn't like it at all. I loved Mindy Kaling's book and Amy Poehler's and Tina Fey's. Why didn't I like Lena Dunham's? When my comedy friends, especially the women asked me, I couldn't articulate an answer. Only after I took the time to re-read Kaling's, Poehler's and Fey's book did I realize: Dunham's didn't follow the formula. The former mentioned followed a strict formula of an advisory tone, an objective assertion of truth and a promise that being a woman in comedy is a universal union. Dunham's was a book about herself because, as promised, it was a memoir.
This same truth carries into these women's shows, in the formers' shows they are all working professionals, unapologetic about their opinions and goals. While Dunham's show, GIRLS, is a more objective portrayal of how women can sometimes suck. Like her book, Dunham's show also receives more criticism because of what it asserts. It doesn't propose a truth that women are strong and powerful, it represents a truth that sometimes they're not and she is not the authority to say that they are. With her book Dunham was trying to say "this is me" while the other three were trying to say "this is me and you" and I hated Dunham's because I wasn't represented in the equation.
I bring this up because of the release of Mindy Kaling's new book, Why Not Me? A book I hope lives up to the standard of the other one but that reaches it in a new way. I want to work an industry that allows women to be varied in their portrayal even if I'm not part of it.
Genna Davis an Academy Award Winning Actor and Founder of the Genna Davis Institute on Gender in the Media. She recently visited the beautiful Ithaca College on Tuesday, March 31, where she addressed Gender Equality in the Media.
Genna Davis Institute for Gender in Media is a non-profit program which engages film and television creators to dramatically increase the percentage of female characters---and reduce danger stereotyping --in the media made for children 11 and under.
In her speech she addressed that in almost all her roles she plays is a strong women. This is true through her part of the first female President on ABCs hit show Commander in Chief. Currently, Davis plays Dr.Nicole Herman on Grey's Anatomy.
Some of her other films included Toostsie, The Fly, Beetlejuice, Earth Girls Are Easy, Angie, The Long Kiss Goodnight, Stuart Little and A League of Their Own. <----- My TWO FAVS!
Some very interesting points that I feel were valid in her speech are:
Males outnumber females 3 to 1 in family films. In contrast, females comprise just over 50% of the population in the United States. Even more staggering is the fact that this ratio, as seen in family films, is the same as it was in 1946.
Females are almost four times as likely as males to be shown in sexy attire. Further, females are nearly twice as likely as males to be shown with a diminutive waistline. Generally unrealistic figures are more likely to be seen on females than males.
Females are also underrepresented behind the camera. Across 1,565 content creators, only 7% of directors, 13% of writers, and 20% of producers are female. This translates to 4.8 males working behind-the-scenes to every one female.
From 2006 to 2009, not one female character was depicted in G-rated family films in the field of medical science, as a business leader, in law, or politics. In these films, 80.5% of all working characters are male and 19.5% are female, which is a contrast to real world statistics, where women comprise 50% of the workforce.
Recently, when watching my weekly episodes of my favorite shows, I realized that I tend to watch shows that somehow relate to my life. One of my favorite HBO Shows is Girls. A show that follows the very intimate and very real lives of four twenty-somethings, living in New York City. They deal with internal conflict, as well as social conflict with each other and other supporting roles. The issues demonstrated in the show relates to not only my life, but of the lives of girls within the same generation as my own. I think that this ability to relate is what brings so much love to the show, and makes it so attractive to our generation.
Recently found on BuzzFeed:
The questions within this quiz, ask about favorite snacks, pet preference, guilty pleasures, romantic life, style of coffee, etc. The quiz then generates a general response based on the multiple choice answers and posts a picture of the character you are most alike.
Charlie was the character I was matched up with.
Not only was I surprised, I was slightly disappointed!I was hoping to be most like Jessa, or Marnie (my two favorite characters). But then the whole concept of this quiz had me thinking. Am I supposed to be relating to only one character?Then it was sunday night. So, I logged into my HBOGO account and I binged watched Season 3 of Girls. I realized, that the girls in this show have multiple aspects of a girls' personality, but divided up into separate people.
I think that instead of trying to figure out which character I am most alike, I should be thinking about how these characters are most like me. In this interview on The View, the girls of the show describe the "feelings" of the show the most relatable part.
Even though the characters are going through various situations, as a girl, we can feel for the characters as if they were our friends, or even ourselves because the feelings are so familiar. Lena Dunham does an amazing job in getting her audience to relate to the characters in her show. I think that thats what makes this show so great. Girls has a very real flow to it that makes everything seem like real life, but with a little more drama added to it.
