Wednesday, October 10, 2012

Lena Dunham, Caitlin Moran, and Why We're Still Failing at Intersectionality

After interviewing Girls creator Lena Dunham last week, writer and feminism's current it girl, Caitlin Moran, fielded this question from a Twitter follower: "did you address the complete and utter lack of people of colour in girls in your interview? i sure hope so!" Her response simply, "Nope. I literally couldn't give a shit about that." (source )

Can we talk about intersectionality now?

The problem with Girls is not so much its focus on the lives of young, upper-middle class, well-connected white women, it's that the experiences of those women are presented as universal. Moran's outright dismissal of other women --  and their lack of representation -- is part of a larger problem within feminism, and one reason why a lot of women, particularly women of color, are turning away from it. And Moran's tweet? I'm disgusted, but not surprised.

Then this happened.

I'm sorry, but this is an incredibly tone-deaf argument. Questioning that one woman's success might not be equal to the small body of work she's produced doesn't make one a"hater." I'm going to keep screaming this until someone listens: criticism is not "hating." The brunt of what's been written about Lena Dunham or her success has more to do with her being privileged on quite a few axes of which she seems largely unaware, not that she's somehow "undeserving" of her success. It's not the $3.5 million book deal she needs to apologize for, it's not responding to the very valid criticism of her work.

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