I have become and enlightened girl. I am now authorized to embrace my female anatomy and have wanton sexual encounters without guilt or consequence or emotion. I can now use profanity better than a man and use the amenities of the washroom facilities unencumbered by such archaic constructs like modesty and privacy. I am now totes a girl who can throw the constraints of a paying job to the wind and live off the handouts of those who chose the debasing task of being successful through talent and hard work. Ladies and . . . I mean girls and boys, I have seen the light.
[drum roll]
I have seen an episode of “Girls.”
I have been given permission to throw off my faith and morals and throw myself headlong into a life of frivolity and never maturing. I mean, what grown woman wouldn’t want to be forever identified as a girl? What was I thinking, trying to be responsible by having a job and weighing consequences before acting? I am like, totally a new girl! Woo! Let me frolic around but whine when I don’t get my way and take drugs when mommy and daddy finally cut me off for not doing anything to support myself. Oh yeah! That’s empowering! Cue the #headdesk-ing of every female with even a shred of self-respect.
For those privileged enough to be asking, “What?” you’re missing out on killing pieces of your soul for thirty minutes at a time. Lena Dunham has been heralded by the likes of Mayor Bloomberg as an inspiration for creating, writing, and starring in the HBO show “Girls” while those of us in the real world are choking with simultaneous reactions of disgust and laughter that this self-professed girl is being taken seriously by anyone. I sat through one episode. Just one. And had to cover the screen because a scene turned pornographic (and not in a way that would make anyone want to see it more than once). The lack of passion, connection, or even feigned enjoyment was disturbing all by itself.
With role models in the world like Mary Kay, who, in the 1940s was a divorcee raising her children on her own and, in 1963, created an company based on faith, respect, and family that has grown internationally, why are we praising the likes of Lena Dunham for debasing herself then slapping her with her own title of, “Speaking for a generation”?
