by Marcia, Ann, Ava and C.I.
"I think the race argument about Girls is a completely tired and unfair
debate. She's giving her account of her version of New York and her
experiences, and if that doesn't involve any black people, then she
shouldn't have to shoehorn them in just because of audience backlash."
Look, everybody, it's the welcoming committee of the Augusta National Golf Club.
No, actually it's a bad writer, a White man who just wishes those mean people -- "audience backlash" -- would stop demanding that all-White television shows become inclusive.
We've covered this before -- see "We do not embrace sexism (Marcia, Ann, Ava and C.I.)," "We do not embrace sexism (Marcia,
Ann, Ava and C.I.)," "We do not embrace sexism (Marcia,
Ann, Ava and C.I.)" and "We do not embrace sexism (Marcia, Ann, Ava, C.I.)" -- in 2012:
If your show is set in Iowa, demographics of the state more than explain
why you might have an all White cast. (93% of Iowa is Anglo-White.)
But when you're show is set in New York City?
We do realize that less than half of NYC is Anglo-White, right? That a
quarter is African-American and slightly over that is Latino or Latina?
That 11% are Asian-Americans?
Yet Lena's brought us a show revolving around 5 characters in NYC and all 5 are White.
But the Paste writer disagrees, "I think the race argument about Girls is a completely tired and unfair debate."
Addressing the racial make up of a show set in NYC is "tired and unfair"?
To whom?
To the people who are under-represented on TV?
Or to Lena Dunham?
It's really funny how the racist gets defended.
It's really strange how the people advocating for inclusion are part of a "tired and unfair debate" while the White, Jewish woman who wants to set a TV show in NYC is not being "tired and unfair" by refusing to include even one lead character who is a woman of color.
The Paste writer insists, "She's giving her account of her version of New York and her experiences, and if that doesn't involve any black people, then she shouldn't have to shoehorn them in just because of audience backlash."
So she's to be applauded for failing to make friends with any women of color in her entire life?
And here's the other thing, stupid Pastey, Lena doesn't write all the episodes.
If she's truly unable to write characters who aren't White, she can hire some writers.
We all are aware, aren't we, that of the show's 32 episodes thus far, 24 had co-writers or were written by someone other than Lena?
A large number of them (14, in fact) were written or co-written by men. Nearly half the episodes were written or co-written by men.
Strange that men can write women but Lena can't write women of color -- not in lead roles.
It all started with a bad article by a bad writer, Paste's Ross Bonaime.
Ross kicked it off with this laughable claim, "Considering how gigantically popular Lena Dunham has become in the past
few years, we haven’t really seen her in any large roles that she wasn’t
completely in control of."
Lena Dunham's not popular.
It's possible she will have a bestselling book because you don't have to sell a lot of books to have a bestseller these days.
Ross wanted to double down on his claim of popularity and 'back it up' by insisting in a comment, "Yet to say Dunham hasn't become more popular since Girls aired is sort
of ludicrous. Girls IS a popular show and it is HBO's most popular
comedy in years."
You didn't write she was more popular, you wrote she was "gigantically popular." And she's not either.
She may be known because she's on TV but her ratings don't crack a million. Girls is not "HBO's most popular comedy in years." How far up Lena's crack are you?
Curb Your Enthusiasm.
That is "HBO's most popular comedy in years."
Before that, it was Sex In The City.
Popular goes to liked, Ross, and Lena's not liked.
That's why her show's in the ratings toilet and why she pulled Saturday Night Live in there with her when she hosted.
In his comment to his own article, Ross has a White race panic and, in the midst of meltdown, types this, "No other reviews that I've found mention it [race] either because it's
irrelevant. I don't understand why this review and all other reviews
should glaringly point out racial differences for no reason rather than
not mention whenever diversity is shown.."
Race is irrelevant?
What world do you live in?
One that still has separate water fountains?
The episode was about race and if you could do something other than offer bad synopsis -- you know, something like write an actual critique -- you might grasp that.
Sitting on your Whiteness, all you saw was an episode of Saturday Night Live.
Though you accuse others of raising race, Lena's the one who raised it in the Scandal skit and she did so at two different points in the skit.
How did you miss that?
She says her character shouldn't go to Mexico, Olivia Pope should because she's a beautiful Black woman in a tailored outfit. "Just saying, like, you're a stunning Black woman [. . .]"
What did Olivia's race have to do with anything?
Is "Black" a qualifier?
Is Olivia supposed to be less stunning to White Kelsey because she's described as "a stunning Black woman"?
Did you miss that, Rossy?
Did you also miss her parting comment?
Lena of the all-White Girls cast makes a point to note how Scandal has a racially diverse cast -- and by making a mockery of that, she gets a laugh.
"But I want you all to know that you are the most beautiful and ethnically diverse people I've ever seen in one room."
Again, this got laughter.
Let's think about that for a moment.
It kind of reminds us of how we supposedly have more women -- or "way more women" -- in our music collections than we have male artists.
It's actually about 50% but it seems like more than that to some people who just aren't comfortable with women.
"Ethnically diverse"?
So that's Huck, Olivia and Harrison.
That leaves Fitz, Abby and Quinn as well as Kelsey herself.
Four Anglo Whites (we're not assuming Kelsey was Jewish).
Four White people, 1 Hispanic and 2 African-Americans?
That's the most "ethnically diverse people I've ever seen in one room"?
As Demi Moore says in The Butcher's Wife, "Well you ought to get out more."
Race was also on full display in the 'feminist' sketch as a Latina was stupid and dumb and needed White women to save her.
In the comment to his own article, Ross types, "I have brought up racial implications in the past of SNL, especially
during the Kerry Washington episode, because that was when it needed to
be discussed."
Oh, f**k no.
Kerry Washington's hosting is "when it needed to be discussed"?
Kerry Washington hosted one episode.
That was when "it needed to be discussed."
Golly, thank you, Ross, for finding one week in all these years when race "needed to be discussed."
By your 'reasoning' -- it's a stretch to call it that -- all the other weeks of the year weren't weeks that you should bring it up?
That's kind of like the racist who suffers through February trying to hold his breath while longing for March 1st to put an end to Black History Month.
As an alleged critic, it was your job to comment on such things. And to do so long before Kerry Washington hosted an episode.
In his comment to his own article, Ross insists, "I personally think Girls is an important show because of its portrayal -
sometimes universal, other times very personal - of what it is like for
many people in their twenties today."
But not for people of color, remember. Dunham can't write women of color. They're a whole other species in her eyes.
So it can't "sometimes" be universal. Not by her 'logic' and not by your own since you back her up.
Do we need to send you a dictionary so you can look up what "universal" means?
Ross also insists, "Saying she is unattractive or
overweight should have no bearing on the fact that she actually is a
talented writer and director who has a unique voice unlike most people
writing for TV these days."
No, she's actually not a talented writer. She is, however, unattractive and overweight and she's chosen to work in a visual medium where visuals will be noted.
And as was pointed out at Third on Sunday:
So overweight Lena says it's fat shaming to note her gross obesity but
does a skit where a woman rejects a man because he's 'puny'?
In the sketch, Bruce is described as a "little skinny guy" and laughed at for having "little arms."
So fatty wants to make fun of skinny but wants to say no one should talk about how grossly obese she is?
In the skit, the woman whom Bruce has brought to America tells him, "I don't like your body. I don't like your face "
And she does so to the glee of the other women present.
And Lena wants to whine that she's being fat shamed?
No, it doesn't work that way.
The phrase we all learned as children was, "Don't dish it out if you can't take it."
You're so very quick to defend a woman who keeps insisting that her body shape and weight are off limits but she took part in the ridicule of a man for how much he weighed.
Do you not see the problem?
Maybe not. Because you don't seem to grasp that Nat King Cole, Anna May Wong, Bill Cosby, Diahann Carroll and a lot of others had to break down the walls for television to reflect even a small degree of diversity today.
Into this mix comes a spoiled brat who decides to put up barricades and create an all White show.
The year's 2014.
And yet you think the problem is the people objecting to the racism and not the racist?
lena dunham
saturday night live
paste
ross bonaime
