Lena Dunham’s “Girls” And The Problem With “The Female Slacker”
12:47 pm, March 28th | by Amy Tennery
It’s quite good, rather twee, very white and is nothing like Sex and the City, but we’ll compare it to that anyway — that more or less sums up the recent commentary on Lena Dunham’s new HBO show “Girls.”
And recently, The Guardian published a piece titled “The Slacker Is Back — And This Time She’s Female.” It celebrated what it believes Lena Dunham and her much (much) buzzed about show “Girls” represents: Female slackerdom’s ascension to coolness.
It’s not a totally off-the-wall conclusion to draw. After all, “Girl” producer Judd Apatow is the Godfather of so-called “slacker comedy.” But what the Guardian gets wrong is that the girls in “Girls” are slackers at all — and that being called one is a good thing for women. And it’s a well-worn myth.
Jezebel’s take on this story pointed out that, yes, women are too often (in movies, T.V., etc.) presented as the ‘responsible’ ones — heels clickity-clacking somewhere very important at all times. Guys, meanwhile, are the “fun” ones. “Women can eat frozen pizza in basements too!” Jezebel noted. And yes, it’s delicious.
Recall this ad for news talk show “Morning Joe.” Yes, it portrayed co-host Mika Brzezinski as on-point and “with it,” especially compared to her loutish, boozy male cohorts. But it also reinforced some ugly stereotypes about successful working women. We’re no fun; we’re Olympic-level eye-rollers, etc:
Visit msnbc.com for breaking news, world news, and news about the economy So between stuff like this and (not to revisit a well-worn complaint, but) the majority of the Apatow oeuvre, the subject of women, work and money is often approached narrowly. We need alternatives. But there’s a problem with pushing for more “slacker” culture among women. I’ll list them! 1. No, creating more female versions of Seth Rogan in “Knocked Up” is not good for women. If there’s a key failing to women’s empowerment, it’s that acting like a guy is too often confused with being empowered. “Stop being a p-ssy.” “Stop acting like a little b—h.” Even slang teaches us that acting like a woman is bad. From as far back as Rosie The Riveter, doing the unconventional, dude thing is the singular symbol of being empowered. But the cute, wise idiot character that’s popular with many guy comedies lately is getting old. And, rather than default to the guy-slacker comedy model (because the guys are doing it), why don’t we add more complexity to the stodgy “career women” who pop up everywhere? You know, like a woman who is successful in her career but has a good crop of friends and maybe throws back a couple beers once and a while? This either-or model of success versus slack leaves scant few options. This is something that the Guardian piece addresses also: Characters like Dunham’s, as well as Kristen Wiigs’s in last year’s Bridesmaids, are doing a lot to oust that nasty Hollywood stereotype: perhaps the reign of the prissy, humorless and overachieving harridan — the female foil to cheerful male apathy — is on the way out. Yes, Bridesmaids is an excellent example that women can do gross-out comedy that’s as good as (if not better than) the guys’ work. But anyone who argues that this character wasn’t the best part of that movie is insane: And she killed it in school and knows where all the nukes are. You hear? Sure, Kristen Wiig’s character in that movie struggled with debt and a failed business. But that didn’t mean she was a slacker. Which brings us to… 2. Why are we calling the characters in “Girls” slackers? When pointing to Dunham’s film Tiny Furniture, the Guardian picks an odd way of highlighting her “slackerness:” In Tiny Furniture Dunham’s onscreen unmade up face, or slightly dimply thighs, shouldn’t seem extraordinary, but they do: they’re a reminder that girl slackerdom can, in fact, take on a radical quality. No. No no no no. Women who aren’t wearing makeup are not “slackers.” They’re women who didn’t feel like wearing makeup. Women who aren’t in Barbie-shape are not slackers either. They’re called “humans.” Is a woman’s unmade-up face in a movie a radical thing? Yes, sadly, it still is. But it’s not because it shows she’s a “slacker.” Stop. 3. Using the word “slacker” is a problem. As far as I can tell, the women in “Girls” aren’t slackers — they’re people who are struggling to find jobs and make ends meet. The key word being “struggle,” anathema to true slackers the world over. Using it as a cavalier label for people who chose career paths outside the norm is damaging. And women who don’t fit the “bossy bitch” label don’t automatically belong in the “slacker” bin.
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