Girls

Alright, I've been struggling with whether or not to write about Girls since Chris and Brandon posted their thoughts a few weeks ago. My final decision is: I don't have much more to say about the show than what I already put on Facebook. I said:

I can't really put a finger on exactly what it is about the show that appeals to me. I do think that it comes close to portraying a certain feeling of unease or confusion that young, educated people have to face when stepping into the "real world" and realizing that their English degree isn't exactly the great thing they were promised when they plunked down $20,000 for it. The girls in the show are living in this sort of ersatz adulthood that so many (myself included) go through in their early to mid-20's where things are a bit strange. They can't quite make it on their own, they don't yet know what they want to do, etc. This show articulates that strangeness very well.

and

...Of course they are self-involved and think they're entitled. They've been told that by everyone around them for 20 years. 

We all watch The Wire and clap our hands and say, "How brave. This show tells it like it is." But I think that Girls is doing the same thing (whether they're aware of it or not). It's giving us a narrative for how this socio-economic class of young people live. What I appreciate is that it's not glamorizing anything. In fact, a lot of it is unglamorous. How many people do you think watched the first episode and said to themselves, "It'd be so cool to be (Lena's character)"? Not many, I'd bet. But how many do you think watched it and said, "Ouch, that's me and my friends. It's all so obvious, it's all so ridiculous. She's talking to me"?

Additionally, I have yet to talk to a single female (who fits the demographic) that has not said that the show captures aspects of their lives and relationships in a very true and meaningful way. I would be interested in watching Girls for that fact alone. So, in regards to this, what can I really add to the conversation. Of course a bunch of dudes who sit around talking about old movies don't like the show. It is not about or for us.

A lot of the criticism I have heard about the show (not just here) is that the characters are unappealing, entitled, annoying, &tc. So, why should we care about them? This reminded me of something that came up in a recent discussion among authors about the difference between male and female antiheroes. I embedded the conversation below. The relevant part starts at 28:45 and I recommend listening through at least the 33:30 mark. (For some reason I can't get blogger to embed videos to begin at a specified time mark.)

One last thing. On The Rumpus, Roxane Gay has a very good and nuanced essay about the show. A few choice excerpts (we'll forgive her incorrect use of "nauseous").

Girls reminds me of how terrible my twenties were—being lost and awkward, the terrible sex with terrible people, being perpetually broke. I am not nostalgic for that time. I ate a lot of ramen during my twenties. I had no money and no hope. Like the girls in Girls, I was never really on the verge of destitution but I lived a generally crappy life. There was nothing romantic about the experience. I understand why many young women find the show so relatable, but watching each episode makes me slightly nauseous and exceptionally grateful to be in my thirties. 

... 

The incredible problem Girls faces is that all we want is everything from each movie or television show or book that promises to offer a new voice, a relatable voice, an important voice. We want, and rightly so, to believe our lives deserve to be new, relatable, and important. We want to see more complex, nuanced depictions of what it really means to be whoever we are or were or hope to be. We just want so much. We just need so much. The desire for authentic representations of girlhood is like searching for water in a desert. It is a matter of survival, and also faith. We’ll die without water, but we know it’s there, even if we are surrounded by a billion grains of dry sand that all look the same. We know we’ll find a cactus plant or an oasis or that the skies will open with rain or that you can dig deep enough to find a small pool of water to quench an unbearable thirst. For some women, Girls is that pool of water in a dry desert of flawed representations of girlhood. For the rest of us, we’re still stumbling through the desert beneath the burning sun. We’re waiting. We don’t have much faith left.