It’s no secret that Lena Dunham is a controversial person. She has her own show on HBO which isn’t exactly known for it’s covertness. She’s also an outspoken feminist which, for some reason, is a controversial title for a woman, much less a famous woman, to take on. The unique thing about Lena Dunham is that she embraces her controversy with an odd confidence even when she is being attacked by people within the feminist community.
Lena Dunham has become a face of white feminism in the celebrity realm. White feminism, for those of you who aren’t familiar, is another name for feminism evoked by privileged people which discounts the views and needs of women of color, women in a lower class than them, and queer women. I believe that Lena Dunham will be the first to admit that she has done some problematic things in the past (even two weeks ago when she put misogynistic remarks in Odell Beckham Jr.’s mouth). Yes, I am a fan of Lena Dunham, and don’t agree with everything she says, but working against your own privilege is hard as many know. That’s not an excuse for her actions by any means, but being a feminist means looking at situations through an intersectional lense and understanding why Lena Dunhan does problematic things.
Lena Dunham has both race, sex, and class privilege being the white cis-gendered daughter of a famous painter Carroll Dunham. It is pretty clear that Dunham floated along from a young age, never encountering any oppression for anything other than her sex. So yes, I agree that Lena Dunham has the makings of a white feminist, but I think people like to forget that unlike many white feminists, Lena Dunham tries to acknowledge her privilege and be intersectional. I know some of you are thinking, BUT SHE DOES WHITE FEMINIST THINGS!!! But I’m unsure if doing unfeminist things makes you a bad feminist. This is the classic crisis of bad feminism. Is Lena Dunham a feminist even though she does unfeminist things or is there a standard that you have to reach in order to be a feminist? For some reason, women who deny being a feminist, like Kim Kardashian, are more likely to be seen as a good feminist than Dunham is even though Dunham is outspoken about her feminism. Lena Dunham is a sexual assault survivor, mentally ill, has a feminist newsletter that highlights badass women of all types, and highlights small women-run online stores to her almost 3 million Instagram followers among other things, and all of that gets erased because people think of her as the “white feminist.” But, hear me out on this guys, at least she tries. I have read pieces by her about how hard she tries to do the intersectional thing and how she struggles with it everyday. Being a feminist is hard!
I’m not sure if calling Lena Dunham a white feminist over and over again is going to change much about how she acts. Like any person coming from privilege, you have to give constructive criticism about how to be better instead of calling her a white feminist and brushing her off. I think Lena Dunham grappling with her privilege in the spotlight can be a really good lesson for day-to-day feminist discussions. If someone does something problematic, don’t write them off. Talk to them. Explain intersectional thinking to them. Make them see their faults like Lena Dunham had to when people started pointing out how wrong it was to call out Odell Beckham Jr.
I’m not here to say that white feminism is good and Lena Dunham messing up in the limelight is good for overall feminism, but I am here to say that Lena Dunham is a good story of accepting your privilege even though it can be messy.