I have recently been catching up on Season 2 of the HBO hit series Girls and was struck by the overwhelming nudity, specifically of Lena Dunham. While this may not be surprising since it is on HBO, what is surprising is that the woman getting naked is not your stereotypical tall, lean and curvy actress. In fact, Dunham is short, slightly overweight and definitely does not fit the typical model of beauty.
For those of you who are not familiar with the show, Girls is about four women in their mid-twenties living in New York and trying to figure out who they are. It’s a little bit like Sex in the City mixed with a huge dose of reality. The show is not afraid to show the true awkwardness of life and it almost makes the viewer’s cringe to watch it yet you feel draw in by the genuineness. The main protagonist of the show, Hannah, is played by Lena Dunham who is also the writer and director of the series, therefore, she makes the final call on what happens in the show.
Dunham’s blatant disregard for conforming to society’s standards of beauty has many people, critics and viewers alike, up in arms either to criticize or support her. Howard Stern, known for his harshness, even said on his radio show, “It’s a little fat girl who kind of looks like Jonah Hill and she keeps taking her clothes off and it kind of feels like rape,” and continued to say, “Good for her. It’s hard for little fat chicks to get anything going.” But the amazing thing is that she doesn’t let this bother her and even owns it. She knows she is what most people would consider “fat” and she knows she is not the stereotypical beauty most actresses are in Hollywood. She even addresses it in her interview with David Letterman.
However, this did get me thinking about many shows that I watch. In the past few years I’ve become obsessed with HBO and Showtime (thanks to free access to an account and too much free time) so I’m relatively immune to the nudity in the shows. On the other hand, even I have to admit how much I was shocked by Dunham’s frank ability and desire to get naked on screen. In the season premiere she gets naked 3 times in 30 minutes and it’s all very frank and matter-of-fact. It’s not a fact that is harped upon and the show goes a long way to make it seem natural.
To be honest I think most people, myself included, would flinch during these many points in the show just because it is so uncomfortable and foreign to see a woman in that light: without the touchups and Photoshop. But it has also made me readdress the way I think about a lot of things in society. Do people get uncomfortable when she takes her clothes off because they find her unattractive or is it because society has told us that it’s only okay for women to take their clothes off if they are “beautiful?”
The show even makes a point to address what is beauty. The main character, Hannah, knows that she is not the standard pretty and while she seems confident in her choice of activity, friends, and dress, there are moments when we can see the sheer terror in her that she is not beautiful and that other people do not think she is beautiful either. This is only emphasized more by the fact that her best friend, Marnie, is what many people would consider very beautiful. The show highlights the fears that many girls have had when deciding where they rank in attractiveness compared to friends, family, or even just other girls in the same room.
While Girls may not take you away from your life and entrap you in a world of glamour and beauty as many other shows do, it does say a lot about the common woes of girls today. The majority of us are not that idealized skinny and curvy model with perfect hair but Dunham makes the point that it’s okay: all women are beautiful. And in a time when anxiety, cosmetics and dieting are at an all-time high, she may be the perfect role model that girls need, even if she’s not a model herself.
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